Notre Dame Embraces Underdog Role Against Ohio State, Freeman “Emotionless” for Homecoming
On April 28, Marcus Freeman appeared on an NFL Draft edition of ESPN’s College GameDay. He wore a dark green suit and sat next to Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, who donned a bright red blazer.
The two head coaches talked about their 2022 season-opening matchup against one another on Sept. 3 in Columbus, Ohio.
At the end of the segment, ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer jumped into the conversation.
“What was the line again?” Palmer said.
It was more than four months prior to kickoff, and U.S. sportsbooks already had the Buckeyes as 13.5-point favorites.
Freeman’s on-air request to sportsbooks? Why not make it a 14-point spread? In his mind, the higher the number the better.
At Monday’s game week press conference, Freeman learned via a question that his wish came true.
Sportsbooks now list Notre Dame as 17.5-point underdogs.
“Oh, I didn’t know that. I’m going to write that down. You said 17.5 points?” Freeman said with a wink. “Alright, we’ll use that in the team meeting today. It’s good to know. I haven’t paid much attention to the spread.”
Such information is obvious bulletin board material for the No. 5 team in the country that’s equipped with four pre-season Associate Press All-Americans. At the same time, it represents the monumental odds experts predict Notre Dame must overcome in order to leave Columbus victorious.
As of Monday afternoon, ESPN’s matchup predictor gives the Irish just a 16.5 percent chance to win.
Freeman’s Homecoming
Freeman’s college football roots sprouted in Columbus. From 2004-08, he played linebacker at Ohio State. Two years later, he received his introduction to coaching at his alma mater as a graduate assistant.
His longtime mentor is legendary Buckeye coach Jim Tressel, whom Freeman still leans on to this day.
So on Saturday, Freeman will return to Columbus to face his alma mater. It’s an already well-covered narrative, and between now and kickoffs on Saturday, it will almost assuredly get beaten to death.
So how does Freeman actually feel about addressing his team at Ohio Stadium from inside the visitor’s locker room?
At least publicly, he doesn’t feel much at all.
"I'm pretty emotionless about going back to Ohio State, but the emotions you have is that we get to play a great team,” Freeman said. “You get to go play in a great, hostile environment and that's to me where you get the most, like any competitor, you get those butterflies, you get that excited about going into a place like that and going to compete against a great program like Ohio State.”
He’ll instead use his familiarity with the Buckeyes and Ohio Stadium to his advantage.
Among Notre Dame’s offensive and defensive players, only safety Brandon Joseph has ever played Ohio State, but he’s never done so on the road.
Prior to road games in 2021, former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly showed his players videos of what it’s like to play at Doak S. Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla., and Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va.
“I think I'm going to take the same approach and be able to try to show them a little bit of what the game day atmosphere will be like,” Freeman said.
Ultimately, his message to his team will be to block out those peripheral distractions and focus only on the action that occurs within the stadium dimensions that actually matter.
“We can't do is let those things that are outside those white lines affect what we do on the field because if you do, it's going to be a long game,” Freeman said. “But if you can really focus on and understand that it's what matters between those white lines that really affects and impacts the game, and we can focus on that and we can execute, then you don't let those outside sources really affect what you're doing."
Is Tyler Buchner prepared for the Horseshoe?
It’s the question on everybody’s mind: how will true sophomore quarterback Tyler Buchner play on Saturday evening under the bright lights of Ohio Stadium, commonly referred to as “the Horseshoe?”
In response, several members of the Notre Dame coaching staff have brought up Buchner’s 2021 appearance against Virginia Tech in the notoriously hostile environment of Lane Stadium and how that’s helped to prepare him for Saturday night.
Against the Hokies, he dealt with the highs of playing well and the lows of almost costing his team the game. He finished with 180 yards of total offense and two touchdowns but also tossed two interceptions.
But some people outside of the program wonder why Buchner failed to see the field in Notre Dame’s 37-35 Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State, especially since recently hired Buckeye’s defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was the architect of the Cowboys' defense.
"We had a game plan going in and were going to ride Jack Coan as long as we needed to,” Freeman said. “We had a chance with probably two or three minutes left in the game to go score a touchdown and win. I wouldn't change that at all.
“You can't play a bowl game and say, ‘okay, let's get Tyler Buchner some reps to get ready for the first game next year.’ We‘ve got to do what we felt was best for the guys.’”
Freeman also doesn’t expect the 2022 Ohio State defense to mirror Oklahoma State’s from 2021.
“In my opinion, any coordinator, it's still based around the talent you have,” he said. “It's based around your personnel. You're not going to come in here and drop a book and say, this is our defense, this is our offense, you guys fit it. No. For me, that's not the way to do it.
In reality, even if Buchner had played every snap last season, he’d still be underprepared for play in a top-five matchup in front of more than 104,000 rabid fans. It’s an environment that’s difficult to replicate.
Freeman can instead focus on the progress Buchner has made since he was named the starter halfway through fall camp and how the offense has rallied behind him.
"He's done a really good job since we named him starter of just continuing to be consistent,” Freeman said. “That's what we're looking for out of him, that consistency, and I think there's a little bit of that confidence in the offense in terms of knowing who's the starting quarterback.
“That's why we named the starting quarterback when we felt like it was right. The earlier we can name it, the earlier you can build that confidence and that consistency amongst that offensive unit.”
Notre Dame Gets Healthier
That is, they’re healthier compared to a few weeks ago when the Notre Dame wide receiver room had just four scholarship players available during practice. Around this same time, the third-string offensive line was non-existent with five players lost to illness or injury.
By the start of game week, Freeman says the Notre Dame roster is close to full strength.
Yes, wide receiver Avery Davis is lost for the season, which is a major blow to that position group. And the status of left guard Jarrett Patterson is still up in the air due to a right foot sprain.
"Jarrett, to me, is still questionable,” Freeman said. “I expect him to come out this week and practice. We'll see as we get closer to game time where he'll be."
But the rest of the first- and second-team units seem to be intact. Even senior Marist Liufau, who was banged up recently, is listed as the starting Will linebacker on Monday’s depth chart.
Freeman knew that in order to establish a physical mentality within his team, he needed his players to get after one another early in fall camp with the pads on. It increased the likelihood of injury, but Notre Dame came out nearly unscathed.
Even Davis’ ACL tear occurred during a non-contact drill.
“I told them, you’ve got to trust me. You’ve got to trust me,” Freeman said. “We're going beat them up the first couple of weeks of practice. It's the only way I know and it's what I believed it was going to take to really get this team ready to play football.
“Once we got to that point where I said, ‘Okay, we're ready to go, this team is ready physically to play at a game level. Now we got to be smart in terms of getting these guys that are game ready to get back for the game.’”
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