Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Fiesta Bowl, Defensive Coordinator, Coaching Hires, Chris Tyree
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman talked to the media Wednesday about his team and the preparations for the Fiesta Bowl. Below are a number of interesting and intriguing comments from the press conference.
On Tyler Buchner
"I can't wait to grow in this head coaching position and spend more time with Tommy (Rees) and learn more about the things that he's teaching the quarterbacks and hearing those things. What I see is a dude that can throw the ball. He has a great release and he can put the ball in places that I haven't seen many people do. Then obviously we know he can escape. He has the ability to extend plays with his legs, but you just watch a freshman just grow. The decision-making, that's the most important part. When I hear Tommy talking to Tyler, or Tommy talking to any of the quarterbacks, I just listened for, hey, is it a physical thing or is it a decision-making thing? You just want to continue to see that growth in the decision-making. But he's a talent, he's a real talent.”
On the importance of a win for the program
"The whole focus is to send this group out as champions. That's what I said to them the first day I addressed them in the locker room and that's what I said to them today in our team meeting. Our only focus is to finish this year as champions and the result of that and what that does for our program will be great. But our drive and our focus and our motivation are to send this group of seniors that are playing their last game out as champions."
On Oklahoma State’s defense
"They do different things, and what you can see is that you can't do all those different things in the first year as the defensive coordinator. When you talk about a team that is senior-led and a team that has as many returning starters as they do, you can do all those different things because they've been doing the same thing for four years. It's going to be complicated. It's a very sophisticated system, but it's a system that's been built over years and the players know the ins and outs of it. It's not just them out there just running around and creating havoc. It's something that you can tell these kids know what they're doing."
The strength of OSU’s offense
"Explosive plays. Their quarterback can be explosive with his feet and his arm. No. 1 (wide receiver Tay Martin) .... No. 1 is really good. They have a freshman wideout that's really showing up. They have multiple running backs, but No. 7 (running back Jaylen Warren) can take it the distance at any moment. They want to run the ball. That's the big challenge for our defense, they want to run the ball. We want to stop the run, so we have to do whatever it takes to make sure they can't run the ball up and down and field on us and limit the explosive plays. It's going to be a battle.
"You see there are explosive plays on offense, there are takeaways on defense. There are moments where the defense is for four-and-out and they stop 4th down conversions. They don't give up big plays. There's a lot of three and outs for their defense."
On stopping OSU quarterback Spencer Sanders
"We've got to tackle and it's hard when you have this break. You have this break from the last game of the season vs. Stanford until Jan. 1. You have to be smart in how you practice because what we can't do is we can't lose a guy because we're scrimmaging. These guys are too good. Our players, our current players physically are too good to be out there tackling each other every day. You can't do that, you'll hurt them. You have to be very strategic in terms of how you prepare, but if we don't tackle well, we're going to be in trouble."
On the defensive play-caller for the bowl game
"It's a work in progress. So basically, I've been in the preparation phase, right? That's the hardest part. I can give you the call sheet and say, here's the calls we can make. I think sometimes it's me being in this chair or whatever, but calling the play sometimes is overrated. Now, somebody might tell you otherwise. Somebody might say you do a great job of calling plays. I look at it and say, ‘Hey, I think we do a great job in our preparation.' That's what I've been really really focused on. Hey, what is the preparation?
".... in practice right now, when we do live call it periods, (Mike) Elston calls it. I'm the referee. I'm running around up and down the field now. I'll be involved with some other things that we do defensively, but we're still gonna figure it out. But Elston has kind of taken that role in practice. We'll work hand in hand, but the whole staff has done an unbelievable job. Everybody has stepped it up because I'm pulled away. You see Nick Lezynski step up, you have seen Mike Elston and Mike Mickens and Chris O’Leary have stepped up their game in preparation. I think Elston being the one that calls it in practice has done an unbelievable job. To answer your question, it's to be determined.”
On if the new DC running the same system
"There's some importance to it. The number one thing I'm looking at is the ability to fit with this staff, that's my number one focus. When I really sit down and say okay, we're going to figure out who we're hiring as the defensive coordinator, how is that person going to fit with this defensive staff because this defensive staff isn't changing. These guys helped me get to a point where I can be in this position, so we're going to do it together. That person has to fit.
"Now, if you're asking a person to fit, I think that person also can adjust in terms of the ability to say, ‘Okay, there's only so many different ways to play defense. Only so many different coverages you play, so many different fronts you can play. People are trying to make it more complicated than what it is, but there's only so much you can do. It's kind of like what I did when I came here. I'm gonna encourage whoever becomes that defensive coordinator, as much as we can keep to keep it the same. Put it on the defensive coordinator to be able to relearn names and terminology, but don't put all that stress on the players. Let's put that on a coordinator. So that's probably one of the things that I'm going to just demand a little bit of, hey, if we can keep as much same as that they know, it's going to help them learn whatever new scheme adjustments that we have."
On Chris Tyree getting healthy
"I haven't seen much of the offense (during the season). During the games as the defensive coordinator, when the defense is on the sideline, I'm with the defense. I just listen and hear, ‘Get the punt ready or touchdown. For me, it's been really this bowl prep is where I've seen the most out of Chris. I've seen stuff from last year. I've seen plays from last year and the plays that I saw in fall camp, but he's done a great job. He's an explosive player. He can take the ball 90 yards like that and it's gonna be exciting to see him when the bullets are live.”
On when he wants to have the 2022 coaching staff in place
"Every decision I make is a collective group. I'm going to lean on the staff. I'm gonna lean on the people around me and that's how I've always been and I don't have every answer, but I think at some point you have to make a decision. But the ability to take some people's advice and opinions from intelligent people, that's something I've always done and I'll continue to do. I want it to happen fast but I'm not going to take away from the right fit for time. That's the one thing I know. However long it takes to make the right guy, whoever the right guy is, however long that takes, I'm going to take it, but the sooner the better."
On looking at transfers
"We've talked about it. I told the players, so we're always on the same page. We're always looking to enhance our team. We're always looking to find a better way. That's it. Challenge everything. If there's a better way, if there's a person or someone out there that's going to enhance our roster, then we're going to investigate it. But as I told the coaching staff and I told the players in the team meeting, I said, we will never bring somebody in this program that we don't feel is the right fit. Talent-wise, hey, whoever, bring him to our table, we'll talk and we'll investigate it, but if it's not the right fit, then we're going to hang up the phone. We're good. The right fit is getting into school. It's not only the personalities and the character traits, but it's can this guy get into school. So, I lean on Dave Peloquin and our admissions for that."
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