Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Injuries, Adjustments, Competition, Safeties

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman addressed a number of topics during his first post-practice press conference

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media on Sunday after practice. 

Here are transcripts of the key comments he made.

Intro Comments

"The first two practices have been, it's been an adjustment for me. I know it’s an adjustment for our guys, but I've been extremely pleased with the work on this gotten done. These guys are ... competing. We're doing a lot of good on good right now. Not scheme versus Oklahoma State as much as hey, let's work on ourselves. So it's been really good to see them flying around out there. I’m adjusting every day, trying to get used to where to go where to run too. I’m a man without a home right now, but it's been really fun. To be around this group of guys."

On Blake Fisher coming back from injury

"So I asked Rob [Hunt], our trainer, this morning, 'Okay, where's Blake Fisher at right now?' He said 'We're gonna right now do individual, and do you as much as he can tolerate. We're in team and he's out there, he was out there getting some team reps, so I don't know if he'll be full-go released for the game yet but to see him out there during team reps is extremely encouraging. It's always good to have him on deck."

On Ramon Henderson coming back from an injury

"Yeah, he's not full-go yet, but we expect him to be full-go on January 1st, and he's getting there. He ran full speed, but in a training session. He did not go full-go today. That’s very precautionary on our part, but we expect to be full go for the Fiesta Bowl."

On Marist Liufau coming back from an injury

"He's a great man. He just brings the energy to our entire team, but he's not ready. It's good to have him out there, and he's not doing any team reps. He's doing some individual stuff, and he's not to the point where we would even think he could play but it's good to have him out there and seeing the progression that he has made."

On his recruiting efforts the last week

"It was a wild couple of days. You know, from the minute you leave the press conference, you have a team meeting. We hopped on a plane and it was nonstop and poor and Chad Bowden was with me the whole time ..... and I feel bad for those two, you know because there were a lot of different places and not a lot of sleep. 

"I wanted to make it a point of emphasis to see as many of our offensive commitments that we have. I have not had the opportunity to really develop a relationship with those guys and their families. So that was a huge point of emphasis, and if there was a defense recruit that was nearby, I wanted to try to see them too. 

"You know, people love Notre Dame, and these kids are committed to Notre Dame because of what Notre Dame is going to do for the future. That was really, really refreshing to hear. From my point of view, this isn't about a coach, it's not about any other reason other than they know what Notre Dame is going to do for their athletic career in the future."

On his plans for special teams during bowl prep

"Yeah, I've gotten with Nick Lezynski to really kind of dive in deep into that role, and he's done a great job. I know he met with Coach [Brian] Polian before Coach Polian left. Like I told Nick, it's about simplicity, it's about let's get lined up and make sure everybody knows what we're doing and let's play fast and he's done a great job in terms of just diving in and making sure he can teach it the way they've been taught. And I'll be involved in. I'm going to be involved with special teams. I've always been involved in special teams even during the season. I've always been in every special team meeting so I will be involved in special teams but Nick Lezynski is kind of taking that leadership role.

On competition during practice

"We call it our opener. It's a competitive situation, offense versus defense. They don't know what it's going to be in. I want to put the ball down and see our guys compete. And if you lose, you're gonna have to run a gasser, and it's nothing more than to continue to develop that competitive spirit. That mindset that everything in our power is to win. If I have a chance to make a play, I have to make the play, and that's what I try to reiterate to the team today. It's about when your opportunity presents itself, you got to make the play and that's all I'm trying to create during those periods."

On making contact and speaking to every player during warmups

"I've done that since the first day I was here and it was very intentional back then to get to know these guys. Not just the defensive guys but the offensive guys and the special teams guys. So I did that every day to try to learn these guys, learn their names, their faces and just let them know, ‘Hey, I'm with you.' When I become the head coach it is nothing is going to change, right? .... They're all looking at me the first day like, “Hey, is he going to go through the lines and shake our hands and give us a hug and I stood right there and I did it and it's nothing changed in who I am because of this position. This has always been about those guys and continues to be about these guys."

