Marcus Freeman addresses strength of offensive, defensive lines

From the time he took over as the head coach at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman was focused on making sure that Notre Dame had dominant play in the trenches. In many ways, that was a standard that he inherited from the Brian Kelly era and Freeman knows the value of it when trying to compete at the highest level.

During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show Thursday, Freeman broke down the strength of Notre Dame’s offensive and defensive lines.

“Yeah, I think that’s been my, you know, my vision from the minute I became head coach is that I want to be o-line and d-line driven,” Marcus Freeman said. “And Notre Dame has been known throughout the history of the program of having great o-linemen and obviously those guys are still playing in the NFL and so you know, we have two returning — three returning starters on the offensive line.”

Freeman praised Notre Dame’s offensive line and the tackles, in particular. They are Joe Alt and Blake Fisher and are both considered among the best offensive linemen in the country. Alt is even currently getting mocked as a top-10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

“You know, our two tackles are going to go on their third year of starting and they’re special players. Our center, Zeke Correll is back and then you know, we have a couple battles for the guard spots,” Freeman said.

“And then defensively, we lose Isaiah Foskey as the 40th overall pick, but you know, other than that, the guys that are coming back have all played. We got a transfer from Ohio State named Javontae Jean-Baptiste that has done great things.”

Replacing Isaiah Foskey’s production is going to be almost impossible for Notre Dame. Foskey became Notre Dame’s all-time sack leader in 2022, passing Justin Tuck to finish with 26.5 sacks. He had 11 sacks in both 2021 and 2022.

Despite that, Marcus Freeman remains confident in the unit’s depth and experience.

“So, I feel really strong about, you know, the depth and the experience of our offensive line and defensive line.”

What Marcus Freeman wants to see by the first game

Notre Dame will open the 2023 season against Navy in Ireland. Before that, though, there is still plenty that Marcus Freeman wants to see out of the Irish.

“We’re at a different point now than we were in in the spring and then the things that our players can do in the summer, you don’t have to start back over,” Freeman said. “But it’s the ability to make sure that you get everything checked off on your checklist and not just say that you did it in practice but that we perfected.”

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