Freeman Talks Arkansas Victory, Remaining "Uncomfortable" to Drive Success
- Liam Gaudet
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Notre Dame is still clinging to playoff hopes after embarrassing Arkansas on the road on Saturday, but the philosophy remains the same for Marcus Freeman. Remain unsatisfied and uncomfortable.
Marcus Freeman started his Monday press conference by acknowledging the impact of the win and how big a step the team has taken over the course of a week.
"Really good win for our program. Saturday was a big win; we needed that. I think there was a lot of good in all three phases. Improvement from week three to week four for our program."
Improvement was especially noted on the defense, and of course, Marcus Freeman knew he was going to be asked about what sparked this performance. Notre Dame went into this game ranking near the bottom of the FBS in a multitude of defensive metrics. Heading into a game against a high-powered offense, you would expect more headaches from a defense that was struggling to find an identity. Instead, after struggling early, Notre Dame would pitch a shutout in the second half of the football game, while posting a season-high three-sack performance paired with two takeaways.
"I know a lot of questions will probably be about why the defense improved from week three to week four, and what did you guys do differently, but I think for me, understand there's no secret formula. It's always the hard work that I believe you have to put in."
The old saying, "the road to success is paved with hard work" certainly seems to be an adage that Freeman is living by. The bumps in the road are another challenge that Notre Dame must be able to overcome if they have any hope of making some noise down the line. And for Marcus Freeman, players and staff gaining meaningful experience in failure is something that worked in their favor last season on the road to a national championship appearance, and it also needs to be something that galvanizes this year's team moving forward.
"New guys and new things improve with experience. It's no secret. And sometimes experience can mean failure at times. Failure makes you uncomfortable, but failure helps you grow."
And as far as the results of Saturday's game are concerned, Marcus Freeman remained confident that his leaders would step up and continue to keep the ship on course.
"I want to say I'm surprised, but I'm not. That's the makeup of the leaders on our defense, the makeup of our coaches, and that's why you ultimately get the result you did."
Despite preaching the importance of remaining uncomfortable, the Irish offense has continued to be a non-issue. CJ Carr passed for over 350 yards on Saturday, the most by an Irish quarterback since 2022. So how can such a proficient unit remain unsatisfied?
"There's areas for improvement all over the place. We weren't perfect, we played really, really well, but we weren't perfect. If they're honest with themselves and they feel like they have that need to improve, "coach me, help me get better", that's the discomfort that will help them improve."
Marcus Freeman isn't just preaching about this philosophy; he's living by it as well. He remains unsatisfied despite the lopsided victory.
"Someone said, "Wasn't that fun to win that game like that?" Fun? I'm like, "No, because every play you're stressed to win it. You're focused on staying in the moment. Let's win this play, what do you have to do to win this play?" And then when it's over, you go whew."
After Carr's incredible performance, Freeman saw to it that his offensive line, which has struggled at points this season, got due credit for their outing. And he also credited Carr for his ability to manage the protection, which led to Notre Dame's immense success against the blitz.
"There is no great quarterback without protection, and they protected him."
"I thought [CJ] did a great job of recognizing the pressure, our O-line did a good job of protecting him and executing what protection call we had to give [CJ] time."
Although we saw some vast improvement in the Notre Dame defense this week, limiting the big play is still a challenge for the Irish. Marcus Freeman continued to preach execution and technique as the focal point for driving meaningful change.
"It takes being disciplined. They had two runs that were explosive runs, I don't know if they were 40-50 yards, but they were too much. And both of those happened because of technique issues."
Freeman would also praise Elijah Hughes, someone who has seen an increase in playing time due to the way he approaches the game.
"Elijah is a guy who plays extremely hard, and he might not be as physically big as some of those other tackles, but he plays hard, and that's rewarded."
With the injury to Leonard Moore, Mark Zackery has also been thrust into the Notre Dame secondary. And despite some struggles, Zackery's confidence and attitude have not wavered.
"He is not a blamer, he doesn't point fingers, he wants to be coached, he wants to improve. We knew he had talent, but sometimes in failure, you learn about a guy."
"We have trust in him."
The scapegoat for Notre Dame's defensive struggles has undoubtedly been Chris Ash, and Freeman has learned much about his response to adversity, especially this week.
"I've learned this week who he is when he's in the fire, and he's a competitor, and he's a leader, and he's not pointing fingers at other people. He's saying, "We, I have to get this fixed; this is my responsibility."
"He hasn't wavered. He goes to work. I've learned a lot about him these past two weeks."
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