Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media shortly after No. 18 Notre Dame's 66-7 road rout at Purdue, Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.
OPENING STATEMENT
“Obviously, proud of the way our guys played, prepared — the mindset, the mentality in terms of preparing for a good opponent. Obviously, the ability to run the ball on offense. Two takeaways on defense. Defense played lights out. It was good to be a part of.
“I’m most proud of the way they [the ND players] came out of the locker room in the second half. The ability, as we told them last week, to handle success. I think the second half we outscored them, 24-7, which was huge. After being up 42-0, to be able to come out and — no matter who’s in the game — to be able to perform the way we performed was really good.
“Proud of the guys. ‘Enjoy this victory,’ as I told them. ‘It’s hard to win. As we saw last week, it’s hard to win. And so, enjoy it and get back to work Sunday or Monday and get ready for our next opponent.’”
Q: What did you see out of your guys over the last seven days that let you know they would respond mentally and physically?
“There’s nothing — I don’t know if it’s something you can see. ’Cause if I saw it the week before, I would have done something about it. I think it’s a choice that we all have to make as individuals. And it’s my job to make sure that we have a culture that doesn’t accept anything less than that. And so, at the end of the day, it has to be a choice that we all make, no matter who our opponent is, no matter what success or failure we had the previous week. Obviously, the performance is a reflection of the preparation and the mindset, physically and mentally. So, we had the right one today.”
Q: Is it the way you closed in the second half that encourages you to think, Ok they’ll make this choice now, week in and week out?
“We have to. That’s our job. That’s what we’ve got to do, so there are no guarantees in life, so we’ve got to make sure and we don’t assume anybody’s going to make that choice. I have to make sure, as a head coach, I’m continuously preaching that message. And our players have got to make that decision.”
Q: What did you see that was different about this week from last week?
“Guys, I just said it. It’s not like you can just watch and say, ‘These guys aren’t ready.’ I didn’t think that, getting ready for Northern Illinois. I thought we were ready. That’s why I’m saying, ‘I believe it’s a mentality.’ The thing that I took away from last week is that every individual has to handle success, respect their opponent and make sure your mindset is the right way. You’re going to have mistakes in practice. And I’ve said this before, that’s what practice is for. So, it wasn’t that we made more mistakes [in practice] than we did this week. It’s a sense of urgency to correct them, the mindset. And ultimately you’ve got to go do it on game day, like we did today.”
Q: Did Riley Leonard today look a lot more like the Riley Leonard you went after in the transfer portal? And if so, why was he able to do so this week?
“I haven’t watched it [game film]. He was able to run it, That means people were blocking. He was hitting holes that we were opening for him, and he had some success throwing. I don’t know the stats of throwing the ball, but I know that he hit some open receivers. More than anything, I think that we helped him. We’ve got to make sure, as coaches, we call things that we believe our players can succeed at. And that’s a big learning lesson from last week to this week: We’ve got to spend more time together and make sure — just because you do something right in practice doesn’t mean it’s always going to translate to the game. We’ve got to make sure we’re calling things that our players know in and out. And it takes time, spending time together. The growth of our offense from week 2 to week 3 was tremendous. And it’s kudos to that offensive staff — coach [Mike] Denbrock, those guys working together, and our players believing in the gameplan our coaches put together.”
Q: After a challenging week, can you describe what you’re feeling right now?
“Happy. I’m happy we went out and performed the way we did. As I told the players, we have to celebrate and enjoy victory. We’ll get back to work tomorrow and make sure that we’re handling success the right way.”
Q: The defense looked like it played with an edge today. What can you tell us was going through their heads?
“Our defense takes a lot of pride in how it performs. Wasn’t happy with the performance last week, And they were aggressive and disciplined, and I’m pretty sure — I don’t know; I’ll get the grades from the coaches — but we had a less amount of [missed assignments], I’m sure. And those things factor into having success. We had two turnovers. That’s huge. And that was a goal of ours going into the game: We have to have two takeaways on defense and protect the ball on offense. And winning the turnover margin 2-0 is something we have to be able to do.”
Q: What experience from your time here at Purdue allowed you to prepare yourself for the bounceback that you had today?
“I don’t know. There’s nothing comparable in my time at Purdue that — I was a linebackers coach here. I really enjoyed living here. Me and my wife were just talking about it. We had a couple of kids here. I think we might have made another one that we had in Cincinnati. And so, really enjoyed it here. Didn’t have as much success on the football field as we wanted. But I think we did a good job of showing our players what to expect when they come here. And they prepared that way. And they went out and executed that way.”
Q: How important was it that Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler could step up on the offensive line?
“Huge, man. Huge. I told those guys, man, to start as many games as those two started and to not be the starter and to be prepared and to be great teammates, I can’t speak any more highly of those two guys. And they went in there and they got the job done. And it’s a respect to their preparation. It’s a respect to their unselfishness, to their love for the team. Those two guys deserve a lot of credit for the way they prepared, the way they make the guys in front of them better and in the way when they got their opportunity, they went in there and did their job.”
Q: How rewarding was it to see Riley have the day he had today with the way things ended last week?
“It’s good, man. He put a lot of work into it. It’s good to see him have success. He really works his tail off and our offensive staff works their tails off. Our O-line and wideouts did a heck of a job. Our tight ends were blocking. Riley’s going to get the credit, because he’s the quarterback and he had a lot of yards rushing, Riley’s going to get the blame when we don’t have success. That’s the life of being a quarterback. And so, there’s a lot of people who deserve credit for Riley’s performance, including Riley. And I’m proud of him.”
Q: What is Boubacar Traore’s trajectory from the beginning of the season until now?
“He’s gotten better and better. We’ve gotten him more opportunities throughout the first two games of the season, and today he had even more. And he made a lot more plays Boubacar is going to be a really, really good player. He’s a good player right now. He’s going to be a great player here before we know it. He’s got a lot of ability. I love the way he works in practice. He loves practice, and he did a good job today.”
Q: The head coach for NIU offered to talk to you after the game last week. Did some of that go into your preparation this week?
“It was just a private conversation between two head coaches. That happens often. That isn’t the first time I’ve talked to another head coach. It was just a private conversation more than anything. That was it.”
