Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman met with the media on Saturday evening, following No. 17 Notre's 28-3 victory over Miami (Ohio) at Notre Dame Stadium. Here's everything Freeman had to say.
Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
OPENING STATEMENT
“Proud of the way our guys competed. You know, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't clean. But to beat that football team, 28-3, I told them, that's a really good victory. I think they are going to be a really good team.
“I told Coach [Chuck] Martin after the game, that's a good football team. I'm really impressed with their offense, their quarterback. So to hold that offense to three points, man, was a huge, huge sign of how the way our defense had played. But battled.
“Again, we got down 3-0. Didn't start the way we wanted to. You know, we had too many penalties that we had to clean up, that we've got to clean up and see why they occurred, and make sure that we don't continue to allow that to happen. That's on coaches, and we've got to own it and make sure we drill it and we fix it, and put our guys in positions to have success.”
“So I'll just open up for questions.”
Q. With three different starters on your offensive line today compared to what you opened camp with, and two different from even a week ago, how much does this offense need a dual-threat quarterback like Riley Leonard that can help open up things both ways?
MARCUS FREEMAN: “I think there's benefits no matter who your quarterback is. To me, you have to call things around the strengths of your players. And, obviously, Riley, one of his strengths is the ability to run the ball. And they showed today that we can run the ball and they had a lot of success. I'm proud of the way those two guys stepped up. Pat and Rocco really performed well. It felt like they performed well. Obviously, the rushing yards showed they performed well. We'll go back and watch it and continue to get those guys to improve, but I'm really proud of our offense, being able to run the ball. But also [proud of] those guys being able to step up and get their job done.”
Q. Are your special teams generally clean through the week on the practice field and then these issues are popping up on game day, or what is keeping them from playing clean?
MF: “I think the first one was the muffed punt. I kind of saw it when we were watching on the iPad — one of our players was trying to get away [from the punt] and kind of ran right into [Jordan] Faison. We've got to be better there. We've got to peel off earlier. You know, the block in the back on the reverse was unacceptable, and, obviously, we weren't clear enough as coaches. I'm not going to blame the player. We've got to hold them accountable, but we've always got to own it as coaches. We can't do that. We can't block in the back.
“And then the field goal. We had a new guy doing short snaps. And after that one snap, we put Rino [Monteforte] back in, who had been our short snapper. So again, that's what happened. Can't happen. We've got to make sure we are continuing to attack those issues in practice and perform better on that football field.”
Q. As you continue to work on offensive game plan moving forward, how much does Riley's ability to break off the big play at random times factor into how strongly you guys feel about him?
MF: “It definitely factors into it. We have a lot of confidence in him making the right decision in the run game and the pass game. We had, what, 270 yards rushing? Yeah, 270 yards rushing, which, again, a lot came from [Leonard] running the ball. I don't think we design plays to say, ‘OK, this one is going to go for 50. But he has the ability to — if you mis-fit or if he makes you miss a tackle — to take it all the way.”
Q. Thinking about the game as a whole, how do you balance a 3 1/2-touchdown win, which looks comfortable, with the fact that it wasn't comfortable, and there were a couple critical early mistakes that could have changed this?
MF: “It's the same way you really look at every game, except for the only thing that's different between a win and a loss is the 24 hours from now until you get back together. Our guys are going to celebrate. They won a tough game and did a good job. We are not going to shy away from that. It's hard to win. You get 12 guaranteed opportunities, and you can't take any win for granted.
“So I told them to celebrate. But when we get back together, we own it. We evaluate the film. We own it. We come up with a plan to attack the issues that we've had. We come up with a plan to enhance the things that we did well and then we move forward throughout the week. That process won't change. It's just the 24 hours from now until we get back together that changes.”
Q. I may be stepping on your answers here, and let me preface this by saying you obviously believe in Riley Leonard because you think he provides you with the highest upside and gives you the best chance to win. But what gives you the confidence to stick with him when he's struggling like he is, and when you can obviously feel in the stadium that the sentiment is that they are looking for a change at the quarterback position?
