Monday afternoons are typically when college coaches meet with the media for the first time during the week and speak on the upcoming game which Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman did.
His opponent this week, Arkansas, did the same as its coach Sam Pittman also took questions on the Irish. He spoke on a variety of topics, as a good portion of his opening statement was about the Irish. Pittman broke down what he had seen on tape, and also got some insider information from a friend.
Find out below everything that Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said about Notre Dame before its matchup this weekend.
Notre Dame’s offense
“Excited to get the opportunity to play Notre Dame. It’s good to be home, glad to be back home. Really good football team, outstanding running backs, quarterback, tight end, wide outs. Really good offensively. O-line is good, running the ball more, now than what they did earlier in the year and it’s really working out. Having a lot of success.”
Notre Dame’s defense and Freeman
“Defensively, they’ve got some really good playmakers over there. Want to run man coverage, bring singles, disruptive on the defensive line with their movements. Really good team, they played good last week against Purdue, and really played well against (Texas) A&M, Miami, just came up short, a point and a field goal. Coach Freeman has done a wonderful job there. We’re looking forward to having a storied program like Notre Dame in our stadium.”
Is there more pressure to play Notre Dame?
”It’d be kind of hard to have more pressure. I think the pressure you put on yourself is a lot because you want to do well, for a lot of reasons. I’ve kind of had the same type of pressure for three years now, it seems like 40, but I think it’s been about three. We have an opportunity, the only way we can win people that don’t believe in us or win some more positive thoughts about our program is to win ball games. And that’s really the bottom line, you can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want, but what’s the score? And that’s really is what changes people’s perception or perspective of you and we have a great opportunity here. As we well know, we’re not, we could be 4-0, we’re 2-2. I say that only because if we’re 4-0, we’re all sitting in here thinking we have a great chance to beat Notre Dame. Our football team will think that, we’ve got to rally around this week, and we’ll do that.”
On attacking Notre Dame’s defense
“I think we matchup, we matchup. They’re good on the d-line, but I think we’ve got good matchups. I really like their Mike linebacker (Drayk) Bowen, he can run side to side. We have to get him wide, we just have to because he can run and he’s physical. They have run a lot of different coverages, whether it’d be 8, 4, 6, and man-free. We have to prepare for all of those coverages, but where our matchup is, what do we try to do. In other words are we going to attack outside, are we going to try to attack inside, are we going to run Taylen (Green) a lot? Anytime you have a team that is really good, you have to figure your matchups, and I think we matchup well with great respect against what they do.”
On his relationship with Lou Holtz
“I was at his camp when I was a junior or sophomore in high school, still no relationship because he sure didn’t know who I was, nor should he have but I knew who he was.”
On talking with Purdue head coach Barry Odom
“I’ve talked to Barry, I talked to him on Sunday. Yeah, I had a nice conversation with him about a lot of things. Notre Dame being one of them.”
Thoughts on Marcus Freeman
“I like the guy. I like him on all his interviews. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about him. I asked Barry about him, Barry said he’s really a nice guy. I haven’t crossed paths with him really. I respect him how he handles his business a lot.
On Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, CJ Carr, Eli Raridon and Ty Washington
“Did I say I liked Love? I mean, God. As I’m looking at tape, this guy is sensational. He’s fast, he’s mean. They brought an A-gap linebacker, Purdue, he just knocked the hell out of the guy. He can catch, he likes to jump, he’s a high-jump hurdler or something. He’s special. Barry thinks he’s one of the best backs he’s ever seen. And then he talked about Price. And of course Price returned a kickoff for a touchdown, and we call them 1A, 1B. I can them 1AAAA and 1B. They guy is great, he’s a great player. Carr, really good man. I mean so accurate. Runs the offense really well. They throw the deep comeback on the sidelines as good as anybody. It seems like he’s always got it the right spot on time. They got a little roll protection that they run, a deep comeback on. I don’t know what his percentage on it is right now but it’s high. He’s a really, really good player. And their tight end, I hope I’m saying it right, Raridon, No. 9, he’s fantastic. He’s the second-leading receiver on the team and doing a really good job. Ty Washington (former Razorback)has played for them, and played well. He’s caught three balls this year, and he’s doing a good job for them. It’s good to see, happy for him.”
On the fans doubting after losing two-straight
“Get on out here. We’re excited about this game. We’re not backing into the door. We obviously think we have a great chance to win the game. If they want to see Notre Dame, they ought to get to the game. They’ll see a really good Arkansas team as well. We’ll be ready to play.”
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: What Arkansas HC Sam Pittman said about Notre Dame ahead of this Saturday’s contest
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
