Marcus Freeman Backs Gerad Parker But Knows The Notre Dame Offense Must Improve
If Marcus Freeman has his way, he will retain every member of his 2023 coaching staff. The Notre Dame head football coach said as much on Monday in an end of the regular season call with local media.
"If it’s up to me, as I just told the coaching staff in our staff meeting, I have a strong belief in the coaches that we have in this football program and would love all of them to be back,” Freeman responded when asked if he anticipates any offseason staff change. "There’s obviously places that we have to improve on all three phases and the coaches understand that and they’re definitely up for the challenge. But the thing I’ve learned in this short time as head coach is that consistency is so important.”
Since that comment, however, Notre Dame has parted ways with wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey in a move that wasn't overly surprising. While that move might have been necessary, Freeman clearly values continuity as much as its possible.
Parker’s first season has had its share of highs, but it had lows as well.
"I think the biggest thing that I’ve noticed more than anything this year evaluating the first 12 games is that we have to continuously find a way to perform better when we’re playing better defenses,” Freeman remarked. "They understand that and they embrace that challenge.
"This is the first year for this group to be together and I’ve seen a lot of bright spots and places that we have to improve,” Freeman continued. "The biggest thing I told Coach Parker and his staff is we have to improve our performance, especially those big games, against good defenses. Because those are the type of teams that we have to find a way to beat if we want to be a championship program. But I believe that we have the coaches that will help continuously move this performance forward and enhance what we do so that we do find a way to win those big games.”
Notre Dame went 1-3 against the four teams that appeared in last week’s College Football Playoff Rankings: No. 2 Ohio State, No. 10 Louisville, No. 22 NC State, and No. 24 Clemson. Those four teams were also the best statistical defensive teams the Irish played this season. Here’s how they ranked nationally in a handful of key statistical categories”
Total defense: OSU No. 3, Clemson No. 6, Louisville No. 19, NC State No. 25
Run Defense: Louisville No. 11, NC State No. 15, OSU No. 21, Clemson No. 24
Turnovers Gained: Clemson and NC State T-No. 7, Louisville No. 35, OSU No. 119
Pass Efficiency Defense: Ohio State No. 2, Clemson No. 3, NC State No. 23, Louisville No. 35.
*Of note, Duke’s defense brought a better defensive reputation into the season, but the Blue Devils ranked No. 45 in total defense, No. 54 in run defense, No. 33 in pass efficiency defense, and No. 93 in turnovers gained.
"I think our entire offensive staff and Coach Parker have done a good job of continuously trying to find ways to improve, right,” Freeman said. "Sometimes it takes setbacks to figure out what we need to do to improve moving forward.
"We’ll continuously work tirelessly to figure out a way to continue to have a better performance when we face really good defenses,” Freeman continued. "But again, I don’t want to put a one-word or one-phrase sentence on how I feel about the job they’ve done. Again, I have a lot of confidence in that offensive staff. But I understand the expectations of a Notre Dame football program. That’s, no matter who you’re playing you put a performance that’s worthy of winning on the field on Saturdays. So, we will figure out what we have to do to make sure that our performances continuously improve. We will never be, I will never be okay with being status quo with being average. I want to be the best and I believe we have a staff that has the same mentality and we now have to continue to find ways to make sure when we play in these games that we do have an output that is the best.”
The biggest and brightest mark in Parker’s favor is the 39.1 points per game scoring average. It’s the best scoring mark of the modern era for Notre Dame and the second-best in school history to Notre Dame’s 1912 team that played the likes of St. Viator, Adrian College, Morris Harvey, Wabash, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Marquette.
To Freeman’s point, the bulk of the scoring this season came against the weaker teams on the schedule. They averaged 25.5 points a game against the four defenses mentioned above while averaging 45.8 points against the other eight teams. Interestingly, Notre Dame’s 45 points against NC State in September is the most points the Wolfpack defense surrendered all season.
While retaining Parker is not the popular move for Freeman, Al Golden was far from the golden child after last season. But Golden and his entire defensive staff remained intact from top to bottom and quickly went from a maligned unit to one of the best defenses in the country. Freeman believes staff continuity is a big part of that.
"When I look at last year where we were defensively at the end of the season to where we are now, yes, the personnel continues to improve, but the consistency in what we’re doing, the consistency in our coaching staff, I think truly impacts the performance,” Freeman explained. "That’s why we’ve been able to improve so much on the defensive side of the ball.”
When evaluating Parker this year, Freeman can also point to his own first season as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator in 2017 when he worked under Luke Fickell.
"I think back to our first year as a coordinator and our staff,” Freeman recalled. "We had a great staff and I think we finished when I was at Cincinnati 90-something in the country and thank God Coach Fickell didn’t make a change and he gave me and the staff the ability to work through some of the deficiencies that we had, and we were able to improve. That’s the same thing I’ve just reiterated to our coaching staff is that I believe the number one thing is the consistency in terms of what we’re doing so our players can continue to play at a higher level, play fast and be able to enhance as we move forward.”
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