MF: “Yeah, we don't make decisions based off what the sentiment of the stadium is.”
Q. I understand.
MF: “So that's to answer that part of the question. But again, I don't know how many yards Riley led our offense to, through rushing and passing, but there's always parts to clean up. And we've got to continue to look at the mistakes that he made and say, ‘OK, how do we do a better job of not putting him in a position to make mistakes? And where was the disconnect? But we've got a lot of confidence in our quarterback that led us to a great victory today.”
Q. You did a great job with Miami QB Brett Gabbert. He was 14-for-35, just 119 yards and two interceptions. What was the overall game plan going in against a guy that had thrown for a lot of yards in his college career?
MF: “Yeah, he's a really good player. He's talented. He's experienced. You're not going to confuse him. We tried to get pressure up the middle and make him uncomfortable. We tried to give him some different looks but we still have to do what we do well. Our defense did a really good job of competing. We had some drives where they had some yards, but they stuck their cleats in the ground and didn't let them into the end zone, which is a huge credit to coach [Al] Golden and our defense and the players.”
Q. The run defense gave up a couple plays early. How did they regain their composure and stop the run for the rest of the game?
MF: “Yeah, I think as you look at how the game started, the muffed punt didn't hurt. Our defense did a good job. All of a sudden we muff a punt, and then we're able to get an interception [near] the goal line. That's a heck of a job by our defense. I can't remember the drive they ended up getting a field goal, but we're greedy. We don't want to give up any rushing yards. We'll look at it and see where they had the ability to run the ball and we'll attack it and fix it.”
Q. This was James Rendell's best punting day so far by a wide margin. You mentioned some of the things you're going to do this week. How did you see them work on the field?
MF: “They did a good job. Our job, as coaches, is to put our players in position to do what they do well on Saturday. And we tried to call some punts that he felt comfortable with in the stadium. We were able to do some different things in practice, as I talked to you guys about on Monday. But at the end of the day, he went out there and performed. Coach [Marty Biagi] did a good job of getting his head into a place that was confident, and he booted the ball. And we're going to continue to build on that.”
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Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
OPENING STATEMENT
“Proud of the way our guys competed. You know, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't clean. But to beat that football team, 28-3, I told them, that's a really good victory. I think they are going to be a really good team.
“I told Coach [Chuck] Martin after the game, that's a good football team. I'm really impressed with their offense, their quarterback. So to hold that offense to three points, man, was a huge, huge sign of how the way our defense had played. But battled.
“Again, we got down 3-0. Didn't start the way we wanted to. You know, we had too many penalties that we had to clean up, that we've got to clean up and see why they occurred, and make sure that we don't continue to allow that to happen. That's on coaches, and we've got to own it and make sure we drill it and we fix it, and put our guys in positions to have success.”
“So I'll just open up for questions.”
Q. With three different starters on your offensive line today compared to what you opened camp with, and two different from even a week ago, how much does this offense need a dual-threat quarterback like Riley Leonard that can help open up things both ways?
MARCUS FREEMAN: “I think there's benefits no matter who your quarterback is. To me, you have to call things around the strengths of your players. And, obviously, Riley, one of his strengths is the ability to run the ball. And they showed today that we can run the ball and they had a lot of success. I'm proud of the way those two guys stepped up. Pat and Rocco really performed well. It felt like they performed well. Obviously, the rushing yards showed they performed well. We'll go back and watch it and continue to get those guys to improve, but I'm really proud of our offense, being able to run the ball. But also [proud of] those guys being able to step up and get their job done.”
Q. Are your special teams generally clean through the week on the practice field and then these issues are popping up on game day, or what is keeping them from playing clean?
MF: “I think the first one was the muffed punt. I kind of saw it when we were watching on the iPad — one of our players was trying to get away [from the punt] and kind of ran right into [Jordan] Faison. We've got to be better there. We've got to peel off earlier. You know, the block in the back on the reverse was unacceptable, and, obviously, we weren't clear enough as coaches. I'm not going to blame the player. We've got to hold them accountable, but we've always got to own it as coaches. We can't do that. We can't block in the back.
