Marcus Freeman Has A Plan To Get Talented Young Players On The Field

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman knows the Irish staff must have a plan to get talented younger players on the field

Notre Dame returns an experienced football team in 2023, and that is part of the reason Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has high expectations for his team. This is especially true on defense, and that's why the Irish head coach expects that side of the ball to be much better in 2023.

Freeman explained why that experience is so important in a recent interview with Irish Breakdown, and it comes down to being able to ask a lot more from his defense now that they have a year in the system under their belts.

There are risks to adding a lot more to the defense, both pre and post snap, and that risk is not being able to play the younger talent. Notre Dame has some very, very talented players in the freshman and sophomore classes, and even redshirt sophomores that haven't played as much.

Notre Dame cannot reach its full potential as a team if the young talent isn't able to grasp enough of the offense or defensive systems to play at a high level. This has been an issue in past seasons, and it was an issue in Freeman's first campaign in charge of the program.

After explaining how beneficial his team's experience is, Freeman quickly issued a warning that can arise when coaches have experienced players.

"Now here's what concerns me, is that we're so experienced in our top end of our defense, the challenge for us is going to be how do we develop that next group of players," Freeman asked rhetorically. "You don't want to get through 2023 and all of a sudden you have a whole bunch of guys that have never played. So that's going to be my challenge to the coaches, is I want to make sure we're developing these guys that might not be the first ones that go out there, but we need to get them game experience."

This is easy for coaches to say, but when you get to game day it can be much harder to carry out. I learned that from my own coaching experience, and it's been an issue for Notre Dame for years.

Freeman knows he can't just give lip service to playing more depth, especially young depth. He needs a plan, and he has one.

"I think you have to be really intentional, and that's something I learned from Coach (Jim) Tressel," explained the Irish head coach. "I remember being that starter and being upset early in the year, like, 'Man, why are we rotating young guys in here? This is my senior or junior year. But there was a reason for that because you didn't want to wait until they were needed to get them game experience."

It is actually experience that puts Freeman and Notre Dame in better position to get this done in 2023, and that's his own. The 2022 season was his first as a head coach, and Freeman was still getting used to the job in year one. His own transition meant some areas might not have gotten as much attention as they would have if he had been through it before.

Freeman is much more comfortable in year two, and some of those "little things" are getting much more attention. 

"That's something I probably didn't do much last year, because I'm just trying to figure out where to go and what to say and what to do last year," noted the Irish head coach. "This year, you can mandate it early in the season saying, 'Listen, we're going to roll guys, we're going to script it out that guys are going to be in the game. 

"I've been a position coach where it's like, 'Yeah, we'll fill it out and we'll get him in when it's right," continued Freeman. "You don't get them in. No, we have to script it out and hold ourselves as coaches to be accountable to when we're going to get them in the game."

Getting players in the game means getting them work in practice, and that's ultimately where a lot of that development will come from. It will prepare the talented younger players to handle playing time, and allow them to thrive when they do get on the field. As they gain more experience it not only makes them better, and better prepared to handle more reps, it also helps keep the starters more fresh as the season goes on.

Yet another "little thing" that goes a very long way.

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