Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker spoke with local beat writers Tuesday night ahead of Saturday's home game against Central Michigan. Here is a transcript of that conversation. Questions may be paraphrased.
GERAD PARKER
What’s the key to the continued success in the two-minute drill before halftime?
“To be fair, confidence breeds more of it. So, I think our guys having early success in those moments has certainly bred some confidence from it. So, there’s an expectation more than, ‘What’s the situation?’ They already know what the situation is, and then I think they have an expectation to play well in those moments.
“That is the first key and certainly great decision-making and being on point with what we’ve done and how we’ve been available to the ball, when to get it out of bounds, and our situational awareness of our quarterback has put us in position to be successful these first three.”
Does it help your confidence when Marcus Freeman is calling timeouts to set it up?
“It’s huge. You want him to feel that way about us and our operation. We want our guys to feel it too and I think they are. Even with as little time as we had this past week, I think everybody knew there were two operations there. You hand the ball off to start the drill to kind of see what happens. We’ve all seen that. Everything’s always in play, but at this point, you really have a feeling of, ‘Hey, let’s go after this and see if we can’t put something on the board.’”
Having No. 10 running the show helps, doesn’t it?
“Guys, you all know this. You’ve done this longer than me. We all understand what’s going on and why. We’ve got a smart football team. Our offense knows our deal, and we’ve got a guy that’s playing confidently at the quarterback position.”
How do assess your first three games as coordinator? What have you assessed good and bad?
“To be fair, I think the assessment has been stay the course. What we tell our players to do is try to remove any distractions from things that come up as you have a little bit of success early. That would be my reality of just staying grounded and humbled. For us, moving forward, the things on my mind are making sure that we — If you look at this and great play-calling and offensive football, you want to make sure, ‘Hey, are we diverse? Are we getting our best players the football? Are we putting our guys in the best position to be successful? And then are we establishing who we want to be as a personality on offense?’ Those things to my mind are the first three things that pop in my head to make sure we stay true to ourselves.”
You feel like you’ve come out of the gate well and where you want to be?
“Yeah, I feel like – I say I, we too — we feel like the preparation made spring, late-spring, summer and all those things have put yourself in a momentum piece to where you were prepared to attack this thing instead of learning how to play good football on offense as it went. We have to do that, too, but I think Game 1 we were prepared to play efficient and be good on offense early, which has bred to some success. Hopefully, we’ll handle some three-and-outs and some things that happened in that game where you don’t panic and just handle it.”
It seems like a good sign that you were able to bounce back from six three-and-outs, right?
“Amen. Do we want those? No. But I’ll say this. We knew, and I think you told you guys and you all knew it, that’s a good operation. Tony Gibson’s as good as it gets, and I mean that. He is as good as it gets. Their operation is good. We knew there were going to be some punches thrown that we were going to have to manage and deal with. I thought for the most part, our staff and players dealt with them, and then when we were able to strike, we struck. We were able to put points on the board.”
Did you go into the game thinking you’d need to use the unbalanced formation to get some things rolling in the running game?
“Oh, absolutely. We knew were going to have to give different pictures, and it is a testament to [offensive line coach] Joe Rudolph and the things in his past and all those things to find a way to make them have some difficulty fitting. Because we knew by lining up in conventional formations and how they looked on film against the things they’d done, that’s some tough sledding and it was.”
Did you know you wanted to run the Estime unbalanced call out of the break?
“Absolutely, and it’s ones we had repped. You put your finger on a couple, ‘Hey, we need to get these up to get this thing going.’”
How much have you used unbalanced in the past?
“In the past, none until that week of preparation, and we want to keep it that way. We had repped and prepped it all week to have it ready. It certainly is easier to do that, to pick and choose to do that, in the week of preparation with a guy named Joe Alt, too.”
Can you flip it the other way? Put Blake on the other side?
“(laughter) Yeah, the answer is yes!”
When you’re in a game absorbing three-and-outs, do you call plays differently knowing you’re going to need some shots rather than 10-play drives?
“I don’t know how that gets received by the fans of the world, but we can’t abandon who we are. So I hope we as a staff, I believe we stayed true to our personality. Then as it went, there are certain things you better do and adjust to do to give that thing some air, if that makes sense. As the half went into the second half and we got some air, that’s when some explosives off some run fits happened. I guess it’s yes, you do, but at the same time, you better stay true to it and not just abandon ship. That’s not what we’re going to do at Notre Dame.”
When the three-and-outs started to add up, do you feel like you’re searching early in the game to find something that works? And it’s a great call on the run by Hartman.
“Well, thank you. Yeah, did it a little bit different than what everybody would think it was. You’re always trying to make sure and communicate, ‘Hey, let’s get this thing going.’ Human nature takes over to where you don’t want two to turn into three and so on. But that kind of got us going a little bit and certainly the long field goal after the penalty got us going to get us on the board. When you get something on the board, you feel something through your staff and your players to get it going.”
Do you script of 10 or 12 plays for the two-minute drill? Each week it has been a different mix of plays.
“That would be fair. Maybe not that high of a number. Our staff, hopefully — I believe we’ve done a really good job of empowering our staff. Everybody has studies throughout the deal. Situational studies, run game, two-minute, four-minute, second down — we divvy it up. [Wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey] does our two-minute study. I trust his eyes. We watch through it, do film study, kind of see what we believe is going to be the best hits for what they’re going to give us in those scenarios, put them on the sheet and call them. Then let our guys make them work. So the answer is yes, you definitely have a plan.”
Why has counter been so important to the run game?
“It’s growing and it’s been fun to see it grow. Personally, selfishly, I love it. I love counter. There are plenty of ways of doing it to an open side, to a closed side. Again, our growth as a staff, [running backs coach] Deland [McCullough], Joe and what they’ve brought to the table with that has helped it grow. It’s a personality. Our guys have a lot of confidence with that ball hitting that way from our lead back on down through our whole back crew. They like hitting that.”
Do you and Marcus Freeman ever choose running backs for specific situations?
“Yeah, constant conversation, because all of them are different. It’s a great lineup of a back room with all different talents and abilities, and it’s been really cool to try to piece them together to put them in that position. And then also give credit where credit is due to guys in certain situations when we’re on the plus side of the field where Audric, it’s like, ‘Hey, he needs to be in the football game here.’ But to be able to add some speed to it and some space to it with [Jadarian Price] or [Jeremiyah Love] and all the things we can bring to it has really made us different. We have to keep on capitalizing on it.”
They really are different.
“Yeah, different, and hopefully it continues to make us that way.”
(more)
GERAD PARKER
What’s the key to the continued success in the two-minute drill before halftime?
“To be fair, confidence breeds more of it. So, I think our guys having early success in those moments has certainly bred some confidence from it. So, there’s an expectation more than, ‘What’s the situation?’ They already know what the situation is, and then I think they have an expectation to play well in those moments.
“That is the first key and certainly great decision-making and being on point with what we’ve done and how we’ve been available to the ball, when to get it out of bounds, and our situational awareness of our quarterback has put us in position to be successful these first three.”
Does it help your confidence when Marcus Freeman is calling timeouts to set it up?
“It’s huge. You want him to feel that way about us and our operation. We want our guys to feel it too and I think they are. Even with as little time as we had this past week, I think everybody knew there were two operations there. You hand the ball off to start the drill to kind of see what happens. We’ve all seen that. Everything’s always in play, but at this point, you really have a feeling of, ‘Hey, let’s go after this and see if we can’t put something on the board.’”
Having No. 10 running the show helps, doesn’t it?
“Guys, you all know this. You’ve done this longer than me. We all understand what’s going on and why. We’ve got a smart football team. Our offense knows our deal, and we’ve got a guy that’s playing confidently at the quarterback position.”
How do assess your first three games as coordinator? What have you assessed good and bad?
“To be fair, I think the assessment has been stay the course. What we tell our players to do is try to remove any distractions from things that come up as you have a little bit of success early. That would be my reality of just staying grounded and humbled. For us, moving forward, the things on my mind are making sure that we — If you look at this and great play-calling and offensive football, you want to make sure, ‘Hey, are we diverse? Are we getting our best players the football? Are we putting our guys in the best position to be successful? And then are we establishing who we want to be as a personality on offense?’ Those things to my mind are the first three things that pop in my head to make sure we stay true to ourselves.”
You feel like you’ve come out of the gate well and where you want to be?
“Yeah, I feel like – I say I, we too — we feel like the preparation made spring, late-spring, summer and all those things have put yourself in a momentum piece to where you were prepared to attack this thing instead of learning how to play good football on offense as it went. We have to do that, too, but I think Game 1 we were prepared to play efficient and be good on offense early, which has bred to some success. Hopefully, we’ll handle some three-and-outs and some things that happened in that game where you don’t panic and just handle it.”
It seems like a good sign that you were able to bounce back from six three-and-outs, right?
“Amen. Do we want those? No. But I’ll say this. We knew, and I think you told you guys and you all knew it, that’s a good operation. Tony Gibson’s as good as it gets, and I mean that. He is as good as it gets. Their operation is good. We knew there were going to be some punches thrown that we were going to have to manage and deal with. I thought for the most part, our staff and players dealt with them, and then when we were able to strike, we struck. We were able to put points on the board.”
Did you go into the game thinking you’d need to use the unbalanced formation to get some things rolling in the running game?
“Oh, absolutely. We knew were going to have to give different pictures, and it is a testament to [offensive line coach] Joe Rudolph and the things in his past and all those things to find a way to make them have some difficulty fitting. Because we knew by lining up in conventional formations and how they looked on film against the things they’d done, that’s some tough sledding and it was.”
Did you know you wanted to run the Estime unbalanced call out of the break?
“Absolutely, and it’s ones we had repped. You put your finger on a couple, ‘Hey, we need to get these up to get this thing going.’”
How much have you used unbalanced in the past?
“In the past, none until that week of preparation, and we want to keep it that way. We had repped and prepped it all week to have it ready. It certainly is easier to do that, to pick and choose to do that, in the week of preparation with a guy named Joe Alt, too.”
Can you flip it the other way? Put Blake on the other side?
“(laughter) Yeah, the answer is yes!”
When you’re in a game absorbing three-and-outs, do you call plays differently knowing you’re going to need some shots rather than 10-play drives?
“I don’t know how that gets received by the fans of the world, but we can’t abandon who we are. So I hope we as a staff, I believe we stayed true to our personality. Then as it went, there are certain things you better do and adjust to do to give that thing some air, if that makes sense. As the half went into the second half and we got some air, that’s when some explosives off some run fits happened. I guess it’s yes, you do, but at the same time, you better stay true to it and not just abandon ship. That’s not what we’re going to do at Notre Dame.”
When the three-and-outs started to add up, do you feel like you’re searching early in the game to find something that works? And it’s a great call on the run by Hartman.
“Well, thank you. Yeah, did it a little bit different than what everybody would think it was. You’re always trying to make sure and communicate, ‘Hey, let’s get this thing going.’ Human nature takes over to where you don’t want two to turn into three and so on. But that kind of got us going a little bit and certainly the long field goal after the penalty got us going to get us on the board. When you get something on the board, you feel something through your staff and your players to get it going.”
Do you script of 10 or 12 plays for the two-minute drill? Each week it has been a different mix of plays.
“That would be fair. Maybe not that high of a number. Our staff, hopefully — I believe we’ve done a really good job of empowering our staff. Everybody has studies throughout the deal. Situational studies, run game, two-minute, four-minute, second down — we divvy it up. [Wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey] does our two-minute study. I trust his eyes. We watch through it, do film study, kind of see what we believe is going to be the best hits for what they’re going to give us in those scenarios, put them on the sheet and call them. Then let our guys make them work. So the answer is yes, you definitely have a plan.”
Why has counter been so important to the run game?
“It’s growing and it’s been fun to see it grow. Personally, selfishly, I love it. I love counter. There are plenty of ways of doing it to an open side, to a closed side. Again, our growth as a staff, [running backs coach] Deland [McCullough], Joe and what they’ve brought to the table with that has helped it grow. It’s a personality. Our guys have a lot of confidence with that ball hitting that way from our lead back on down through our whole back crew. They like hitting that.”
Do you and Marcus Freeman ever choose running backs for specific situations?
“Yeah, constant conversation, because all of them are different. It’s a great lineup of a back room with all different talents and abilities, and it’s been really cool to try to piece them together to put them in that position. And then also give credit where credit is due to guys in certain situations when we’re on the plus side of the field where Audric, it’s like, ‘Hey, he needs to be in the football game here.’ But to be able to add some speed to it and some space to it with [Jadarian Price] or [Jeremiyah Love] and all the things we can bring to it has really made us different. We have to keep on capitalizing on it.”
They really are different.
“Yeah, different, and hopefully it continues to make us that way.”
(more)
