{"id":75625,"date":"2024-11-16T19:38:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T01:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/everything-notre-dame-coach-marcus-freeman-said-after-the-virginia-game\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T19:38:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T01:38:22","slug":"everything-notre-dame-coach-marcus-freeman-said-after-the-virginia-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/everything-notre-dame-coach-marcus-freeman-said-after-the-virginia-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after the Virginia game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following Saturday\u2019s No. 8 Notre Dame 35-14 victory over Virginia, Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman<\/a><\/strong> addressed the media for about 10 minutes afterward. Here\u2019s everything he said. <\/p>\n

Opening statement<\/h2>\n

\u201cYeah, any win, you know, it was a great win. A great team victory. It\u2019s what we aspired to do all week for our seniors on a Senior Night. This obviously isn\u2019t the end of our season, but this is the night we said was going to be Senior Night and our last guaranteed opportunity for our seniors to play in this stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was important for us to make sure that we achieved the team glory that we aspired to have. I told them in the locker room, \u2018We\u2019ll fix the film. There\u2019s always plays to fix. We have to evaluate it and figure out the whys, and we will.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut enjoy this victory. Heal up. We\u2019ve got to continue to improve as we go throughout the season. That\u2019s going to be the ultimate challenge is we can\u2019t look at outcomes. We can\u2019t. We\u2019ve got to evaluate everything and continue to find ways to improve and get ready for our next opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the team\u2019s progress from the first to last home game<\/h2>\n

\u201cYeah, the first postgame press conference was a lot different than this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s just a testament to the work this group put in, and you know, the outcome of that game, you know, obviously made us feel a certain type of way in terms of what we have to do to improve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve got to continue to look at the whys and what happened. That\u2019s what this group has been doing. Like trying to truly evaluate and have a sense of urgency to improve, and that\u2019s what I see from the start of that first postgame press conference to now is a group that has improved through experience, but also through intentional actions, and the result has been pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the officiating crew\u2019s explanation of the penalty on the fake punt<\/h2>\n

\u201cYeah, you know, it was really an interpretation of the rule, as I told them, obviously called down; let\u2019s just talk and get it figured out postgame in terms of how we interpret the rule. We were in shotgun, which we assume we are able to do, and they said, \u2018No, you\u2019re not.\u00a0You\u2019re not able to do that in the special teams formation we were in.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, they have got a job to do, and you know, I might have disagreed at the moment, but I got the utmost respect for our officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what the defense allows them to do when they\u2019re forcing multiple turnovers<\/h2>\n

\u201cYeah, I think when you look at the big picture, it gives our entire program, all three phases, a chance to have success. When your defense is playing as well as we\u2019re playing, it allows you to still be in the game and be in a position to win, maybe when you weren\u2019t having the success you want offensively to start the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so the defense is doing a heck of a job, and offense is doing a good job, man. We\u2019ve just got to eliminate some of those early game three-and-outs in situations where we\u00a0are not moving chains as much as we want, and as you look at that, most of them come from penalties or negative yardage plays that we\u2019ve just got to make sure that we clean up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yes, the defense is doing a heck of a job, but I\u2019m proud of all three phases.\u201d<\/p>\n

On whether he thinks they will play another game at Notre Dame Stadium in 2024<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat I think doesn\u2019t really matter, man. Like, let\u2019s go to work, right? Let\u2019s give this program a chance to play in this stadium one more time, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what he saw in Notre Dame graduate student safety Xavier Watts<\/a> in the early days when he was a defensive coordinator that led him to believe that Watts would be close to what he is now<\/h2>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know, obviously, early in that change that he would be the player he is now. But you saw some flashes with the Navy game of 2021, and you saw some flashes. That was the first week he played safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd tracking a ball tackler and closing space, a lot of times it\u2019s natural instincts, and he\u2019s a guy that showed in that game, man, he\u2019s a guy that can track the ball and make some plays that we didn\u2019t have. To see the development from that point to where he\u2019s at now to be one of the best players in the country, it\u2019s a testament to his God-given ability, but the work he\u2019s put into it. He\u2019s put a tremendous amount of work into becoming the player he is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

