Orgeron sees championship for Freeman, Irish; Mickey keeps surging

After he moments earlier had told Notre Dame’s entire football team that it would win a championship under Marcus Freeman, former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron spent a few moments with area media Tuesday morning and reiterated that theme.

“First of all, I watched his defenses play at Cincinnati, phenomenal; energy, the way they got after it, the way he had energy on the sideline,” Orgeron said of Freeman. “That’s just the way I liked to coach it. When I met him, he just had something about him, character, class, you can tell that he’s going to be a championship coach. I think he has all the makings of being a great coach. …

“I know the expectations are one goal and one goal only, I would imagine. I can’t speak for them, but that’s what I talked to the team about. The standard of performance has got to be very high. What I saw out there, I saw a very good football team.”

Orgeron said he believed it “was a very hard” choice for Freeman in January 2021 to accept Notre Dame’s offer to be its defensive coordinator rather than Orgeron’s LSU offer for the same role, before Orgeron added, “it looks like he made the right decision to me.”

Orgeron said he already believed Freeman was making better steps in his first head coaching post than did Orgeron at Ole Miss from 2005-07, as Orgeron praised the Fighting Irish’s coaching staff and likewise Freeman’s holistic approach on offense, defense and special teams.

HART OF IT ALL

Cam Hart won’t be at full-speed at any point the remainder of spring camp, but Notre Dame’s junior cornerback has recently returned to working out with the team on the practice field, and his presence was praised Tuesday by Irish cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens.

“It’s good, it’s good because he can be involved in individual, he’s moving around, he needs to have football movement, so he’s not too long away from it so he can get his body adjusted to it and everything,” Mickens said. “He’s a leader, encouraging guys. And he’s been that way when he wasn’t practicing. So he’s a great person to have in and also you can be able to see him show by example, too.”

Hart said he had injured his shoulder in high school and finally had offseason surgery to repair the longstanding injury.

MICKEY TALKS, BACKS IT UP

Jaden Mickey is among the myriad Notre Dame midyear enrollees working through his first semester of college – and thus his first-ever college football practices.

But the way Mickey keeps showing up on the practice field – and letting all of his teammates know about it – is something that Mickens appreciates from the former consensus four-star prospect from California.

Mickens even sees some of himself in Mickey’s approach.

“I was, I was,” Mickens said of being a talker like Mickey. “I love it. As long as he keeps it in a zone where he peaks at his optimal zone, I’m good. Some guys talk, some guys are quiet. Some guys get motivated by different things. That’s not an issue to me. That’s just who he is and I don’t ever want to take that away from him. As long as he’s mature, which he is, about it and doesn’t hurt Notre Dame, we’re OK.

“He's very quick, he understands routes and how people run routes and he understands where he can get hurt and can’t get hurt. And he always wants to make a play on the ball, and that’s what you have to be at the corner position.”

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