Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks DJ Brown, Braylon James, Duke Defense

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman shared his final thoughts before Saturday's game at Duke

Nearly a week removed from last Saturday’s prime time, highly rated game Notre Dame has Ohio State firmly in its rearview mirror. That’s how Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman sees it anyway. Win or lose, the rhythm of the season leaves no room for licking lingering wounds.

There’s a new opponent this week when the Irish travel to North Carolina for the second time in three weeks this weekend and Freeman has watched and worked his team this week and has looked for the “intentionality” he needs to see to show him they are past last week’s disappointing ending.

"We’ve had two really, really good practices,” Freeman said Thursday afternoon before his team’s third and final full practice of the week. "Spirited practices, really attention to detail and those things that we look for that tell you, hey if we are lacking focus it’ll show up at practice. So, I’m really pleased with the way these guys really focused on really improving the way we practice, improving again, our overall team and that’s. The message has been every week we have to get better. Well, how do we get better? We have to understand where we’re at and what we have to do to get better and then go do it on the practice field.

"The other part, that’s continue to preach the right message to them,” Freeman continued. "Continue to say the right things to them because there is noise everywhere, right and we’ve got to make sure the noise we’re saying and the message we’re driving as a coaching staff is so loud that our players really focus on that and understand that in the midst of hearing other things and paying attention to other things. So, I feel really confident going into a Thursday of where the mindset of this football team is.”

DJ Brown Not Staying Down

Fighting Irish safety DJ Brown felt the wrath of many fans on social media and elsewhere after missing a pair of potential game-saving interceptions in the loss to the Buckeyes. Brown still had two of the team’s six pass breakups in the game. He had the choice of whether or not to speak to the media earlier this week and opted to do so.

Brown acknowledged he could have done better against OSU and said he wanted to "wipe the dirt off” after a disappointing performance.

"DJ’s a great player for us,” Freeman said of the safety. "A great leader and is a guy that takes accountability for his mistakes. I want all of our players to have that same mindset as DJ in terms of we own our mistakes, and we really attack them and fix them and it doesn’t affect the way we prepare this day for the next opportunity we have. So, DJ is almost like a version of a quarterback out there and he helps with the communication, gets people lined up and we are a better defense because of DJ Brown and having him on this team and on the football field.”

More Braylon James?

Junior receiver Deion Colzie will definitely be out this Saturday with a knee injury and fellow junior wideout Jayden Thomas could be out with a hamstring. Freshmen Jaden Greathouse and Rico Flores Jr. have both already seen extensive playing time this season, so will classmate Braylon James, who has made cameos in wins over Tennessee State and Central Michigan, see more time this week as well?

"Braylon’s been practicing with the offense and is continuously doing a really good job of getting better and better,” Freeman explained. "So, we’ll see if his role increases but I think we still have a plan to use those guys that we’ve been playing a lot and we’ll see if that determines if Braylon’s going to play at all or not.”

The Duke Defense

Duke football’s resurgence under second-year head coach and former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elko is largely due to its defense. The Blue Devils’ +5 turnover margin is No. 9 nationally after turning in a +16 ratio last season. Duke is 10-2 in the 12 games they have won the turnover battle with Elko has head coach.

"They’re really sound in terms of what they do defensively,” Freeman said of the Blue Devil defense. "The ability to have eyes on the quarterback and eyes on the ball and the ability to really...when you’re sound in what you do and your players truly understand what you’re asking of them, they can really study routes and study splits and those types of things. They’re a really good group and I think you look at that turnover margin and one, it’s a credit to their offense, right, in not turning the ball over a lot and two, their defense plays really hard and when you play really hard and you’re sound those opportunities really come your way.”

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