Cal Football: 5 Questions with Notre Dame's Beat Writer

Mike Berardino of the South Bend Tribune talks about coach Marcus Freeman and more.

Mike Berardino, who covers Notre Dame for the South Bend Tribune, says all was right with Fighting Irish fans throughout the offseason.

“Marcus Freeman had quite the honeymoon,” Berardino says. “It was all great until they started keeping score.”

The scoreboard hasn’t been kind of the Irish and Freeman, their new coach, who took over last December when Brian Kelly dashed for the cash at LSU.

Notre Dame built a 21-point lead over Oklahoma State at the Fiesta Bowl, then lost 37-35. The Irish opened this season with a 10-7 halftime lead at No. 2 Ohio State, then lost 21-10.

And last weekend, they were pushed around by Marshall before losing to the visitors from the Sun Belt Conference 26-21. The Irish were 20.5-point favorites and had beaten 42 consecutive non-conference opponents.

As is our weekly custom during the football season, we tracked down a beat writer who cover Cal's next opponent. Today we talk with Mike Berardino to ask him 5 Questions about the Fighting Irish.

In the video above he responds to our query about the mood of Notre Dame fans in the wake of last Saturday’s shocking home opener.

We ask Berardino in the video above to project how Freeman will emerge from the first 0-3 start by a head coach in Notre Dame history.

“He’s going to be fine,” he says. “The challenge has just become exponentially more difficult because the quarterback they thought they had, sophomore Tyler Buchner, who could beat you with his legs and his arm in theory, is out for the year. It’s huge setback.

“As far as Marcus Freeman, what he has to do is keep a team together that has a strange blend of experience and guys with one eye on the NFL. (Tight end Michael) Mayer and (edge rusher Isaiah) Foskey, but also (offensive lineman) Jarrett Patterson . . . a very important part of what they’re trying to do on an offensive line that has struggled mightily.

“They’ve got too many holes right now to plug. They’re just going to have to get a little bit better every day at something in order to turn this around.”

Here’s a scouting report from Mike on sophomore Drew Pyne, who takes over at quarterback for Tyler Buchner, out for the season with a shoulder injury he suffered against Marshall.

In the previous video Berardino touches on Pyne’s physical skill set, but Notre Dame’s coaching staff is most impressed with the intangibles.

“He certainly has leadership capabilities, natural leadership he’s shown in their offseason workouts,” Berardino says. ‘Even in front of the camera, he says the right things. He’s very earnest in his approach and I could see him certainly rallying an 0-2 team to do some good things.

“He’s not going to stretch the field on you. He’s going to have to be an underneath guy. But he is very accurate — he’s more accurate than Buchner was.”

What exactly went wrong against Marshall, we ask Berardino. And were there any bright spots?

“You want me to start with the negative and you’re assuming Ill ever complete that answer,” he says. “They failed to set the edge (defensively), they failed to stop the run even right up the gut against a Sun Belt team.

“They had a notable size advantage on both lines and they could not control the line of scrimmage. Tackling was shoddy.”

As far as the bright spots, Berardino points out that wide receivers Lorenzo Styles and Braden Lenzy got behind the defense on pass routes. “The problem was they didn’t complete the passes,” he says.

“Michael Mayer’s going to be a constant positive, right up to the point where maybe he determines he should shut ‘er down if this season goes sideways because he’s a top-10 overall pick, if everything goes as planned.”

We wonder where Berardino thinks this season will go from here. Will the team come apart? Or is there enough talent and grit to salvage things?

“That’s a tough one,” Berardino says. “Certainly it would be a bad move on everyone’s part to come out and lose again, to Cal. That would be a mistake if you want to turn this around. It’s got to start right now.”

The schedule could benefit the Irish, assuming they beat Cal. He believes the Irish will have their way against a North Carolina team that has allowed an average of nearly 38 points in three games.

Notre Dame gets a bye before facing BYU at Las Vegas on Oct. 8.

“We’ll know a lot more about this season,” he says, “and whether it can be saved by the time they get to Vegas.”

Cover photo of Notre Dame junior tight end Michael Mayer by Joe Camporeale, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo