Marcus Freeman transcript: What Notre Dame coach said about program's independence

On Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal game, the Orange Bowl held a joint news conference with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and Penn State head coach James Franklin. Here’s everything Freeman said in his about 40-minute conversation with the media.

Opening statement

“I want to thank the Orange Bowl committee for the welcome yesterday. This is my first opportunity to be a part of this game, and as I said last night, ‘Your reputation precedes itself.’ We appreciate the welcome to South Florida for our families and all those that traveled. We know the work that’s put in to put on one of these games, and we are very grateful for it.

“Looking forward to a great opportunity tomorrow night versus an extremely good football team. As (Penn State) Coach (James) Franklin said, I have a lot of respect for him and the job he’s done in college football. This football team is a very good one that we have to continue to prepare for. We’ve got to use these next 24 hours to finish our preparation in anticipation of this great opportunity that lies ahead.

“We’ll do that. But again, we’ll understand that we’ll do that with being grateful for this opportunity that we have ahead of us.”

On the Orange Bowl featuring two Black head coaches for the first time and the pivotal decision or experience in his journey that prepared him for this moment

“Yeah, I’ve thought long and hard about this question. I know you probably didn’t ask it directly, but again, you’re grateful to be a part of this opportunity, and you’re grateful anytime your name is mentioned with being the first.

“But you don’t want to take away from how we got to this point, and that talks about your team — I’m talking about your team and everybody that put the work in to get your program to this point, and those that have come before you.

“There’s a lot of people in this coaching profession that have come before me that have given me this opportunity.

“But the other person that I think deserves a lot of credit is our former AD Jack Swarbrick because he’s the one — and our president John Jenkins at the time — that made the decision to hire a guy that was 35 years old and had never been a head coach. He made that decision.

“So, Jack Swarbrick and Father John Jenkins deserve a lot of the credit for having courage and for making a decision to hire me at that time.

“I want to make sure I recognize them. And again, this isn’t about me. This isn’t about one person. It takes a team. It takes a program. And it takes a lot of people committing to something bigger than themselves to put your team in a position to be here. I understand it, and I’m very grateful for it.

“If this creates more opportunities for other coaches, other minority coaches, great. It’s great. It is great for the future generations of coaches, of college football coaches, of leaders. I am all for it, and I’m grateful to be a part of that.

“But at the end of the day, the attention on one person takes away what really gives your program a chance to get here, and that’s team, and that’s committing to something bigger than yourself. That’s important to me.”

On how Notre Dame sophomore RB Jeremiyah Love performed in practice with his knee injury and how junior RB Jadarian Price has improved throughout the season

“Yeah, I’ll start with Jadarian. He is a young man that has put a lot of work into the point that he’s gotten to right now. He constantly gets better. Jack, you’ve heard me talk many times about you have to earn that trust in practice from your teammates and your coaches way before the media in the world sees you.

“Jadarian is a guy that continues to do that, and he takes advantage of his opportunities. He’s getting more and more opportunities.

“J-Love, Jeremiyah, has had a great week of practice. We have to be smart in terms of how much we’re asking him to do in practice. We’ve got to get him ready for the game. But he’s confident.

“And nobody, I think, feels 100 percent right now. We’re in week, I think, 15 or game 15 —16 maybe for you (James Franklin). Nobody feels 100 percent. But J Love will be good to go.”

On the pros and cons of being a school that isn’t affiliated with a conference

“Yeah. We view it — I view it — as a pro. We’ll continue to look at it that way until and unless something changes. We get to play coast to coast. You play multiple different times from multiple different conferences. You started off the season in College Station, you ended the season in LA, and we’re in New York twice.

“We get to really view our program as a global in terms of a national program, in terms of how we play, and the audience we play in front of.

“Now, it’s not much different than the Big Ten now with UCLA and USC and some of the West Coast teams being in it. But again, we view being independent as a positive thing. We sell it to our recruits and our players as a positive thing.

“We know we can’t play in a championship game, and we can’t have a first-round bye, but we continue to use not playing week 13 as our bye, and that’s the way we view it.

“In terms of the finances and the TV deals, I’m sure that people can go into further details about that. But obviously, I’m sure that’s another positive that we view being independent provides us.”

On how having a former power conference head coach as a defensive coordinator benefits the program, both in preparation and on game day, and the intangible components of it

“Yeah, for me, when I hired Al Golden three years ago, it was for two reasons. One, I believed he had a great defensive mind and could do great things with our defense. But two, at that point, we did not have a former head coach on our staff. I thought it was important to get somebody that had experience where I had none on our staff.

