Freeman | USC Has Notre Dame's Full Attention
Marcus Freeman has made it a point to spend time with Lou Holtz as often as he can.
And the current Irish head coach has certainly learned plenty from the last coach to bring a national championship to South Bend.
But as Freeman’s team heads into its regular season finale against USC on Saturday afternoon, he probably doesn’t need to take a play out of Holtz’s playbook of overinflating seemingly every opponent he faced to get his squad’s attention.
The Trojans may be having a down year, but Freeman doesn’t need to exaggerate to explain how dangerous they can be.
“It’s a very competitive, talented football team,” Freeman said of USC during his weekly press conference on Monday. “They will truly be our biggest challenge to date for multiple reasons. The noise, the things outside of this game that have nothing to do with this game.”
Sure, the Trojans are 6-5, but Freeman noted they’ve won three of their four overall and their only home loss this season came against fourth-ranked Penn State in overtime.
“They’ve led in the fourth quarter in every game this year,” Freeman noted. “I think four of five losses they were leading within three minutes of the end of the game.
“It’s going to be a challenge versus a really good team. We have to prepare in a way that gives us an opportunity to get the outcome we want. Our guys will and must understand the challenges that’s ahead of us.”
USC changed quarterbacks two games ago, going from Miller Moss to Jayden Maiava. In wins over Nebraska and UCLA, Maiava has completed 44 of 70 attempts for 480 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.
“The schematics of the offense hasn’t changed that much,” Freeman said. “He tends to make different decisions, maybe than Moss did, and I’m not saying that’s good or bad. He makes really quick decisions and then doing some things where he’s extending plays with his legs. He has a really good arm and hasn’t put them in many negative situations.
“He’s come in these last two games and won them for them. They’re playing well on offense. But the offense hasn’t changed, he’s just done a really good job of taking care of the football and making some good decisions.”
Freeman believes the challenges the Trojans will present at 3:30 (EST) on Saturday will be sufficient to keep his players from looking past them.
“If you don’t understand how good this opponent is, if you don’t understand how much of a challenge this opponent will bring on Saturday, then the fault lies within yourself. That’s what I’m going to continue to remind our guys. Yes, the things we’ve done in the past that have given us an opportunity to be in this moment where if we win, we’re in. That’s what they say. You win and you’re in.
“There’s things we’ve done intentionally to put our program in this position. So understanding the challenge we have ahead of us on Saturday and continue to put the work in today that gives us a chance to get the outcome we want on Saturday.”
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