Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Wet Weather, Exams, Estime And Love

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman addressed a handful of topics ahead of Saturday's game against Southern Cal

It happens every year. Every college and university have their own form and timing of it. But at Notre Dame it seems to always hit a little differently, especially during the fall semester.

Mid-term exams.

Not only is the Notre Dame football team preparing to play its fourth consecutive prime time game against a fourth consecutive ranked and undefeated opponent at the end of an eight-game stretch to open the season. It is also prepping to play its biggest rival while coming out of mid-term exam week.

"As I told them on Monday ..... every week at Notre Dame is challenging,” Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said on Thursday. "That’s what they do. I know we had midterms this week, but it goes down to preparation for your midterms and going and doing a good job. So, as I told them, we won’t look to make any excuses. We embrace the challenge of the academic rigors of Notre Dame. It's what makes this place so special. Our guys have done a great job. They’ve got to prioritize getting rest, prioritize no wasted time and I think they’ve done a really good job.”

Get It Wet

Mother nature is also expected to be a factor in Saturday night’s game. Rain fell outside Thursday afternoon as Freeman spoke with the media for the final time before Saturday’s game. Rain is also expected to fall in South Bend throughout the day Friday and Saturday as well. Temperatures are predicted to be in the 50s and dipping into the 40s by game’s end for the 7:40 PM EST game Saturday night.

"We’ve done wet ball drills throughout the season,” Freeman said of the preparation for the elements. "But you add this week to include it and special teams, we’re trying to make sure we’re using a wet ball and it’s for those specialists but also for the returners. So, we’ve done some things to make sure that they are able to execute their assignment with a wet ball. That might be spraying the ball, making it wet or continuously trying to distract returners in different ways to catch a wet ball. So, we’ve addressed it Tuesday, Wednesday and we’ll do it again today.”

Estime And Love

Junior running back Audric Estime and freshman Jeremiyah Love are Notre Dame’s top two rushers with 692 and 257 respective yards. Estime has 105 carries to Love’s 36. Love has seen an increase in production in recent weeks. He has 18 carries for 101 yards and three receptions for 23 yards over the last three games.

Sophomore Jadarian Price has seven carries for 39 yards and one catch for five yards while classmate Gi’Bran Payne has 10 carries for 29 yards and three receptions for eight yards in those same three games. All the backs have different roles in the offense, but Freeman expects Estime and Love to continue to see the bulk of the work going forward.

"I think you’ve seen an increase in Jeremiyah’s carries, production in the past few games,” Freeman explained. "He’s continuously getting better. Audric is Audric. We’ve got to continue to give the ball to Audric and protect him and make sure that we open up some run lanes for him. 

"But we still feel comfortable with Jadarian and Gi’Bran and even Devyn Ford coming in the game in their specific roles. We know as the season goes on, as I said weeks ago, you can’t continuously play five guys equally and that’s what you’ve seen is that Audric and Jeremiyah have taken probably the majority of the load with Jadarian being third. So, I think you’ll see a similar type mindset as we go into this game. There’s certain packages for certain guys but we’re going to continuously make sure that Audric Estime and Jeremiyah Love have a chance to do some things with the ball on their hands as well as Jadarian Price.

Estime was shaken up in the second half of last week’s game against Louisville but Freeman has seen no ill signs from the big back this week.

"Physically, he’s good,” Freeman remarked. "I’m sure being in the position he’s in he’s never a hundred percent probably in the second half of games. But he’s had a great week of prep. The first thing Audric Estime asks on Sunday or Monday is how do I continuously help this team and he’s not the only one that said that. He’s a reflection of a lot of guys on this team that want to do whatever it takes to help this team have success. I’m really proud of the preparation he’s had this week and I expect him to really have a big game on Saturday.”

More Guards Rotating?

The Irish infamously rotated interior offensive lineman against the Cardinals last week, with Andrew Kristofic and Billy Schrauth coming off the bench to spell guards Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan and center Zeke Correll. That may or may not continue this week against the Trojans.

"The rotation of the guards will be as, at times, their play dictates,” Freeman indicated. “Last week, obviously, with Coogs not being able to practice for a day and a half of preparation went into the thought of rotating guards. But I feel like everybody’s had a good week of preparation. We’ll go into the game planning to use the normal starting five. 

"But again, play at times dictates putting guys in the game. If we don’t play to the standard that we believe our offense or anybody on our team should then you have to be able to put guys in the game that you feel can do their job. So, I don’t ever want our guys playing fearless, like playing with fear of being taken out of the game. But we also have to make sure that our guys that are in the game are executing.”

Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge

Irish Breakdown Content

2023 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule

Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense

———————

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.

BECOME A MEMBER

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @SeanStires
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter