Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media for his regularly scheduled Monday presser, and touched on many topics that his team has had issues with over the course of its first two games.
While there was some good, it hasn’t materialized into a win, but it’s pretty clear that the Irish are working towards that goal. There was one thing that stood out as Freeman talked, the consistency of the team isn’t where it needs to be.
Here are my takeaways from Freeman’s presser, starting with the aspect that has stood out that is hindering Notre Dame.
Have to become a more consistent team
As Freeman made his opening statements, he said that the staff has been looking for answers over the last 48 hours, but singled out one area: consistency. He went on to say that “consistency, I believe is what wins or loses games, when you have two good opponents competing against each other.” Freeman knows how the team can change this as he says that the team “has to refuse to tolerate habits, and performance, that isn’t to the standard that we’ve set for our program.” He knows it starts with him, and that’s what a good leader does. It seems like Freeman knows what needs to be corrected.
Can’t let a bad play turn into an explosive play on defense
Freeman noted that Texas A&M had over 200-yards on six plays, which is exactly that the Irish were trying to avoid. “We’ve had to figure out why those explosive plays have occurred… what does a lack of execution come down to? Could be a lack of focus. Could be a lack of proper technique, a lack of understanding what’s expected. A personnel issue where you’re asking someone to do something they can’t do consistently.” Freeman put the blame on the coaches and not the players, which is one reason why so many love to play for him.
Great coaches don’t pass blame and neither do great players
It’s take a big man to step up in front of a room full of reporters and say that the issue was himself and his staff, but that’s exact what Freeman did. After the game, star running back Jeremiyah Love said the only one the blame is who looks back at you in the mirror, but his coach didn’t see it that way. “Great coaches don’t pass blame, they don’t say it’s the players fault. They look at themselves and say, ‘how can I find a way to fix this.’ Well, it think great players do the same thing.” We all know Love is great, and while he wasn’t named a captain, we know he’s a leader in this locker room.
Will Freeman spend more time on the defense side?
It’s become pretty clear that Notre Dame’s defense isn’t the same unit as last year, and Freeman was asked if due to his defensive background, if he’ll be spending more time this week with that group. He didn’t go as far as saying he could, but “as a leader, it’s important to wear the hat that’s necessary at the moment… will I spend more time? Maybe, if that’s what necessary. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that we improve, and that we have a performance that we believe is the standard for Notre Dame football.”
Execution is still the issue not the calls or scheme
Following the game against Texas A&M, Freeman was asked if what the issues were on defense, and he said it was execution. He’d double-down on Monday saying ”if were are asking them to do things they can’t execute, then we have to evaluate what we are asking them to do.” It seems like a solid plan, but it didn’t work from Week 1 to Week 1. They’ll keep working on it as Freeman noted that “we’ve spent time figuring out why the lack of execution, if the answer was just call something different, we’d do that.”
On the transition from Al Golden to Chris Ash
Freeman was pretty adamant that this was Notre Dame’s defense, not Ash’s. Yes, he did say ”there’s some new wrinkles, but it’s not a new system, but it’s not where we need to be in terms of the performance,” which is pretty clear. Freeman didn’t want to put blame on the defensive miscues solely on Ash as he said “it’s easy to say its one person, or a new coordinator, it’s all of us in terms of our players, our coaches, myself, evaluating where the lack of execution came, why is it happening, and what each of us can do to fix it”
Not much good to say about the defense
When asked about what good Freeman say about the defense, he took a long pause and started by saying they came out and started fast, did a better job stopping the run this week. “I don’t spend a lot of time on things we did well, I really focus on the things that we have to improve.” This answer does give me some concern, but when something is going right, there is no need to correct it. However, a lot has gone wrong, so not much positive talk about the defense.
The offensive line played much better
After the first week, the biggest question on offense was why the line didn’t play up to its normal standards. The group looked much better against the Aggies, and the scoreboard showed that. Freeman noted that “the execution was where we expected it to be, was it perfect? No. We got to continue to enhance it,” which is telling. The offensive line has more room to grow, and should get better as the season progresses.
Why has the defensive line struggled?
I’ll let Freeman explain the issues here as he said ”it’s a group that I believe has to be a strength for us. I didn’t see them playing Saturday with the velocity that I saw them playing with in fall camp. It’s a discussion that we’ve had, are we asking them to do too much, where they’re not playing fast. At the end of the day we have to get those guys to play fast. We have the talent, for sure, we got to make sure they are executing with the velocity that we believe it takes to make the plays.” I don’t disagree with him, but it does seem like a potential simplification of the scheme would help them play faster.
On Tae Johnson’s play filling in for Adon Shuler
This was something that I wanted Freeman to be asked, and he was. Regardless of Johnson starting, he played at a high level and impressed. Here’s what he said about his young safety: “I was pleased, I think Tae Tae did a good job being out there.. he’s a talented individual. He was going to get more no matter what, but especially with Adon being down a half, he’s going to have more on his plate, and he’ll do just fine with it.”
Team is still hungry despite being 0-2
Freeman wasn’t nearly as adamant about the team’s future on Monday, as he was two weeks ago, as he most likely realizes that making the College Football Playoff will be a big challenge. However, even with the team goals being a bit murky, he’s “seen enough, especially the leaders, that they’re as hungry and as eager to get back to work as anybody. This is the time that leadership shows, if you are a leader, you’re built for this moment …leadership really reveals itself in difficult times.” Confident in this group of players/coaches, “they’re going to make sure this thing goes in the right direction.”
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Takeaways from Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman’s presser ahead of Purdue contest
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
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