Notre Dame's Critical Eye Will Define Saturday
The week around Notre Dame hasn't been a fun one as the Fighting Irish sit at 0-2 entering Saturday’s matchup with Cal (2-0).
Former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly got blasted for execution comments a year ago after the win at Florida State and it’s still a trigger word around The Gug under Marcus Freeman.
Notre Dame has failed to execute in critical moments against Marshall and Ohio State, which has led Freeman to challenge his staff to make sure the game plan for Saturday is something his players can handle.
"The game plans are in and now it's about making sure we know exactly what we want to get done and our players know exactly what we're looking for,” explained Freeman. “We just had a meeting and I told those guys it's about us as coaches making sure our players know exactly what and why we want it and have the ability to go out and execute it.
"If there's any gray area from now until Saturday, throw it out. Condense the packages. This is going to be about making sure we give our players the best opportunity to go out there and have success with the ability to go out and execute knowing exactly what they're doing and what we expect from them."
Freeman used ‘critical eye’ four times during his Thursday Zoom meeting as he wants his staff to dive into every play, good or bad, to see where both sides of the ball can improve.
And on offense, the improvement needs to start immediately as the Irish are averaging just 15.5 points per contest.
“We can't let the outcome dictate the critical eye we must have as we evaluate the games and in practice,” Freeman said. “Sometimes we let the result of a play or the result of a game mask the reality of what's going on in terms of play-by-play or position-by-position.
"You could have a really good play, but there is somebody on the field not doing their job. Do we really take a critical eye, no matter if it's a good play or a bad play at every position? That's what I've really been trying to focus on. Let's make sure we look at every position on every play and are we executing our assignment or not? If there is confusion, what do we have to do to correct it? That could be coaching it better. That could be taking the play out. That can be changing something within the scheme.”
Looking at each play is something Freeman had to do as defensive coordinator a year ago when Notre Dame was 2-0. The Irish were undefeated, but the defense struggled and Freeman had to find a way to shore the errors up.
"The first two games, we had given up close to 70 points,” Freeman stated. “The feeling was we were 2-0 and it's OK, but I know as a defensive staff, it wasn't and we were struggling. We had to say let's stop and really dissect everything we're going and what we're doing well and enhance it. The things we're not doing well, let's either change it, throw it out or come up with a new way to do it.”
Freeman also knows the outside noise can creep into his locker room. He addressed it with the team and wants their focus to be on fixing mistakes and not worrying about the 0-2 record or pressure to get him a win.
"As I told them, if you continue to listen to all the voices out there that have opinions about what you're doing or what we're doing as a football program, you will feel the weight of the world,” said Freeman. “Focus on the things that matter to dictate the outcome on Saturday. That's what I want the pressure to be on. What things truly dictate the outcome of a game? If we continue to focus on those things, we don't have to worry about added pressure from outside. Don't play for Coach Freeman. We're going to play to make sure we have success.
"That's what the focus and message have been - let's be critical of our actions in the game and take those actions and say how to do we apply to the way we practice to ensure in the game there is no miscommunication, no missed assignments and missed execution."
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