On his faith in OC Tommy Rees

"I told him ..... what a great opportunity for him to work for a head coach that's not an offensive guy. I kind of went through that in my transition from Cincinnati here and Luke [Fickell] was obviously a defensive guy and he was always a sounding board .... somebody that could go into his office and say, 'Hey, what do you think? What are your thoughts on this?' Tommy had that with Coach Kelly, and now coming here for myself and maybe growing so I don't have that head coach to go and bounce things off of I got to depend on myself and the staff. That’s what's gonna be great for Tommy. He's gonna depend on himself, and those guys around me. 

"So I did my most growing I think this year as a coordinator, as a leader, and I think this is going to be a great opportunity for him. But as I told Tom, he's got to know that he's got a head coach that he can trust. We haven't been together all year long, but he's got to continue to know that I always will have his back. So you know what, if you're dying to do something offensively and you come to me with conviction let's do it, if you're dying to do some personnel-wise, you come to me, let's do it because I always have you back and that's something that we continue to work on."

On Kyren Williams and Kyle Hamilton's decision to leave for the NFL

"Yeah, both of them after I became the head coach came to me and said, ‘Hey, we made our decision.' Well, they obviously did it separately. But, you know, we have already made our decision that hey, we're gonna move forward and start training for the NFL draft. So it wasn't a discussion on, ‘Hey, what do you think? What do I think? Come back, come play for us. It was like, 'This is what I'm gonna do. So as I told them, I support them 100% and no matter what they decide, they’re always gonna have our support. Those are special guys that have done a lot of stuff for this program, and I wish them all the best."

On more NFL conversations before the bowl game

"I hope not. You know, I think everybody that's out there on the practice field is fully committed to do whatever it takes to finish the season off as champions. And I said any first team meeting, hey, if you're in this room, you gotta understand we have one mission to finish the season this as champions and these guys have been all committed. They've done everything we asked of them."

On the role of the captains

"I've leaned on them heavier in terms of a lot of what we're going to do in this whole preparation. Hey, what's your thoughts on practice time? What about the curfew times? I'm leaning on those guys to have ownership in terms of how this whole preparation is going to be and that's a great group of guys. They all have different ideas, but they're all team guys, and since I've been here, they've been my core. They're people I lean on the most in terms of how we move forward."

On Ramon Henderson and Xavier Watts' development at safety

"We're looking for speed and length. When you lose a Kyle Hamilton, you lose that length and speed, and obviously the playmaking ability that he has, but that's why he'll be in top whatever pick because he makes plays. 

"We needed some length of speed, and Ramon .... he was at corner and we kind of double cross-trained him a little bit during fall camp and cross-trained him a little bit during the bye week and he showed what he could do. A lot of times in that field safety position, we have you playing man, it's just off man. .... Ramon Henderson is a guy that can make plays. He knows exactly what he needs to do. 

"Xavier was a guy that we moved from wideout to safety, probably week three or four somewhere early in the season. And you know, it's really hard to change positions. You have to do your homework first, and then we moved him back to safety. It’s hard to evaluate somebody during the middle of the season. He just kept on making plays. It wasn’t always the greatest technique always. He wasn't always in the perfect position, but he made plays. 

"I said, there's something about this guy, and we throw him in the game and the first time he really kind of showed up was the Navy game, and he made some big plays. I said, ‘Man, he's doing some things naturally, that not everybody has shown the ability to do.' He's still learning; he's still learning exactly where to line up, exactly what his body position should be, but the ability to make plays sometimes is just God-given and I think he has that."

On the focus of who plays in the bowl game

"I'm going to rotate the guys in there that can help us win. I owe it to the seniors. I owe it to the guys this is their last game to put the guys on the field that give us the best chance to win. Like this isn't a charity game in this? Hey, let's get the young guys ready for next year. This is a what do we got to do to make sure we're prepared to win? And that's what I've told them and that's what I'll make sure I do as their head coaches. I'll do everything in my power to put us in a position to be successful."

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