Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Clemson Sign Stealing, Red Zone Woes, Mental Performance
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When the season began, this weekend’s Notre Dame vs. Clemson game was primed to be a matchup between two highly ranked teams. Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish were ranked fifth nationally, just one spot behind Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers in the preseason polls.
Clemson kept its end of the bargain by running the table with eight straight wins to open the season, but Notre Dame was not only out of the top-5, but out of the top-25 altogether after losses to Ohio State and Marshall in its first two games.
Freeman appeared to have the ship righted after back-to-back wins over ranked North Carolina and BYU, but a staggering home loss to Stanford took the wind out of any momentum that had been built. Then the Irish earned a road win over No. 16 Syracuse last week, to give them their third win over a ranked opponent to go with losses to Marshall and Stanford, who currently sport a combined 7-9 record.
Most of the talk this season has been about the Irish playing worse at home, but they have also played up and down to the level of their competition.
"You can look at it a couple of different ways,” Freeman said when asked about his team’s inconsistencies. "Is it a home game is an away game thing, is it an opponent thing? What we've got to do is focus on the things that it takes to play well and no matter who the opponent is, we have to truly focus on what it takes to deserve victory, what it takes to really be able to execute throughout the entirety of a game.
"We can't let the opponent dictate our ability to focus on that and our ability to execute,” Freeman continued. “Unfortunately, if you look at some of the previous losses and some of the poor performances, have they been higher ranked teams? No, but as I tell our players, it's about continuing to improve and it's about making sure this Saturday that we're performing at a high level and that's all we really want to focus on.”
Red Zone Woes
It’s no secret that Notre Dame’s defense has struggled in the red zone this season. The Irish remain tied with Rutgers for last in the nation (131 FBS teams) in red zone scoring. Opposing offenses have been in the red zone 20 times against the Irish defense and they have scored 20 times (17 touchdowns and three field goals).
"The number one thing you do is you shrink your call sheet, right,” Freeman said when asked about how to address the troublesome stat. "When you get into the red zone, instead of having this long list of different calls that you can make defensively you're going to shrink it down to a couple calls and you're probably going to try to get more on body coverage, right. There's less space for the offense and so you want to try to get on body with those guys and challenge every route you can. But you also probably have to have a zone, you have to have some type of changeup of a zone. Then understand what they like to do in the red zone.
“For this game, there's going to be any opportunity if (Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei) can keep the ball in his hands he will,” Freeman continued. “So, you have to have a plan to make sure that you have somebody extra for the quarterback so that he can't beat you by running the ball into the end zone but at the same time, when you do that you're also opening up some more areas for them to throw the ball. So, you know you've got to shrink what you're doing. You've got to make sure that your guys on defense have a plan and a thought process of what you think the offense is going to do. Then you got to make a play. A lot of times in the red zone there are going to be some one on one situations where somebody's going to have to make a play and you better know that and believe that your guy will.”
Is Sign Stealing A (Clemson) Thing?
Former Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables had a reputation as a superior sign stealer in his time with the Tigers. There were rumblings that he was stealing Notre Dame’s signs during Clemson’s last visit to Notre Dame Stadium in 2020, but Venables is now the head coach at Oklahoma. So, was the sign stealing just a “Venables thing”?
"That's a college football thing,” Freeman explained. "I think competitive advantage is something that all teams will try to do. If you're going to let teams steal your signals, they'll do it. So, we have to every week have a plan for that ... continue to switch signals, continue to switch who's live and have a great plan in terms of how we're going to be able to communicate with the guys on the field what we want them to do. So, that's every week. It's not a Clemson thing, that is an every week thing in terms of if you don't think it's real, then you're probably getting your signal stolen. So, you have to have a great plan for that.”
Welcome To The Block Party
Notre Dame won’t be the only team on the field Saturday that’s proficient in blocking kicks. The Fighting Irish are tied with Central Michigan and South Carolina at No. 1 in the nation with five blocks, but Clemson is right behind them with four blocks this season. That means kick protection cannot be taken for granted.
“You just want to make sure your protection's solid,” said Freeman. "Each week we're always a protect first team. No matter if it's punt or kicking a field goal, you have to protect first and then obviously cover if it's a punt kick. If it's a long field goal you've got to be ready to cover, too. So, it's about being sound (while) playing sound football and protecting your kicker and making sure your protection is right. It comes down to scheme and fundamentals and execution and so that's really it.”
Mental Performance
Dr. Amber Selking worked as the football team’s mental performance consultant during Brian Kelly’s last five seasons at Notre Dame, but she was not retained when Freeman took over the program.
"We have resources for them to utilize here on campus on an individual basis,” when asked about the team’s current mental coaching plan. "As far as what we want our players thinking during the week and as they get ready for a game, it can be from the head coach or their position coach and we're speaking similar messages. It's the things that I feel as the head coach that they should be thinking about and what's important. But again, we have to make sure we have resources to serve these guys and if necessary they feel like they need it, we have resources for them in terms of mental performance.”
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