On why the Notre Dame offense wasn\u2019t successful on third down<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously some that are obvious, some of the holding penalties we can\u2019t hold. We have to be better. We can\u2019t put our offense behind the sticks, right, behind the chains? That\u2019s the thing that stuck out to me more than anything is that we were in a lot of third and long situations. The percentage of converting those are not good, no matter who you are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so what we\u2019ve got to do is a better job of putting our offense in better third-down situations, and that means no penalties, and that means, you know, continue having positive plays and not negative yardage plays. That\u2019s going to be crucial as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

On if he has ever been as heated as he was after the fake punt got called back and what it was like to come down from that<\/h2>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been heated plenty of times.\u00a0Maybe not displayed it like that. You know what, it\u2019s like you tell your players, \u2018You\u2019ve got to reload, right? No matter what happened the last play, you\u2019ve got to move forward.\u2019 And I probably took a little bit longer than I should have.\u00a0It\u2019s not a great example for your players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to \u2014 you might be frustrated, say whatever you had to say. Most the time I was trying to get the interpretation of, \u2018Hey, this is what we did. What\u2019s your interpretation?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to emotionally get yourself under control because you\u2019ve got a job to do, right? We were still in a two-minute situation.\u00a0Do we want to call time and all those things?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you have to make sure, man, you control your emotions and really get focused on this play because that play, they called it. You\u2019ve got to move on, right? Doesn\u2019t matter if you like the call or not. You have to move forward. That\u2019s most important.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how the defense responded after the fake punt got called back<\/h2>\n

\u201cHuge. It was almost a spark. I think \u2014 I can\u2019t remember (sophomore wide receiver Jordan) Faison<\/a><\/strong> or somebody had a long play on offense that got called back. (Graduate student wide receiver) Jayden Harrison<\/a><\/strong>, right? And then Faison goes, and he scores on that fake punt. He gets called back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, and it\u2019s just like a spark. Our defense gets a takeaway. I think it was (sophomore safety) Adon (Shuler)<\/a><\/strong> or (freshman cornerback) Leonard (Moore)<\/a><\/strong>, we go and we score. Then we get another takeaway, and we go and we score. That was huge. That was huge to win the half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my message tonight, \u2018We can\u2019t wait for a spark. The sense of urgency has to be from play one to the end of the game. That\u2019s what we have to make sure we continue to do.’\u201d<\/p>\n

On feeling the connection from the Notre Dame crowd<\/h2>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s special. That\u2019s why you love playing at home. You can definitely feed off the emotions from the crowd. I think it\u2019s contagious. I think everybody was emotional but in the right mindset after that play.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how connected he feels in all three phases to what they\u2019re doing on and off the field<\/h2>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean, the two stats we look at most to look at how well we are playing complementary football is the battle of field position and turnover margin. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not lost a turnover margin other than one game a year, and that was Northern Illinois. And we\u2019ve won the battle of field position I think almost in every game we play. I have to go back and look.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ll see what it was today, but that\u2019s what complementary football is, is turnover margin and the battle of field position because that includes all three phases.\u201d<\/p>\n

On being No. 1 in the nation in defensive passing efficiency<\/h2>\n

\u201cI think we do some good things\u00a0schematically. (Defensive coordinator) Coach (Al) Golden<\/a><\/strong> and the defense really do\u00a0some really good things with getting pressure up front.\u00a0Like there\u2019s a lot of things that go into the what. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just told\u00a0them before the game, \u2018We all like to look at the what.\u2019 You\u2019ve got the No. 1 pass defense in the country. We evaluate the whys, which, to me, there\u2019s more than just pass rush. There\u2019s coverage, the change-ups, the players that\u00a0we have. All those things go into the what, right? All those\u00a0things go into the what, which is having a really good pass\u00a0defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know if we have enough time for me to list the\u00a0whys. I gave you some big-picture whys, but there are a lot of reasons. And I go back to the scout team, right? The look that our scout team gives us challenges us in practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we know if we are not exactly where we need to be, we\u00a0are going to get exposed. There\u2019s a whole bunch of things that go into that, but it starts with really good players and a really good coaching staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

BOX SCORE: No. 8 Notre Dame 35, Virginia 14<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after the Virginia game<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following Saturday\u2019s No. 8 Notre Dame 35-14 victory over Virginia, Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}