Marcus Freeman Talks USC Win, New Mindset, Notre Dame Offensive Line
Notre Dame came into Saturday’s game against Southern Cal in need of a signature moment. Wins over teams like Tennessee State and Central Michigan were empty calories. They were necessary but were ultimately just candy corn filler on the way to tastier treats at the bottom of the Halloween basket.
The Fighting Irish missed their chance to grab that signature win in their last home game three weeks ago against Ohio State and saw their season begin to slip away after a second loss last week at Louisville. Saturday night’s win won’t change the outcome of either of their previous losses but it at least keeps hope alive for bigger prizes this season.
"Not every week you get an opportunity to get a victory like this,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after a convincing 48-20 win over USC. "Really so happy for your players, happy for your program, happy for this university. We're going to enjoy this one. Our guys competed.
"That was my message all week, is that competitors don't pick and chose when they compete for a game," continued Freeman. "Because of what happened last week, if you're an elite competitor, the inner motivation and the inner adversity sometimes that you have to face, doesn't matter as you prepare for the next opponent. "I'm so proud of the way they executed. They performed on both sides of the ball. So we're going to enjoy it.”
Anti-Fragile Mindset
Freeman has managed to pick his team up off the mat before. Losses to Marshall and Stanford in his first season were the kind that could have sent the Irish spiraling to a sub-.500 record but each of those setbacks was followed by winning streaks of at least three games and each included wins over ranked opponents. The week leading up to Saturday’s win over USC required a mindset reset for Freeman’s team.
"Weeks that you lose are really long,” Freeman remarked. "Especially around here. The expectation is that you win every game you play. I know the hours are the same, but the weeks that you win seem to go by really fast and the next opportunity is here. But it is what it is, you know what I mean? You have to pick your head up and go back to work. Adversity is a part of life.
"I told our guys - here is the word I used - I said I want to be an anti-fragile program,” Freeman continued. "We have to be an anti-fragile program. What does that mean? We just didn't get through it, through adversity. We are better because of the adversity we faced. That's easy to say. The challenge is do the things that it takes to make sure we're better, and that's what these coaches and players did.”
Better Execution
After the Louisville loss, Freeman was steadfast in in his belief that his team simply needed to “execute” better. It sounds simplistic but finding out the “why” was key.
"Listen, it's easy to say what happened,” Freeman said. "We can sit and watch film. This is what happened, this is what should have happened. I challenged the coaches to figure out why. It's not always going to happen in a team meeting; it doesn't happen in a team meeting setting. It happens in you position meeting that we have to figure out why the mistake occurred.
"That's the challenge. It takes difficult conversations to figure out why the player didn't do exactly what you want," continued Freeman. "Sometimes it's because he didn't know. I didn't know, I didn't have that look. We looked at practice reps, we looked at everything we could to say, 'Okay, are we teaching them exactly what we want.' If it's something we didn't prepare for, let's simplify so they have rules, that there is no confusion. If we do that we got a chance to be really successful, as you saw today. We have to make sure we're giving our kids a chance to be successful.”
O-Line Improvement
Notre Dame’s offensive line had its worst game in years against Louisville. The Irish ran the ball for just 44 yards and 1.6 yards per carry and allowed five sacks on Sam Hartman.
A different looking unit showed up against a USC team that was No. 1 in the nation with 57.0 tackles for loss and No. 3 with 22 sacks entering the game. The Irish allowed no sacks and just one tackle for loss all night against the Trojans.
"They take a lot of pride,” Freeman said of his offensive line. "They take a lot of pride in what they do. You know, they want the challenge. They embrace the challenge. As I told them, I said perception is we can't run the ball because of our offensive line. That's doesn't mean it's reality but take that as a challenge. I love the way they attacked in practice and performed today.”
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