Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Message vs. Ohio State, James Laurinaitis, Offensive Line

Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman shares his final pre Ohio State thoughts on Thursday

The homestretch is here for Saturday’s matchup between No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 4 Ohio State. The week five game is the third head-to-head showdown between two top 10 teams this season. The lower ranked team has won both of the previous matchups (No. 8 Florida State over No. 5 LSU in week one and No. 10 Texas over No. 3 Alabama in week two).

Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman looks to keep that trend going this Saturday night when his team hosts the Buckeyes for the first time since 1996. His message to his team this week has been simple.

"It’s been consistent with the last couple weeks,” Freeman said on Thursday. "This week it’s probably a little bit noisier because of the opponent, because of College Game Day, Pat McAfee Show. All these different things that are going on here. The biggest thing is control the noise. Turn it down (and) focus on the moment. Focus on the day’s practice and what we’re doing now. Because this is what will give us the best opportunity to perform at a high level on Saturday. So, it’s really been do what we do but do it better and that’s what I told those guys on Monday when I met with them. Do what we do. What we’ve done is good enough but do it better and a reminder (to) stay in the moment, turn down the noise and focus on us.”

Steady Energy

This weekend marks the 11th time ESPN’s College Game Day has visited Notre Dame and the first time since the No. 4 Irish beat No. 1 Clemson in 2020. Saturday will also be the 37th time two top 10 teams go head-to-head inside Notre Dame Stadium. Even with all the extra stakes and hype surrounding the game, Freeman’s team has been even keel at practice this week.

"I hope that practices every week are spirited and we’ve had really good Tuesday and Wednesday practice,” Freeman remarked. "I told them the hardest thing to do is to...you know, really as we get closer to the game, the noise gets louder and you start thinking about things that are outcome driven and have nothing to do with us preparing for this game. So, I’ve been really hard on them to make sure that this week of practice ... the energy’s always there, right and we know they’re going to practice with energy and emotion. (It is a) big game but to make sure we’re very intentional in our practice habits and what we’re doing on every single play. I’ve tried to have a couple periods of practice where the music is really loud and we’re going fast, just to get them to be able to lock in on this play, get the call, get lined up and execute. So, I’ve been really pleased with the Tuesday and Wednesday practices. We’ve got to have a great Thursday practice, too.”

Turn The Page

When the Irish and Buckeyes opened the season against each other last year in Columbus, much of the talk was about Freeman coaching his first regular season game against his alma mater. Freeman starred at Ohio State from 2004-2008, but that storyline has been off the radar for this year’s game.

"I think last year more than anything was, again, your first game, right,” said Freeman. "Your first game of the season and going back to Ohio State and obviously there were a lot of headlines about that. But I think it’s just a different approach for everybody. You know and, hey we’re going into week five for us and week four for them. You’ve got two good teams and that’s the focus. It’s not about where I was or where I went to school or anybody else. It’s about preparing your team to face a really good Ohio State team and I’m sure on the other hand Ohio State has the same mentality. So, that’s where the focus should be and that’s where I think it will stay.”

On James Laurinaitis

Freeman’s former college teammate, James Laurinaitis, was a graduate assistant who worked with Irish linebackers on last year’s Notre Dame staff. He now holds that same position at Ohio State but Freeman doesn’t think the Buckeyes have an advantage to gain from his former teammate’s presence.

"We try to change weekly,” Freeman said of his team’s defensive signals. "We always look at our signals. We look at some of the communication and each week it changes. So, it will be no different this week. You have to continue to change things up or...you know, all your games are on TV. They can hear the checks on TV. You can see signals on TV. That’s a part of the game of football that we constantly try to every week small changes to keep teams off balance, that might be hearing our checks or seeing our signals. So, it has less to do with Laurinaitis being on their staff and more to do with us continuously trying to keep our opponents off balance in terms of what we’re signaling and what our checks are.”

Offensive Line

Notre Dame came into the season with two new starters on the offensive line in left guard Pat Coogan and right guard Rocco Spindler. Through four games, the line is tied with 20 other teams for No. 20 in sacks allowed and rank No. 26 with 204.5 rushing yards per game.

"I’ve been extremely pleased with the play of our offensive line,” Freeman gauged. "I know we had high expectations coming into the season but I think they’ve really done a good job of gelling as a unit and you’ve got two guys on the inside between Pat and Rocco that were first time starters four games ago and that have continuously grown. There’s always things you fix and you work on and you work to improve but Coach (Joe) Rudolph and that offensive line have just done a really good job each week of having a great plan, improving and going out on Saturdays and executing at a high level.”

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