“The growth we’ve made in three years has been tremendous, right, the growth of our defense. And our defense is doing really great things right now, and Coach Golden gets all the credit, and that staff and the players.

“But there’s times I have to — I’ll ask him things about his experiences, and at some point you’ve got to make a decision of what you believe is best. But it’s good to have some of those guys that have experience in areas that you don’t.

“I’ve never had experience in a playoff, so I spent some time talking to Coach Golden, who had in the NFL, Deland McCullough, our running backs coach who had in the NFL, and some of our other coaches that had experience dealing with the playoff in terms of the mentality, in terms of how we practiced, and some different things.

“I believe in them. I believe in trying to gain wisdom from other people that have experience. That was a huge part in the decision making of hiring Al Golden.”

On the challenge of being a part of the longest season in Notre Dame football program history and how they manage it

“How we got ready for the season, how we’re adapting, is you have a plan, you have a team, you have a sports performance team that you listen to, and you talk through some different scenarios, and you’ve got to be adaptable. You’ve got to be willing to adapt based off the unpredictable things that can happen, and that’s what we’ve been able to do, and I feel like our guys will be physically ready to roll.”

On why running the football and stopping the run a big part of Notre Dame’s identity

“Yeah, I think for us, it’s what we do well and what we have to do to have success with this current team. It’s really, as you look at the course of our season, it’s been a big indication of the outcome of the game, our ability to run the football and our ability to stop the run. It is a mentality. It’s a mindset.

“Just from our defensive coaching background, when you can’t stop an offense from running the ball, it can be demoralizing. That’s why we say we have to do it now.

“We’re probably ranked higher in the pass efficiency part of defensive statistics, but still, the mentality of stopping the run is so important. As you get later in the season and you play better teams, it’s going to be important, the same as the turnover margin and those types of things.

“But as you look at Penn State, if you are not able to do a good job at stopping the run and trying to run the ball, you’re not going to have success, and you’re not going to get the outcome you want. That will be important as we get into tomorrow, too.”

On if unity needs to happen in college football, though Notre Dame is independent

“Yeah, you know, Coach Franklin has a lot more experience, one, being a head coach in college football, and even just being in college athletics where you can formulate a strong opinion.

“For us, whatever you’re going to tell us, we’ll make the most of. We pride ourselves on our independence. If they come out with a decision we can’t be independent, then we’ll make it work.

“I don’t have a whole bunch of opinion on it. I’m a guy that just, tell us what we’re doing and let’s go and move forward and let’s make the most of it. Not the answer you’re probably looking for, but I’m not strongly opinionated about it.

“I love where we’re at right now, and Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that’s best for our program.”

On what Notre Dame wants to accomplish over this last day of preparation and how it differs from a final day before the game for the program

“I think for both programs, we figured out who we’re playing at the same time. At the end of our game we knew we were going to play Penn State, and they didn’t know exactly who they were going to play, so the mental preparation time has been the same.

“For us, it was just a normal week. It was a Saturday to a Saturday, as we look at it in terms of game week.

“I think the coaches, we probably were a little bit behind to start just because of the travel and in that aspect, but physically, our guys were good. Our guys were good, and we’re going to be ready to roll.

“But we’ve got to utilize, as you just said, every minute we have from now until tomorrow night at 7:30. That’s the mindset that we all have, is every minute we’ve got to utilize.

“We didn’t have two extra days, so let’s utilize this time that we have physically and mentally to make sure we’re prepared to go tomorrow night.”

On whether the Notre Dame coaching staff designs their game plan differently when facing a defensive front with monster edge rushers or do they let its quarterback be who he is and do what he does

“Yeah, each week, you have to tactically prepare for the strengths of your opponent. Obviously you mentioned rushing the passer, and their D-line is a huge strength of their defense.

“Now, they’ve got guys across the board that can present issues, but you always start with, hey, let’s try to figure out how to have a plan for what they do well.

“Again, every week, you tailor what you’re doing to address that. So, this was no different. We understand that they have a really good front, but they’ve got a really good secondary and some good linebackers.

“This is a tough defense that we’re going to face offensively, but we’ll have a plan, and then it’s about adjustments. This game is about adjustments, and we’ve got to be ready to make the adjustments necessary.”