Marcus Freeman Talks Brandyn Hillman, Chris Tyree, Lorenzo Styles And More
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As Marcus Freeman leads his Notre Dame football team through 14 full practices plus the Blue-Gold game this spring, he does so with something he didn’t have a year ago at this time: experience. Everything Freeman did as head coach last spring, last summer and last fall was a first time experience as a first time head coach.
He checked a majority of the “firsts” he will encounter off his list over the last year and had a new set of tools on his tool belt as his second spring season began Wednesday morning inside the Irish Athletic Center. He can now take that earned experience and apply it as he leads the Fighting Irish through his second offseason of work.
“It's more looking at ways to enhance the practice structure is really what I spent time doing,” Freeman said after Wednesday’s practice. “Last year more was hey, take the things that I've done, take the different spring practice structures I've been a part of and say okay, this is what we're going to do day one through day 15. But this year I kind of said let's look back at last year's practice one and look at the progression and look at how the first week went and how the second week went, and do we need to have more time here or less time here and can we add a period where it's a high running period here and at a period is not as intense right behind it. I'm kind of looking at the structure of how we practice and really looking for ways to enhance it and ultimately so they can perform better on Saturday. That's the only thing we're trying to do is find different ways to enhance the way we practice to get them to perform better on Saturdays.”
Brandyn Hillman And The Safety Position
Notre Dame was set to add dynamic 4-star athlete Brandyn Hillman to its safety room next fall. Hillman signed his national letter of intent on the dotted line in the December signing period, but he was recently released from that letter of intent and has subsequently committed to Michigan.
“It was his own personal reasons,” Freeman said when asked about Hillman’s decommitment. “I'll let Brandyn tell his story and I'm sure at some point he will. But it was his own personal reasons and no, I don't see that being a new norm. It's unfortunate for us that he didn't come here. But it was really a personal decision that he made.”
Hillman has begun to tell his story.
“Admissions denied me for Notre Dame,” Hillman is quoted in a story in The Athletic that was published Wednesday afternoon. “As you can see, I could have committed to any other school. Notre Dame had requirements I had to meet, and I didn’t meet it.”
Notre Dame has four active safeties this spring: Xavier Watts, Ramon Henderson, DJ Brown and freshman early enrollee Ben Minich. Another early enrollee, Adon Shuler, is out this spring after having shoulder surgery. That means there could be an addition when the next transfer portal window opens in May.
“We have to look at our safeties room and say, okay, after spring do we need to we need to get a transfer for the depth of the room,” Freeman explained. “That's what 15 practices are going to be able to tell us. That's what's the beauty of this thing is that you're not really preparing to win a game on April 22, but really, you're saying, okay, where can you look at your roster and positions and say, hey, do we need an addition here? Do we need at some spot to be able to have some depth and maybe we'll get somebody out of the portal?”
Changes For Chris Tyree
The most noticeable change for Chris Tyree at Wednesday’s practice was his jersey number. Tyree has switched from 25 to No. 2 going into his senior season. But the more notable change is Tyree’s position. He moved from running back to receiver Wednesday morning.
Tyree’s 100 carries for 444 yards last season trailed sophomores Audric Estime and Logan Diggs, but his 24 receptions tied for fourth on the team and were five more than Diggs and Estime combined to grab. Add sophomore Jadarian Price (recovering from an Achilles injury) to the mix this season and the running back room was getting plenty crowded.
Tyree has 56 career receptions for 461 yards and four touchdowns, but whether or not his position switch is permanent is still to be decided.
“Permanent move, it's to be determined,” Freeman said. “I think he's a guy that has multiple skillsets and we know Chris Tyree is a guy we have to have on a football field. The ability to put him at some wide out, we know what he can do as a running back and then really be a guy that can do multiple different things. You're seeing more of that in college football and NFL. Guys that can play multiple different skill positions on offense. So you treat them as a running back and you treat them as a wideout. That's what we've got to be able to do and gain confidence with the quarterbacks and in him as a wide receiver. But he's showed in his skillset to be a wide receiver at this level, and we think we can use in multiple different positions.”
A Defensive Move
Notre Dame has a group of veteran linebackers returning with talented young players like Prince Kollie and Jaylen Sneed, who saw limited action last season, behind the vets. Early enrollees like Nolan Ziegler and Drayk Bowen are also in practice this spring and the defensive line has both starting positions and depth to sort through. It all adds up to a different approach to practice reps that the defense will employ this spring.
“Something cool I saw today (in the) defensive unit meeting, they're going to kind of every day announce every practice, they announced starters for practice and give guys different roles,” Freeman said. “And say, hey, you're starting today. It's going to be kind of cool to see some of those guys that might be twos or two and a halfs now going with the ones. I mean, let's evaluate today when you're a starter.”
Lorenzo Styles
Rising junior Lorenzo Styles appeared to have his breakout moment a little more than a year ago in the Fiesta Bowl. Then a freshman, Styles had eight receptions for 136 yards and a touchdown against Oklahoma State. The receptions were half of his season total and the yardage 72 shy of what he accumulated during the regular season.
The bowl game didn’t translate into instant success in 2022. Styles had too many drops, finishing with 30 catches for 340 yards and just one touchdown last fall. Freeman was asked what he and his staff have done to try to build Styles’ confidence to get him to play at a higher level as a junior this season.
“Not even just Lorenzo,” Freeman began. “There's multiple players that it could be mentally they struggled, right. That's the difficult part of sometimes social media, of sometimes... I told the players all the time, I'm a parent. I probably put the most pressure on my children because I see them in a life that maybe not everybody does, right. Parents can put pressure on kids. Media can put pressure on kids. What they have to do is really just, I tell him all the time, stay in the middle. If it's criticism, it is what it is. It's praise. It's it is what it is. Stay in the middle and don't let it sway you off of the things that it's going to take the have success.
“So to answer your question about Lorenzo, same thing,” Freeman continued. “It became I think mental last year. Lorenzo Styles is a talented, talented football player. I mean, really talented. I think with him last year, it almost became a mental struggle in terms of even just the basics of catching the ball. So I spent much time with not just Lorenzo but multiple guys that hey, man, as hard as it is to do, we have to stay focused on the things that really matter. Praise doesn't matter. Everybody loves praise, but criticism doesn't matter.
You have to say okay, how can I get better? We talked about it one day at a meeting like, you can't be a praise seeker. What is a praise seeker? Guys are seeking praise from his parents or from the media from his coaches. No, you have to be a truth seeker. That's how you stay right in the middle is that you're seeking truth. how do I improve? How do I get better? What am I doing wrong? What am I doing good? So you have to continuously remind these guys of focus on the things that are going to help you improve and seek feedback on things are going help. Don't seek praise. Don't seek, yeah, I'm going to go talk to coach because I want him to tell me I did a good job. My seven-year-old does that. It's like, just focus on seeking truth and seeking feedback on how to improve. If they do that, they'll be successful, man, they will. They'll improve.”
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