Postgame Transcript | Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke with reporters after the Irish’s loss to Louisville on Saturday night.
OPENING STATEMENT
“Obviously just disappointed in the performance and we've got to take ownership as a coaching staff first, right? And as the head coach first, that our guys weren't prepared for whatever reason. We've got to take a deep dive and figure out what it was. You can point your finger at any person, any specific unit, but the reality is we better point our finger at ourselves and figure out what were the issues that led to the lack of execution. We obviously know we've got to take care of football. We can't turn the ball five times and expect to win. Everybody's going to point the finger at Sam, you've got to point the finger at us, at me. We've got to protect him. We've got to do a better job protecting our quarterback and put him in situations to have a higher percentage for success. A lot of self-reflection, we're going to have to do a deep dive into exactly where the shortcomings happened. We've got to get this thing figured out, we've got to turn around because we got USC coming in next weekend, so we don't have a lot of time to feel sorry for ourselves.
“We better get back to work and start preparing for the game.”
WHAT WENT INTO THE DECISION TO ROTATE PLAYERS AT GUARD & CENTER?
“We had made that decision throughout the week. Again, we have to be better at the guard position and that was something that was evident last game. We said we're going to roll some guys at the guard position, we've got to do a better job of protecting our quarterback. We'll have to go and watch the film and see how each guard did, but we didn't protect the quarterback the way we needed to.”
ON THE OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES
“They did a good job. They did a really good job. We didn't run the ball well and they pressured the quarterback.”
DID LOUISVILLE DIFFERENT THIS GAME?
“Nobody's affected our quarterback quite like Louisville did. We have to give them credit. They were stacking the box and saying, we're going to refuse you to let you run the ball. We've got to make some plays in the passing game. We didn't it and we've got to make sure that we can not let this happen again.”
THOUGHTS ON LOUISVILLE RB JAWHAR JORDAN?
“Good player. Good player.”
WHAT WENT INTO THE DECISION TO GO FOR IT ON 4TH & 11 IN THE FOURTH QUARTER?
“Two-score game, right? So we said, Hey, we've either got to get a three-and-out if we punt the ball and hopefully we get enough time to have two separate possessions or you try to convert right there and play the percentages of 'OK, so even if you don't convert here, you go three-and-out. You force them to kick the field goal and it's still a two-possession game. So that went into my decision.”
ON SOME OF THE THIRD DOWN PLAY CALLS?
“It was a play we worked in practice. We faked the toss and ran the counter. They pressured it and it wasn't executed. They pressured it and we didn't get the guy blocked and he obviously caused a fumble there. But it was a situation where I think, I can't remember exactly, but I think we were going to go if it was within one or two yards. That's probably why we decided to do that play at that moment.”
ON ISSUES WITH THE RUN DEFENSE
“I'll have to go and see. I don't know how long that one long run was was for a touchdown, but I know that contributed to a lot of the yardage. I thought our defensive battled for the most part. We put them in some bad situations late in the game, but for the most part I thought they did a pretty good job. The third series of the second half was the long touchdown run. Then, we get them off the field on third down and we get the penalty. That hurt. You can't have that man. You finally get them off the field and we get a facemask, they had on Mars and then they drove and we missed the tackle in the hole and they scored again. We've got a clean up every aspect of it, not just the touchdown, but the plays that led to the touchdown.”
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS WEEK tTO GET THEM OVER THIS GAME MENTALLY?
“You don't have much time to feel sorry for yourself. That comes from me as the head coach and our leaders. I'm going to really count our leaders to make sure these guys understand that we've got to learn from this game and we've got to move forward to US. We cannot sit here and mope and feel bad for ourselves. We have to move forward. This will be a true test of our leadership starting with me and our captains.”
WHAT DID THOMAS HARPER'S ABSENCE MEAN?
“He was out with a concussion, he's in concussion protocol and wasn't ready to return to play. So (Clarence Lewis) did a good job of stepping in there and Cam Hart had some Nickel reps. Obviously you don't want to lose a great player like Thomas Harper, but we expect him to be there next week. There's a lot more work to do.”
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