Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame Look To Turn The Page After Monumental Clemson Win

NOTRE DAME, IND. - Fresh on the heels of his biggest win in his short tenure as the Notre Dame football coach, Marcus Freeman has a new challenge, and that's to get his team prepared for Navy. That mission began shortly after the first-year coach bounced from fan to fan in the mosh pit-like atmosphere Saturday night after his team knocked off No. 4 Clemson.

Freeman soaked in the moment with his team, his family, Irish fans and administrators after the lopsided victory, but before he left campus he was back where he always is – grinding out game film.

"I told my wife to get out and take the kids home and put them to bed,” Freeman said with a slight chuckle. "I’ve got a film to watch.”

It’s his routine, win or lose. Freeman is not able to go home and relax without watching that game film. The fan-fueled adrenaline rush he experienced Saturday night wouldn’t change that routine.

"It was a little bit more enjoyable this Saturday night than it was after the Stanford game,” Freeman said with a smile. "But, yeah, for sure that’s the first thing we do.”

The only flow to this season that currently has Freeman’s Fighting Irish sitting at 6-3 is there is no real flow. Two losses to open the campaign were followed by wins over one so-so team and two ranked foes, followed by a possibly crippling loss to a Stanford team that hadn’t beaten a Power 5 opponent in more than a calendar year.

The Irish sat at 3-3, with an upcoming schedule that included three teams in the Top 25, and two of them in the Top 10 in the national polls. The season could have spiraled out of control right then and there. But instead, the Irish have rattled off three straight wins, with the last two over teams No. 16 and No. 4 in the nation.

"It’s the mindset of it’s never going to be as smooth as you expect it to be,” Freeman said of how he kept things together after the loss to Stanford. "That, probably, is said for a national championship team. A team that wins the national championship, was that road to the national championship as you saw it to start the season, no. Same with us. This road to where we are right now was never how you foresaw it to start the year. That’s the beauty of growth.

"If you continue to work intentionally, not just work hard, everybody’s going to say they work hard, but what intentionality do you have in your work,” Freeman continued. "Are you really addressing issues? Are you really changing (and) trying to enhance? Do you have belief in the foundation and culture of what you’re doing. You work tirelessly, man. You work to find a better way to do it.”

One of Freeman’s team mantras from day one has been “challenge everything”, and that’s what he says he and his staff have continued to do, good times or bad. Freeman says he never lost belief in that. And even after a landmark win like he had Saturday, he will continue to look for better ways to move forward.

"If you continue to just say, ok we’re good or just continue to do the same thing you’re going to get passed by, because everybody else has that mindset,” he said.

Freeman named preventing big plays defensively, protecting the football better offensively, and executing in key situations as specific things the Irish are doing at a greater level in recent games.

The question he and his team have to answer now is how they will play against a team they are supposed to beat. They currently have a distressing 2-2 record against unranked opponents, but a stellar 4-1 mark against ranked teams.

"There’s still going to be that perception of, hey you play to your opponent,” Freeman noted. "There’s a belief that we play to a standard. We have to do it. I can say that all the time. Until we do that there’s not going to be conviction in it. We have to play to our standard. It's going to be a challenge to our team to.

His message to his team after the Clemson game was to remember the lessons they learned from those losses to Marshall and Stanford. He carried that message into Sunday’s practice by continuing to coach his players hard rather than bask in the glow of a prime time victory.

"That’s why we’re so hard on them,” said Freeman. "That’s why every little thing matters. And that’s why we can’t let what happened previously, a win or a loss, affect the way we coach. We have to make sure we remember those lessons. The way you feel after those losses, because those lessons that you learned (and) the intentionality of your work has to be what happens after a win or a loss.

"It’s one thing to say turn the page, let’s move on to Navy,” Freeman continued. "But it’s another thing is your actions, right? Are you coaching with the same intensity that you have after a loss? They’re going to look. They’re going to compare. Hey, is he the same coach after a win that he is after a loss? You hope you’re consistent in terms of your actions.”

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