Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman transcript following 'jersey scrimmage'

The Notre Dame football team held its “jersey scrimmage” Saturday at the Irish Athletics Center, a precursor to next Saturday’s spring football finale, the annual Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium.

Irish head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media after the Saturday practice session, closed to the public but open to the media. Here’s everything Freeman had to say after the 34-31 intrasquad victory by the Blue (offense) over the White (defense), using a scoring system that even Freeman didn’t understand.

Opening Statement

“Yeah, just finished up our jersey scrimmage. It was really good work. And No. 1, you come out healthy, which is important. I saw some good on both sides of the ball. You see some good on offense. They obviously did a really good job with the 1s in not turning over the ball, which was really [a priority to] protect the football. And the defense, you’ve got to take it away.

“And the 1s on offense did a really good job of protecting the football. And then the 2s, we got sloppy. We had, I think, at least two turnovers with the 2s. One ended up being a safety, and the other one was the interception by Luke Talich. So, the 2s have got to do a better job of taking care of the football offensively. And the 2s did a great job on defense taking it away. And so we’ll go and watch it [on film]. We’ll evaluate it, see where we have to improve.

“Today’s an evaluation day. That’s what I told them. We have to evaluate our coaching. We have to evaluate the way our players have received our coaching, and prepared. And that’s what a day like today was for. So, we’ll go back, we’ll watch it, and we’ll get back to work for these last three practices. With that, I’ll open it up for questions.

Q: Devin Fitzgerald is down the depth chart, but he made some big plays today. At what point does it warrant getting a longer look at him with the 1s or 2s?

Freeman: “You’re evaluated every day. Here’s the mindset our guys must have — is that you’ve got to master what you get. I don’t care if it’s against the 3s, the 2, the 1s. When you master what you have right in front of you, you’ll get more. I don’t care if it was against the 3s. He made some big plays today.

“He’ll continue to be put in elevated positions to continue to show what he can do against better competition. He’s had a good spring. He’s made big plays like that throughout the spring. And today I wasn’t surprised. And he’ll continue to get better, and he’s getting better. But he’s doing a really good job.”

Q: With Blake Hebert out, Noah Grubbs got a lot of reps? How valuable were those extra live reps for him today. And how would you evaluate his play?

Freeman: “Live reps are invaluable. Noah has been getting most of the 3 reps. He’s got a little bit of 2 reps in the past couple days with Blake being out. It’s been a good opportunity for Noah to get some reps with the 2s. And so he got a tremendous amount of reps today, because he took the reps with the 2s and the 3s. Did a good job.

“It’s some opportunities for him to grow. But they don’t get exposed until you get out there on the field and go against really good competition. So, I love the way he performed, and he continued to battle today. And he’s getting a lot better.

Q: How would you evaluate the left side of the offensive line, with Will Black and Anthonie Knapp, and do you feel like you’ve got something there?

Freeman: “I mean I think the entire offensive line as a whole, that first group, has done a really good job of gelling together. Five is one. Today is a day you go live and you can see if we can run the ball or not. When you go thud, you blow the whistle when you think they’re going to go down. Today we were able to run the ball. That left side has done a great job. Knapp, the transition from tackle into guard, it’s a smooth transition.

“And I’m not surprised because he’s an athletic guy. He’s a tough guy. We’ve always thought that was his more natural position, but he had to play left tackle for us, and he’s done a tremendous job. And Will, you talk about the growth from year one to where he’s at now has been tremendous. He’s had high upside the whole time since we recruited him until he got here, but now he’s really developing that into a unique skill set.”

Q: With CJ Carr, what is the growth you’re seeing from him this spring?

Freeman: “Yeah, it’s more than anything he does with his physical talent. The ability to put our offense in a position to have success, because of what the defense is presenting, is probably one of his greatest traits. I can speak for hours about his arm talent, his film study, but he puts your offense in positions to have success. You don’t have to have a coach tell you everything.

“He’s able to understand a play. He’s able to see what the defense is doing and put us in a position that usually ends up in a positive play. So, that’s invaluable to have a true problem-solver. And that’s, again, an accumulation of his preparation. But, you know, with coach [Mike] Denbrock being back, coach [Gino] Guidugli being back, CJ Carr being back, the experience is what helps that more than anything else.”

Q: Have you felt the increased size on the interior defensive line?

Freeman: “I’ve seen and felt it throughout the spring. Like, you can look at those guys. They’re massive. We’ve brought in some massive human beings at those positions, but they play big, too. They’re not big guys that play soft. They play big. They’re physical. Francis [Brewu] was out for a couple practices with a bicep strain, but it was good to see him back. And Tionne [Gray], he’s a big human being. And I watched one play that he made. It was a great double team, and he just split it, and they’re all doing really, really well. I’m glad we have them, and they’re making us better.”

Q: What’s the physical status of Dallas Golden, and how has Christian Gray adapted to the nickel this spring?

