Marcus Freeman Talks Sam Hartman, Year Two Experience, Ireland Trip

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman shared plenty of thoughts on NFL Network on Friday

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is making the media rounds in New York City. The second-year head coach and a handful of Fighting Irish players arrived in The Big Apple Thursday morning and spent time at ESPN that afternoon. Freeman joined NFL Network’s “Good Morning, Football” show Friday morning for more TV time.

"Us not being in a conference, we don't have conference Media Day,” Freeman explained. "So what we do is kind of come to New York and spend two days here. We were at ESPN yesterday doing some things and here today. Then we're going to take into the Mets game tonight.”

Freeman threw out the first pitch at that Mets game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field. Freeman fielded plenty of questions during his visit with the show. He was asked if there was a player on the Notre Dame roster who could surprise people this season. While he didn’t directly answer that question, he offered some comments on Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman, who joined the Irish in January.

"He is a talented individual,” Freeman proclaimed. "What you learn about, you know the quarterback position when you become a head coach, defensive coordinator is just like, hey, the quarterback's the quarterback. When you become the head coach, that person most simulates the head coach. They get praised for things sometimes they deserve and don't deserve to get criticized for things they don't deserve and maybe they deserve. But I've really developed a relationship for that position, right. I'm excited to have him here, and I'm really looking forward to this season with him as our quarterback.”

Freeman went 9-4 in his first season as a head coach in 2022. He was asked about the biggest thing he took from that first-time in head coach’s seat.

"I think it's the experience, right,” Freeman offered. "Is that everything last year was the first time as you have an itinerary, you have a blueprint, but you've never actually done it. Going into year two, you've done it, you know what to expect. You learn so much about leadership, about your program about your players through some of those difficult times. There's still more to come, right, and you hate to really think about that, but there's going to be some challenges still coming up that maybe are unforeseen, but I'm excited about the future of this program and this season.”

Notre Dame great Jaylon Smith was a guest host on the show on Friday and got to ask Freeman a couple of questions, including Freeman’s experience of opening his first regular season at his alma mater, Ohio State.

"I think you look back to last year and that first game, really your true first game as a head coach, you go back to your alma mater, and you face a really good football team,” Freeman recalled. "I think we played them, we were up with maybe one minute left in third quarter, and we end up losing 21-10, but I think you play them close enough that you kind of mask some of the issues that you have as a program as a team.

"Then the next week we lose a Marshall, and that to me is really where you said okay, we have to rip off all the layers and figure out what's the issues and really try to correct them with a sense of urgency and that's what we were able to do," continued Freeman. "But you know as you fast forward this year, we'll play him in week five for us. It's week four the season but since we played with zero it'll be week five for us, so we'll know what our football team is all about. We'll know what our strengths are.”

Smith just finished his seventh NFL season (including his rookie 2016 campaign in which he did not play due to injury). Freeman spoke directly to the Butkus Award winner and 2nd round NFL draft pick with words of praise.

"It's guys like you and many other players that have come before I was ever a head coach or part of Notre Dame that has made this program what it is,” said Freeman. “You are a guy we sell, and we sell in recruiting of a guy that I don't care how big a recruit, if we had the biggest recruit in the country decide to come to Notre Dame really live his athletic goals, become a Butkus Award winner go on to be, I think it was 34th overall pick, right? But then, most importantly came back to get his degree, and that's what makes this place special is that you can obtain a degree that will truly take care of you as you know right now, way longer than the game of football will.”

Freeman and the Fighting Irish are counting down the days until the Aug, 26 season opener against Navy in Dublin, Ireland. He said he recently did some pre-planning of his own to help prepare his team for that trip.

"I've never been out of this country,” Freeman said. “We had to make sure everybody gets passports and things like that. We’ve got a great operations team that has done that but two, I tried to talk to as many people that have done this as I can. With the NFL, it happens all the time, right? Teams go over there midseason. When are you going out, what are you doing when you get there? 

"So we've kind of put together our plan. Then last week, I took a red eye, me and my family back from Hawaii to South Bend," continued Freeman. "It kind of let me know how our players would feel when we leave on a Wednesday night and arrive there and it's Thursday morning. I kind of made a little bit more adjustments, but I was like, 'Hey, let's kind of do a walkthrough when we get there instead of an actual practice and kind of change some things.' So, it's a lot of logistical things we have to make sure that we are all on point on. But we're excited to be over in Dublin, Ireland.”

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