‘We Won But We Are So Much More’: Freeman Not Satisfied After Sixth-Straight Win
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — A calm, cool and collected Marcus Freeman enters the postgame press conference Saturday.
If you didn’t see the game, you might have not been able to tell that Notre Dame won 51-14 over Navy for its sixth straight win. For all you could tell, the Irish may have lost the game — and their season — when taking in the head coach’s quiet demeanor.
Maybe that’s how he wants it.
Not too high, not too low.
This type of win shouldn’t be the peak of a season in South Bend, it should be the standard. Maybe Freeman is still learning that.
”It’s hopefully a mindset that we all have, handling success,” Freeman said. “We won, but we’re so much more. It goes back to what we just talked about earlier. It’s that mindset of what happened last week, let’s enjoy this thing. The outcome is what you wanted, but the mental approach we’re taking this week is so crucial to how we can improve and it’s gotta be hard.
“I just told those guys you don’t improve by doing the same thing you did the week before. Human nature — gravity takes over and you’re going to get worse. We have to prepare mentally and in a difficult way physically for the next opponent if we truly want to elevate and improve. That’s the mindset we have. Hopefully, that’s the reason why, as a whole, we’ve been handling the success that we’ve been having the past couple of weeks.”
Just two months ago, a passionate Freeman trotted off Kyle Field after a 23-13 win over Texas A&M. It was only Week One, but the Irish felt like they had the world at their fingertips. In a week, we’d all see how fast things can change.
But Freeman and the Irish have been able to rebuild, little by little, over the course of the last seven weeks to get to 7-1. They haven’t all been dazzling performances, some grittier than others, but wins nonetheless.
Freeman isn’t looking at this win streak as a steady climb back to the top of the rankings. He’s looking at each game as its own, individual battle.
“Everybody evaluates you on flows,” Freeman said. “The flow of a season, the flow of a game. We can’t look at this thing based off flows. We’ve got to look at this as one game, one life, one play. That’s what I continue to preach to those guys.”
Coming off the field at Metlife Stadium, the Irish were more than happy with the result. You have to be when you win by over 30 points. And even if you couldn’t tell, Freeman was probably happy too. But it doesn’t mean he’s satisfied.
“We want more,” Freeman said. “We want the best, but we’re going to enjoy today. Proud of the way they prepared and played — for the most (part) after halftime, how we came out with a sense of urgency to continue to execute on all three phases and improve. Big win for this program. We’re going to enjoy it as we go into the bye week and prepare for the next one.”
He understands the effort and attention required to bounce back after the kind of loss Notre Dame suffered and resurrect its season. So it's OK to celebrate the successes now. And of course there will still be critics out there. He understands that too.
“We let others tell us what type of win that was,” Freeman said. “We’re going to celebrate it because a lot of people in that room put in a lot of work to achieve that, so we gotta celebrate it. That’s the outcome we aspired to have. We also go back to work and we really attack some of the deficiencies that we have. We’ll attack some of those areas that we’ve done well in. I’ll let someone else do the description of what type of victory that was.”
So Freeman and the Irish will go back to work. Cool, calm and collected, working towards the chase of the ultimate goal.
“I’m not satisfied. Nobody in that locker room is satisfied. We’re greedy. We want more. We want perfection.”
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