On Monday afternoon, Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman opened up about Miami (Ohio) week with his weekly press conference. Here’s a summary of what he covered as the 2-1 Irish prepare for their second home game of the season.
On Notre Dame’s 66-7 defeat of Purdue
“Overall, [I’m] just very pleased with the performance and the preparation by the football program. A lot of guys were able to play and performed at a high level which speaks to the depth of our football team. I was very pleased with both sides of the ball and how we were able to keep up the level of play in the second half after gaining that halftime lead. We won the turnover margin, rushing battle, third-down battle, explosive-play battle and time of possession. And as I said, last week, if you win those key areas, you're gonna win a football game … And so, as always, when you watch film on Sundays, there's areas for improvement, and we have to continue to attack those areas and then enhance in the areas that we performed well.”
On Miami’s program
“As we turn our focus to Miami (Ohio), who we know is a good football team — I think in both of their losses this year, they were one-score games going into the half. [I have] a lot of respect for [head coach] Chuck Martin and the job he's done in 11 years there, and obviously he's familiar with this place. They were the 2023 MAC champs, and so we have to understand the challenge we have ahead of us and get to work and prepare for this upcoming opponent.”
On injuries suffered at Purdue
“[Graduate defensive lineman] Jordan Botelho will be out for the season with a knee injury, [Junior center] Ashton Craig will be out for the season with a knee injury, [junior right guard] Billy Schrauth will be out for a few weeks with an ankle injury and [sophomore wide receiver] Jordan Faison should be full-go. [Junior defensive lineman] Josh Burnham is still questionable depending on how he progresses this week.”
On senior Pat Coogan, who played left guard last year, backing up Craig at center
“He's been doing really well and played well in his 20-something plays on Saturday. I hope [center] is his best position. It could be, we believe he could be a center or guard. Obviously you have to snap at center and make some IDs, but I hope this is the best position for him and he plays his best ball moving forward.”
On the look of Notre Dame’s offense at Purdue
“That was the offense that we felt gave us the best chance to succeed versus Purdue, and that fit [senior quarterback Riley Leonard’s] skill set and what we thought he did best. This week, we have to continue to do that in terms of what we feel will give the best chance for our offense to succeed, including Riley, versus this defense. It's a different defense than what we saw last week, and every week as you go into preparation, you have to take into consideration what your guys can do but also what's gonna help you have success versus the defense you're going against.”
On Leonard’s development as a passer
“If we need to throw it to have success, I'm sure we'll gameplan in a way that we'll have to throw it. But it's about what's gonna have success against the defense you're going against, and Riley did a great job running and making the throws. I think he was 11 of 16 in the first half and did a really good job of executing what we asked him to do. And so we're not looking for stats. We're not looking for how much we throw it [or] how much we run it. We're looking for success against the opponent.”
On lesser-known players stepping forward against Purdue
“[Freshman defensive lineman] Bryce Young played really well. He's a guy that's different, man. He's gonna continue to get more playing time, he's a really good player and he's young but he's got a lot of talent. [Junior defensive lineman] Junior Tuihalamaka — you'll see more of him. You'll see [freshman defensive lineman] Loghan Thomas who did a good job in his reps that he got on Saturday.
That's why I said that in the opening statement it was really good to see some twos and threes get valuable, meaningful reps versus an opponent — and a Big Ten opponent — and they played well, which to me speaks to their preparation. You never know going into a game if you're going to be called upon or not, but you’ve gotta be ready. And there [were] guys on the scout team on both sides of the ball that played on Saturday that executed their job.”
On freshman safety Kennedy Urlacher standing out against Purdue
“He's a ballhawk. He finds a way to find the ball [in] closed space. He's a really good tackler … I'm gonna continue to challenge Kennedy to make sure you're a great practice player too, right? And those are things that are hard as a freshman to learn how to practice at that standard and then perform at the standard that he's performing at. But, man, he is a really good player and made some critical plays for us on Saturday, and we'll continue to find ways to get him on the field.”
On what Notre Dame can take from the Purdue game
“It's just the preparation, the mindset … to have the mentality we have to have mentally and physically to prepare the right way for an opponent. And so we have to be able to move past the previous game and really start the preparation the right way, starting today, as we meet with them this afternoon.
As I said last week, we can be a really good football team. We’ve got work to do. Let's evaluate the film the right way. Let's come up with a plan to attack and fix the issues that we have and continue to prepare and respect your opponent and know at any point you can beat any team you play and you can lose any team you play. That's the beauty of college football. And so we’ve got to prepare and understand that as we prepare.”
On the Purdue game as affirmation for the Irish offense
“I think it goes a long way. It validates the work they put in but [also] the talent that they have. And so it's still a young group in terms of being together. We have some older guys that are playing [and have] played a lot of ball, but part of this is the experience together. I think they did a really good job of making sure everybody's on the same page, preparing the right way and going to play in the right way, so I think it's done a lot for the confidence. We’ve got to continue to replicate that preparation that we had last week and go out and perform the same way.”
On players coming off the bench and performing well
“Credit to the depth. The job that Coach [Joe] Rudolph has done with that offensive line — to have Pat Coogan go in there and [graduate student] Rocco Spindler. I said this after the game, but two guys that didn't get what they wanted after fall camp. They wanted to be the starters, they weren't and they prepared and they were great teammates and leaders for that room, and now they're in there, and we have a lot of confidence in those guys, but also some of the other guys. I thought Sullivan Absher played well. Guerby Lambert played well. Chris Terek played well.
You hate to lose Ashton for the year and Billy for a couple of weeks. But man, I have a lot of confidence in the depth of our offensive line.”
On coaching several sons of former NFL players
“Every once in a while I might hear from [the NFL dads], but it's actually — you probably have a different relationship with the fathers that have played in the NFL [and] that have played the game because they get it, right? And they probably see it from a lens of team glory. That's important to us, right? And not individual glory. It's not, ‘What is my son doing? How can he be better? Why isn't he playing more?’
They text you after the good ones and they text you after the bad ones. Your phone's kind of quiet a lot of times after the bad ones, but some of those guys in the NFL, they get it. They understand … It speaks to the way we've recruited. [It] speaks to this university and the value some of those NFL players see in Notre Dame in terms of the football program but also the education. And so it's a great testament to this place.”
On working with graduate punter James Rendell
"James is a guy that has so much talent. He can do so many things with the football, and we really have to evaluate what we're asking him to do. It gets [to] the same thing we talk about [on] offense and defense, like, as coaches, we know the talent he has — we haven't put it all together in the game, so let's evaluate what we're asking him to do … What we’ve gotta do is call the things that he can do in the game, and that's on us as coaches. We’ve got to put him in a better position and ask him to do the things that he does well, get experience and then we can have him do all these different types of punts.
And so we’ve gotta get him better in practice. We’ve gotta maybe be strategic in how we ask him to punt in practice. Usually in practice, you go punt period, right? And that's about all you get, but we're gonna probably scatter some punts throughout practice to say, ‘Okay, treat this like a game,’ right? You might be sitting on the sidelines for 20 minutes. Come back in now you’ve gotta execute … That's the problem is that he can do directional, he can bang one straight down, but we can't ask him to do all that until he can do it in the game … In practice, they can do a lot, but in the game, it's different.
And so let's tone it down and say, ‘Okay, let's call the things that this guy can do well in the game — not just in practice.’ But we believe that, ‘Hey, we’ve got evidence he can do this well in the game,’ and then as he gets more confidence in doing that, now we can add all these extra types of punts. But that's the challenge of a coach is that you can't fall in love with just what they do well in practice. You’ve got to really fall in love with the things that you know they can do in the game.”
