Marcus Freeman's Championship Talk Shows A Process Driven Focus For Notre Dame
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has made some interesting comments in recent weeks, and that continued in his press conference to kick off Navy week.
Freeman has now said on multiple occasions that he isn't focused on national championships.
"We don't talk about national championships," Freeman said near the end of his Monday press conference.
That is quite an interesting thing for the head football coach at Notre Dame to say, especially Freeman, who has said in the past that winning championships is part of the "Golden Standard" that lies at the heart of his program.
This might seem like a contradiction, but it actually says something quite different about Freeman. In his second season at Notre Dame he has changed his focus, and the focus of the program. The statements that Freeman made are about a micro vs macro discussion, it shows that his focus with his football team are about the process.
Championship coaches like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Dabo Swinney have shown over the years that building a championship team requires a focus on the process, not the result.
During fall camp, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick met with the team, and he talked about championships, which was followed up by Freeman offering a bit of a counter message. He wanted his team focused on the process.
"Jack Swarbrick came in, he's talking to our team, and he's just an unbelievable speaker," Freeman explained. "He talked about what he saw in national championship teams. When he got done I reminded the guys that's the result of a lot of different things."
That's the key for Freeman. He wasn't telling his team that Swarbrick was incorrect that championships aren't important, or even that this football team is not a championship caliber team. It's that you don't win a championship in August, or September, or October. Championships are won in January, but to be a championship team you have to build a foundation that starts the moment the team arrived back in January shortly after last year's championship game was played. That's when that foundation was laid.
Nothing Notre Dame did on that first day in January when the current team began to come together would win them a championship that day. It wouldn't beat Navy that day. All they could do that day was win that day, and dominate that day, and put in the work that day.
It's all part of the process.
"We're talking about national championship football team, it's easy to say don't talk about that, talk about today," Freeman explained. "But even talk about Saturday, don't worry about Saturday, worry about today. You are in a competition today against your opponent. We're both practicing today, and who's got to win today, and that's got to be your mindset."
Freeman doubled down on focusing on today. The end result is obviously wins, and the ultimate goal is obviously a championship. Freeman hasn't ever said that wasn't the goal, but his team's focus each day isn't on goals, it's about focusing on each moment, and controlling each moment.
The now is all his team can do, and it's up to Freeman and his staff to make sure the process is in place to build the right attitude, technical foundation and mentality needed to execute each play at a high level. With the talent Notre Dame has on its roster, if his players can do that the end result will be what Freeman ultimately wants from his program.
"You can't control Saturday, you can control right now and what's in front of you," stated Freeman. "That's what I want the focus on. As you get to the game on Saturday, don't worry about four quarters of football and we have to finish .... focus on the first play. Then after the first play, get ready for the second play."
"If you think like that the results will take care of themselves."
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