Ohio State Challenge Brings Out The Competitor In Marcus Freeman

Coach Freeman Press Conference Video

By John Brice
Special Contributor

He has, admittedly, circled this date. Sharpied it, a daily and permanent reminder.

Not for any personal matters; this is absolutely nothing about “former-star-comes-home-to-coach-against-alma-mater.”

Marcus Freeman stands where his feet are, in this moment beneath Notre Dame Stadium’s north bleachers, steps away from ‘Touchdown Jesus’ – the iconic campus landmark formally known as The Word of Life Mural.

Freeman is here, days away from truly igniting his career as head coach with his staff and of his Fighting Irish team, because of his authenticity; because he embraces Notre Dame.

And, most of all, because he wants to win.

Believes he can win at the highest levels here in the land of college football legends, where single names such as Rockne, Ara, Holtz, Hornung, Montana and Rocket own championship history but for which the program hasn’t inscribed a new championship banner since 1988.

So the immediate past is fresh in Freeman’s mind, and is going to be for some time; because it’s 240 days since Notre Dame’s beguiling, 37-35 loss to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl New Year’s Day in Freeman’s technical debut as head coach.

Because Freeman is both the present and the future of Notre Dame football.

“Yeah, it’s going to be there for a long time,” Freeman admits of that lingering, spicy-burrito aftertaste from that Fiesta Bowl setback that his players also acknowledge harboring. “It’s always going to be there, yep. …

Freeman’s admission is a passing glimpse into who he is, the former ballyhooed defensive coordinator who made routine the practice of shaking hands with both Fighting Irish offensive and defensive players during practice warmups – long before Brian Kelly’s abrupt getaway and Freeman’s inevitable ascension.

There are a number of first-year and first-time head coaches truly opening their careers this week in college football, but only Freeman – and Oregon’s Dan Lanning, equally a former defensive wunderkind – are doing so away from home, against top-five competition.

Lanning faces his former boss, Kirby Smart, and college football’s reigning champs, the Georgia Bulldogs; Freeman, yes, faces his alma mater and College Football Playoff-frontrunner No. 2 Ohio State.

“The opportunity to go and play a great team like Ohio State in I’m sure what will be a hostile environment in Columbus, Ohio,” Freeman says, opening up his first-ever game-week head coach’s press conference in a 34-minute session that concludes with the charismatic program head saying he’s open to an Irish game in Mexico City. “I said this before, but any competitor wants this. You want an opportunity to go and play against the best.

“There is no better way to see where we are as a football team than to go and say, let’s go play one of the best teams in the country and see where we’re at. We’re excited.”

This is not coach-speak from Freeman.

Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden, the most experienced former head coach on staff with stints atop programs at both Miami and Temple, as well as NFL assistant runs with the Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions, lays it all out there about his new boss.

“I’ll make sure everybody in the public knows this right now: What you see from Marcus Freeman on TV or in an interview is what we see every day,” Golden says. “Every day. It could be 5:30 in the morning or 9:30 at night, he’s the same guy every day and it’s a lot of fun to work with him.”

Similarly, Freeman believes in both his players and coaches; in the work done across a full offseason under strength and conditioning guru Matt Balis, of returning players, six of them captains and myriad other leaders; of newcomers.

Mostly, of a shared purpose.

“I think the leadership,” Freeman says of where he already draws confidence in the Irish. “We have some guys at different positions that have played in big games. I’m very confident in all three phases of what we’ve been able to do in fall camp and as we progress to this week. Continue to lead. Continue to prepare in the right way, and we’ll see after the game exactly where our strengths and weaknesses are.”

Freeman expects that his inaugural Notre Dame squad is going to be strong up front – on both sides of the ball.

Knows that the Irish’s ability to perhaps calm the raucous denizens of sold-out Ohio State’s ‘Horseshoe,’ in one of college football’s only guaranteed top-five matchup all year, and dictate tempo in the trenches is perhaps the singular element in how Notre Dame formally ushers in the Freeman era.

“You have to take control of the game in terms of holding onto the football, establishing long drives,” Freeman says, “and that’s going to be something we have to do if we want a chance to win this game. You have to limit their offensive possessions. How do you do that? It’s not just defensively, but offensively being able to establish long drives. That will be a challenge for our offense. Our defense and special teams have to be superior.”

Too, Freeman wants his players to invest the emotion of the opportunity; not anything about their coach’s past or what rests beyond this week.

“I’m pretty, right now, emotionless about going back to Ohio State,” Freeman says, “but the emotions you have is that we get to play a great team. You get to go play in a great, hostile environment and that’s to me where you get the most, like any competitor, you get those butterflies, you get that excitement about going into a place like that and going to compete against a great program like Ohio State.

“That to me is the focus, but how do you make sure that you can keep it contained and focus on the things that matter. That’s the preparation. The preparation is what matters. That’s what we can control from now until Saturday, how we prepare and we’ve got to be very intentional. We’ve got to have a great week of preparation.”