Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has many go-to mantras for his program, but ‘Challenge Everything’ might define it better than any other.
It’s not hard to see the impact on the recruiting trail or in the way Notre Dame has constructed its roster, with the Irish now boasting one of the most expensive rosters in college football.
During his first four seasons, Freeman has had plenty of learning moments, but overall, Notre Dame is back where the program should be.
The one work-in-progress area of Freeman’s tenure has been early-season losses, which have forced the program to play catch-up in October and November. That was highlighted a year ago, when the 0-2 start cost Notre Dame a chance at back-to-back College Football Playoff appearances.
Freeman made it a point to challenge the entire program in the offseason to find ways to help Notre Dame get over the September hump, which led to a more efficient fall camp.
“It's challenge everything,” stated Freeman. “How can we continue to find a better way? I think we did a debrief after the first 10 practices, we might've met for 15 more hours than we did in the previous year.
“Everything's condensed. The transition time is condensed. The amount of break time is condensed. The amount of time you have from walkthroughs to the next meeting is condensed and it's jam-packed. There's not much downtime from the minute they get in the building and we start meetings to the minute they leave.”
The ability to maximize time speaks to both the program’s structure and the players’ buy-in. Many programs waste valuable time because players show up late to meetings or coaches have to spend additional time teaching the fundamentals of individual drills. The Irish don’t have to worry about that.
Notre Dame has one of the nation’s most experienced rosters and that experience has allowed the staff to get ahead on many of the details other programs are still working through during camp.
Freeman also pointed out that, despite the busy schedule, Notre Dame has made a conscious effort to give its players plenty of time for recovery and time away from the Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall.
“We're trying to get them out there at a decent time so that they can go recover and be ready for a jam-packed next day,” explained Freeman. “I'll get the final numbers with these last three practices here pretty soon, but we've been intentional about pushing them.
“Maybe you can do that in year three with the offense and year two with the defense and year four with special teams. Maybe because they have a grasp of what the base game plan is you can push them a little bit. We've been intentional in hopes to make sure week one we're playing at a higher elevation.”
When it comes to distractions, Freeman believes his team isn’t worried about preseason hype or what Notre Dame’s social media team is putting out for the fan base.
“We have an FIM (Fighting Irish Media) team that does a great job with really staying connected with our fans,” said Freeman. “We want them to feel like they're a part of our program and they've done a tremendous job.
“As far as our players, I hope they're obsessed with improvement and not getting a Twitter follower or an Instagram like because they're in a video.”
In fact, Freeman made sure his team heard a message along those lines following Friday’s scrimmage. He might not have been completely pleased with his program’s focus and made sure everyone understood his expectations.
“I told them this (Friday) after practice,” Freeman stated. “It feels good when somebody tells you you did a good job, but we got to be more obsessed with execution. We got to be more obsessed with: Did I get my job done on this play? and less concerned with: Did coach tell me I did a good job, or did coach call sack, or did coach spot the ball right.
“I want them obsessed with execution on this play and not as much on Instagram likes and media stuff.”
The preseason hype isn’t dying down, especially when you have a Heisman favorite at quarterback.
But Freeman has confidence that the veterans in the program will steer the Irish in the right direction. They’ve been there and done that.
“I think you got to be aware of the noise you allow into your head,” Freeman explained. “If we're too obsessed with listening to the good noise, then we're probably not obsessed with listening to the noise that's going to help us improve.”
There’s also an expectation for the staff to make sure that noise isn’t creeping into the heads of the team.
“That's what your coaches are there for,” stated Freeman. “That’s what the messaging has to be. The noise that their coaches put in their head, it has to be louder than maybe something they're reading on social media. It's great to hear people talking about us, but at the end of the day, we got to be obsessed with being that thing.
“You can't be that thing by listening to what somebody else says about your program. You be that thing by going to work every day. Every day to be the team that you desire to be. We can waste it by listening to social media or what other people say about us, or we can go to work and really be obsessed with improvement.”
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