Is Marcus Freeman heading to the NFL?
Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Marcus Freeman met with journalists Thursday to talk past, present and future. The coach looked back on last week’s stumbles during the 35-14 victory against the Virginia Cavaliers, and ahead to the team’s matchup against the Army Black Knights.
NFL IRL?
On chatter involving him as a possible NFL coach, Freeman said, “It’s just an example of what I tell our players every day: with team glory and with team success comes individual recognition and individual glory. I know, and hopefully everybody in this program understands that without everybody in this program accomplishing their roles, we’re not going to achieve the success that we want on the football field on Saturday. And so when you do your job and everybody gets their job done and you have success, there are going to be certain individuals each week, certain parts of the year that have individual recognition and individual glory, but I know and we know that… it takes us all to achieve the success that we aspire to have. And so, that to me is a reflection, your name’s floating out there, it’s a reflection of how this program is playing and performing every day and on Saturdays. As for me, I try not to waste time thinking about an uncertain future. I tell our players that all the time, like your future is uncertain. So, I try not to waste time thinking about things that aren’t in the moment. And so, I haven’t spent any time really thinking about… Do I ever want to coach in the NFL? I have no clue. I don’t even know what that entails really right now, because I’ve never done it. But I’m just focused on staying here in the present and getting ready to have a great Thursday practice and hopefully putting in the work to achieve the outcome that we want on Saturday.”
Containing the Black Knights
On the importance of getting Army’s offense behind the chains, Freeman said, “It’s so important. They are, as [former Ohio State head football] Coach [Jim] Tressel used to say, three yards in a cloud of dust. That’s what they want. They are a vertical, physical power-running team and they are good with getting three yards, four yards, three yards, four yards, and if you don’t get them behind the chains, they’re going to continue to do it for 11, 12 15-play drives. And it’s so important to get some negative yardage plays, one-yard gains. We cannot allow them to stay in rhythm as they go down the field. So, it’s so important. We know it’s important, but now we have to find ways to do that on Saturday.”
Just Cleaning Up
On the offensive line’s response to penalties against the Cavaliers, Freeman said, “It’s been a point of emphasis. We have to play cleaner. We have to play with better technique, and some of those penalties were the result of poor technique, and we have to address it in practice and they’ve been working on it. I have a lot of confidence in our offensive line and [offensive line] Coach [Joe] Rudolph and the job he does with them, but we all know that any penalty, especially those penalties on Saturday, is unacceptable. So, what do you do about it? You own it. You identify it. You would come up with a plan to attack it in practice and you work tirelessly at it and they’ve done a wonderful job. It’s been a really good week of practice for our entire program, but specifically our offensive line.”
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