Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Weather Preparation, NC State Defense

Notre Dame and North Carolina State have only met three previous times on the football field. The first meeting came in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, 2002 when the Philip Rivers led Wolfpack defeated the Irish 28-6.

The last meeting was on Oct. 28, 2017, when Notre Dame downed the Wolfpack 35-14 behind a 202-yard rushing performance from Irish running back Josh Adams. The only previous time Notre Dame played at NC State was on Oct. 8, 2016, when the Wolfpack won 10-3 in a rain-soaked game courtesy of Hurricane Matthew.

The rain may or may not be as strong as it was seven years ago, but this weekend’s forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms in the Raleigh area where Saturday’s game will be played, and Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is planning accordingly.

"We’ve had a few wet ball practices where we intentionally went out in the rain during fall camp and (we) have to make sure we go out there and understand that no matter what the elements are we have to go out there and perform,” Freeman explained on Thursday. "We have a plan. We’ve talked about it amongst ourselves as a staff that hey, if it rains during the game what’s our plan?

"We had to do the same thing for Ireland,” Freeman continued. "The forecast called for rain in Ireland and so, we have a plan. We are always in communication in terms of, hey what, playing complementary football what’s necessary? To answer your question, we’ll definitely have a plan but also have communication in terms of what’s best for both sides of the ball. Is it under center? Is it in the gun? How can we make sure that we have a chance to execute and not hurt ourself because we don’t have a plan for the elements that could be there on Saturday.”

Sizing Up The Wolfpack Defense

North Carolina State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson has held his position on head coach Dave Doeren’s staff since 2019. His Wolfpack defenses ranked 11th and 23rd against the run the last two seasons. They allowed 160 yards and two rushing touchdowns in their season-opening 24-14 win over UConn, while giving up just 113 passing yards.

“They’re an attacking, aggressive group and they play extremely hard,” Freeman said of the Wolfpack defense. “That’s something that you don’t always see every week is a group that’s so downhill, attacking and aggressive. They pressure from all different ways and sometimes they might not even be pressuring but their backs are playing so fast downhill that it might seem like a pressure and then all of the sudden they’ll drop eight.

"So, they do a good job of mixing it up. But we understand that this is going to be a very aggressive defense, that's really good. They play fast and what you realize is that they’re clear on their assignments because we always say clarity equals velocity and those guys play with a lot of velocity.”

A New Freshman Experience

Saturday’s game is the first true road game of the season for the Fighting Irish. NC State’s Carter-Finley Stadium. The facility officially seats 56,919, which is about 21,000 fewer than Notre Dame Stadium. There’s a plan for prepping the Fighting Irish freshmen for their first road game as well.

"You try to explain what it’s going to be like,” said Freeman. "You show them a video and just tell them ‘Hey, this is kind of the environment you’re going into’. Nothing’s going to be able to truly catch them up until they get the experience of going there and playing in a hostile environment.

"So, you try to just update. You try to just give them a visual of what it’s going to be like. You try to do crowd noise in practice, so they understand how to execute with non-verbal communication. But until you’re actually in that element you can’t simulate it. So, we have to be able to do a good job of being able to execute to take out, hopefully, some of the distractions, the crowd noise and things like that aren’t within the white lines.”

The Irish Running Back Room

Notre Dame’s running back room will be light one player with grad transfer Devyn Ford out for this week’s game while still in concussion protocol. Led by Audric Estime, the Irish still have four fully capable backs who have combined to score five touchdowns through Notre Dame’s first two games this season.

“It’s a talented room that has a lot of guys that can help us,” Freeman said. "I love what (running back) Coach Deland (McCullough) is doing in terms of having certain packages for certain guys and being able to really use all the positive attributes that they have. So, again it takes a great coach but a great room to continue to be unselfish because there’s one ball. But everybody’s embracing their role and really helping our offense perform at a high level.”

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