What Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said about the Buckeyes

COLUMBUS — Notre Dame is getting a second crack at Ohio State under head coach Marcus Freeman, who was an Ohio State graduate assistant and, years before that, a Buckeyes linebacker from 2004-08 that made 37 starts and played in a pair of national title games.

The top-10 matchup Saturday night in South Bend will be an important game not just Freeman but for his program as a whole, which is currently sitting pretty at 4-0 and No. 9 in the country.

No. 6 Ohio State got the best of the Fighting Irish in last year’s season opener, 21-10. This time, Notre Dame knows its offensive identity, in large part thanks to a boost from Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman.

Hartman’s in his sixth year. The Buckeyes’ starter under center, Kyle McCord, is in his third year — and his first as Ohio State QB1.

Those two will go head-to-head Saturday night. Freeman previewed the matchup Monday. Lettermen Row has the rundown of what Freeman said about the Buckeyes.

A top-10 matchup with the Buckeyes in South Bend…

FREEMAN: “Obviously, we have a great opponent coming in. We’re excited about the chance to go against a top-tier opponent, for sure. And we’re excited about just the atmosphere, the experience that’s going to be here with ‘College GameDay’ and ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ and NBC, and we get to finally wear the green uniforms — they talked me into wearing a green jacket today, and so I said I’ll wear it. And so we expect to see a lot of green in that stadium. And I think it’s going to be a really cool opportunity, a great opportunity on Saturday night to play a great opponent in Notre Dame Stadium.

“… I’m looking forward to seeing Ryan Day again. He’s done an unbelievable job leading that program. I’ve told him every time I’ve talked to him that he’s just done a tremendous job of really leading that program. So we know it’s going to be a really good opponent with a great coaching staff, and we’re looking forward to that.”

The difference this year vs. last year preparing for Ohio State…

FREEMAN: “I think there’s a lot of different factors that go into the difference, but experience, right. You have a year under your belt. It’s not the first game of the year. You’ve been able to develop an identity as a program with these first four games. And so it’s a lot different than what it was last year being the first game of that season for me and the first game of the year.”

Preparing for a new Buckeyes quarterback, offensive coordinator

FREEMAN: “You’ve seen their offense kind of evolve over the first three games, and it’s explosive. You see a lot of tempo. I think I’ve seen more tempo recently. But, listen, they have playmakers. They can run the ball. They got a stable of running backs that truly can do some things in the run game. As far as the quarterback, we plan on seeing [Kyle] McCord. He’s named the starter, and that’s who we plan on seeing. But you have to have a plan. You have to have a plan for anybody you might see. Same thing that happened last Saturday [against Central Michigan]. So I still think their offense is very similar, no matter who’s at quarterback. So we’ll have a plan for both guys, but it’s really not going to change based off who’s in the game.

“… I’m sure Coach Day is extremely involved with their offense. And [Brian] Hartline has done a great job. They find ways to be innovative. Right, you can look at as far back as since Ryan Day’s been at Ohio State until now, it’s a very innovative offense that will find different ways to get their playmakers the ball. And, to me, it all starts with with the run game. They want to run the ball. Very similar mindset that I have. The ability to run the ball will create openings in the pass game. And that’s what I’ve seen on film.”

The depth and talent of the Ohio State defensive line…

FREEMAN: “It’s impressive. They’ve got guys, and it’s deep. And they rotate a lot of guys in there. [J.T. Tuimoloau] is an impressive football player. He’s big, he’s powerful, explosive. All those big words that you like to say about your D-Linemen, he’s got a lot of those traits. But they got a bunch of guys that are really disruptive. So we have to be good up front. We got to make sure we’re good at the line of scrimmage.”

Defending Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka…

FREEMAN: “They’re good players, man. You just got to turn on the film. Harrison’s body type, skill set — he’s fast, he can go up and get the ball. He’s a great route runner. Great hands, well coached. Hartline’s done a great job of developing that wideout room. Year after year, they’ve got first rounders and first rounders. Egbuka’s the same way. He’s, again, a playmaker. More utilized in the slot, dangerous returner. I can go on and on. Those guys are good football players.”

Will Notre Dame pull from defensive success vs. Ohio State last year?

FREEMAN: “I thought Coach [Al] Golden and the defensive staff had a great game plan last year and really did a good job of executing it for the first game of the year, trying to figure out who we were defensively. Yeah, and part of the mindset going into that game was control the ball as long as we could, right? Limit their offensive possessions. It’s still got to be complementary football as we go into this Saturday. But I don’t want to play not to lose. I don’t want to play that way. I want our guys to be aggressive and our guys to be attacking. We will play complementary football. But our objective isn’t just to hold the ball and huddle every single play, kind of what my mindset probably was last year.”

What goes into Notre Dame’s offensive approach this year vs. Ohio State?

FREEMAN: “Going into last season, you had some questions on really what was our identity — this was Game 1, right — what was our identity on offense? Similar to this year, Game 1, you don’t know until you face an opponent. But we know what we can do offensively after four games. And we’re not going to go rapid speed. I don’t want to go up tempo and go as fast as we can. It’s complementary football. And so the ability for our defense, what we want to do is make sure that we limit the big plays. We want them to have to truly drive down the field and we limit those big plays. And offensively, we want to have success. We’re not going to go throw deep balls every play. Like, it’s complementary football — we still want to win time of possession and those type of things that really factor into your success. But the mindset is different because you know more about your team this year than you did last year for Game 1.”

DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste getting a stab at his old team…

FREEMAN: “I can’t jump into his brain and know what’s going on. But my message to him will be the same thing really to everybody else is don’t worry about Saturday, worry about today. And when we get to Saturday, worrying about doing your job and winning the interval every single play. That’s all that really matters. It does. Nothing else truly matters if we want to have success. And if he wants to have a successful game.”

QB Sam Hartman’s experience in big-time games…

FREEMAN: “He’s played in big games and big moments. And, again, I think [it’s] his mindset, the ability to go out there and have the right mindset for him to have success. And that’s what I’m most excited for is the experience he has. Sam Hartman knows this is about him going out there and going through his checklist and executing the things he needs to go through to have success. When you haven’t done that, I’m sure it’s a lot more difficult. And so obviously I feel great having a quarterback that’s had some of that big-game experience and just college football experience that Sam has had.”