“And then the field goal. We had a new guy doing short snaps. And after that one snap, we put Rino [Monteforte] back in, who had been our short snapper. So again, that's what happened. Can't happen. We've got to make sure we are continuing to attack those issues in practice and perform better on that football field.”
Q. As you continue to work on offensive game plan moving forward, how much does Riley's ability to break off the big play at random times factor into how strongly you guys feel about him?
MF: “It definitely factors into it. We have a lot of confidence in him making the right decision in the run game and the pass game. We had, what, 270 yards rushing? Yeah, 270 yards rushing, which, again, a lot came from [Leonard] running the ball. I don't think we design plays to say, ‘OK, this one is going to go for 50. But he has the ability to — if you mis-fit or if he makes you miss a tackle — to take it all the way.”
Q. Thinking about the game as a whole, how do you balance a 3 1/2-touchdown win, which looks comfortable, with the fact that it wasn't comfortable, and there were a couple critical early mistakes that could have changed this?
MF: “It's the same way you really look at every game, except for the only thing that's different between a win and a loss is the 24 hours from now until you get back together. Our guys are going to celebrate. They won a tough game and did a good job. We are not going to shy away from that. It's hard to win. You get 12 guaranteed opportunities, and you can't take any win for granted.
“So I told them to celebrate. But when we get back together, we own it. We evaluate the film. We own it. We come up with a plan to attack the issues that we've had. We come up with a plan to enhance the things that we did well and then we move forward throughout the week. That process won't change. It's just the 24 hours from now until we get back together that changes.”
Q. I may be stepping on your answers here, and let me preface this by saying you obviously believe in Riley Leonard because you think he provides you with the highest upside and gives you the best chance to win. But what gives you the confidence to stick with him when he's struggling like he is, and when you can obviously feel in the stadium that the sentiment is that they are looking for a change at the quarterback position?
MF: “Yeah, we don't make decisions based off what the sentiment of the stadium is.”
Q. I understand.
MF: “So that's to answer that part of the question. But again, I don't know how many yards Riley led our offense to, through rushing and passing, but there's always parts to clean up. And we've got to continue to look at the mistakes that he made and say, ‘OK, how do we do a better job of not putting him in a position to make mistakes? And where was the disconnect? But we've got a lot of confidence in our quarterback that led us to a great victory today.”
Q. You did a great job with Miami QB Brett Gabbert. He was 14-for-35, just 119 yards and two interceptions. What was the overall game plan going in against a guy that had thrown for a lot of yards in his college career?
MF: “Yeah, he's a really good player. He's talented. He's experienced. You're not going to confuse him. We tried to get pressure up the middle and make him uncomfortable. We tried to give him some different looks but we still have to do what we do well. Our defense did a really good job of competing. We had some drives where they had some yards, but they stuck their cleats in the ground and didn't let them into the end zone, which is a huge credit to coach [Al] Golden and our defense and the players.”
Q. The run defense gave up a couple plays early. How did they regain their composure and stop the run for the rest of the game?
MF: “Yeah, I think as you look at how the game started, the muffed punt didn't hurt. Our defense did a good job. All of a sudden we muff a punt, and then we're able to get an interception [near] the goal line. That's a heck of a job by our defense. I can't remember the drive they ended up getting a field goal, but we're greedy. We don't want to give up any rushing yards. We'll look at it and see where they had the ability to run the ball and we'll attack it and fix it.”
Q. This was James Rendell's best punting day so far by a wide margin. You mentioned some of the things you're going to do this week. How did you see them work on the field?
MF: “They did a good job. Our job, as coaches, is to put our players in position to do what they do well on Saturday. And we tried to call some punts that he felt comfortable with in the stadium. We were able to do some different things in practice, as I talked to you guys about on Monday. But at the end of the day, he went out there and performed. Coach [Marty Biagi] did a good job of getting his head into a place that was confident, and he booted the ball. And we're going to continue to build on that.”
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