Marcus Freeman Has Notre Dame's Attention Locked In On Sun Bowl Preparation

After a rollercoaster ride for two weeks, things have finally calmed down for Marcus Freeman and his Notre Dame football team. The Fighting Irish head coach saw a dozen players enter the transfer portal soon after the regular season ended with a Thanksgiving weekend win at Stanford.

More Irish players declared for the NFL Draft and made decisions to opt of the Dec. 29 Sun Bowl. Players like right tackle Blake Fisher, linebacker Marist Liufau and quarterback Sam Hartman could have still played in the game even after declaring for the draft, but instead they have suited up in blue and gold for the last time.

Meanwhile, Freeman and his staff have been at work getting commitments from transfer portal players for next year’s team, while also flying coast to coast to keep the commitments of high school players who will sign with Notre Dame this Wednesday.

After all of that work, the focus is now on finishing off the season in El Paso, Texas.

“We have clarity in our roster,” Freeman said Saturday afternoon. “Clarity in terms of who our opponent is and really have turned all of our attention toward Oregon State.

“All year, we talk about the 12 guaranteed opportunities,” Freeman continued. “So, we’ve obviously turned the page to opportunity 13 and we’re grateful. I showed our team the videos on social media yesterday that you’ve seen the excitement of everybody that’s involved with the Sun Bowl and I want our team to, I’m sure they’ve all seen it but, to hear that one more time and understand how grateful we are for this opportunity. How excited we are to bring this football program down to El Paso, Texas.”

Freeman expects no more opt outs before his team’s Sun Bowl matchup with the Beavers. He says his entire team is intact, meaning other draft eligible players like linebacker JD Bertrand and Javontae Jean-Baptiste will both play in the bowl.

While Freeman has clarity on who will be available for the game, there will still be many new faces on the field for the game, especially offensively. Quarterback Steve Angeli will make his first career start, but he will also do so behind and offensive line whose only remaining starter from the season-opener in Ireland is left guard Pat Coogan.

Freeman says true freshman Charles Jagusah will be the starter at left tackle, with Aamil Wagner and Tosh Baker battling to start at right tackle. There’s a void to fill at wide receiver as well after Chris Tyree, Rico Flores, Jr, Tobias Merriweather, and Braylon James all transferred.

“It's a challenge and at first it took who actually would be available; who’s going to play in the game,” Freeman remarked. “But it’s a great opportunity. It’s a great opportunity for our players, great opportunity for our coaches to continue to develop, which we know is going to be the future of our offense and our program. But also, we’ve got to be creative. You’ve got some new guys in there that haven’t had a whole bunch of experience. So, we can’t expect them to do (what) the guys that have had two to three years of starting experience to do. So, it’s a challenge for us to create a game plan that helps our guys play fast. But it’s also a great opportunity for them to continue to develop and get some real, meaningful action.”

Three receivers who dealt with injuries this season are all healthy and now practicing during bowl prep. Deion Colzie hasn’t played since Sept. 16 against Central Michigan, Jayden Thomas was slowed by a hamstring injury over the last seven games of the season and freshman KK Smith hasn’t played all season due to a shoulder injury he had prior to arriving on campus over the summer.

With all the new faces ready to go and final exams in the rearview mirror, Freeman and company are now in the home stretch with less than two weeks to go until the Sun Bowl.

“We’ve got to understand the challenge it will be and we have to grasp this opportunity and we began truly our physical preparation towards Oregon State (Saturday),” Freeman explained. “The past couple practices we had were really just developing this team. Let’s develop the team. But today we truly turned our attention to Oregon State in terms of practice.”

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