Freeman: “Dallas will be out the rest of spring. He had a lower back kind of sprain, strain — stress on his lower back — that we want to get calmed down. So he got probably three good weeks of spring, and we said, ‘Hey, let’s pull him out.’ I mean, let’s put him on the shelf for a little bit to let his back calm down, and we think that’s going to make him better.

“As far as Christian, he’s done a really good job. We thought he would be a natural nickel. We thought this would be a good move for him. He’s really worked at it. Like any time you’re trying to improve, you’re going to go through some of the failures that he went through early in spring. I mean, he’ll continue to go through failures, but those make you better. But he’s really done a good job. We know he can play man coverage. But now you’re doing it from a press situation. He’s doing a good job in the zone, though. He’s definitely been improving this entire spring.”

Q: Was the day we saw from Jonaz Walton commensurate with what he’s been like all spring? He broke a couple of nice runs.

Freeman: “Again, it’s hard when you go thud. When you go thud, you don’t always get a chance to see those long runs like you saw today. I mean, he’s done a really good job in spring. It was funny. We put pads on practice 3, and he had to learn how to practice at this level. It’s a different tempo, a different pace, a different physicality. But where he’s at now at practice 12, you’re talking about from practice 3 to 12, been a huge increase. And that’s credit to him and the work he’s put in, and coach [Ja’Juan] Seider. But he’s practicing now the way college running backs practice. And he’s really doing some good things out there.”

Q: How do you evaluate wide receivers, like Micah Gilbert, going against Leonard Moore in the boundary, also since CJ Carr knows to stay away from him when he can?  So how do you evaluate him in that context?

Freeman: “You’ve got to evaluate him. Do you win or do you lose? Why did you lose? I mean, it makes him better, right? Leonard’s special. Leonard needs good competition, and he gets it in practice. But you can’t evaluate him just based off the outcome. It’s probably the best way to say it. You can’t look at it and say, ‘OK, did he make the play or not?’ Because you’re not going to typically win all those when you go against Leonard Moore.

“We have one-on-one situations. We have different types of drills that you can evaluate those guys. But as you just said, a lot of times in game-like situations, CJ is going to make a decision not to throw the ball over there. And it’s a pretty good decision. It doesn’t always end up well when you throw it over to Leonard Moore’s side. But we still can evaluate our wideouts without just looking at the outcome.”

Q: You wanted to get a truer evaluation of your offensive and defensive lines this spring than in the past. So how did you structure that, and how did the offensive line fare in that situation?

Freeman: “Yeah. I mean, there were a couple plays you can look up at the video board and say, “OK, how did a D-lineman — did Tionne make that play?’ We split the double team. But how you do that is you script it in a way that you’ve got good on good. You’ve got your No. 1 offensive line unit versus the rotational defensive line unit.

“Like the defense rotates a lot more than the offensive line with the first group. And so you’re going to be able to evaluate all those defensive guys against your No. 1 offensive line unit. And you’re going to evaluate your offensive line versus different types of defensive linemen. And so that’s the intention of going good on good. That’s why you go 1s versus 1s on a day like today. You don’t always go 1s versus 1s. A lot of times there’s other things you want to evaluate, so you go 1s versus 2s. But I thought it was important for today’s scrimmage to go 1s versus 1s. And we’ll go back and watch it. We’ll watch it and see. We know what happened to see why it happened and what we have to fix. But I think this is a great day for evaluation.”

Q: This is the first time we’ve gotten to see Spencer Porath kick field goals this spring, and Jasper Scaife punt and Erik Schmdt do both. Especially Spencer, what kind of spring has he had and was today typical of what you’ve seen from those three specialists this spring?

Freeman: “Yeah. Spencer was — I mean, he was — I think he was perfect today. With the field goal [practice] period and then those kicks during the scrimmage, maybe 9-for-9 [combined] or something like that. And Erik had a good day. I think he missed one. Spencer, I think he’s had one inconsistent day since he’s been here, but he’s been as consistent as any kicker we’ve had, and he’s done a really good job of learning how to kick with the new holder. And Jasper’s done an unbelievable job learning how to hold. Like, that’s something that’s new for him.

“Erik’s done a good job at doing both. He’s been doing both. We need him. When you have three specials, you need somebody that can do both. And Jasper’s — he’s got a huge leg. He’s figuring out how to punt American football. He’s doing a great job. I mean, he’s got a huge leg and he’s — they’re all really doing a good job. I’m positive today. You can tell I’m positive today,”

Q: How would you evaluate the progress of the pass rush and how you’ve gone about upgrading that?

Freeman: “If you can’t create pressure off the edge with your defensive ends and the four-man rush, then you’re not going to be able to create pressure with five, six  — I mean, you’re going to put the rest of your defense in a negative position if you have to bring pressure to create pressure. Does that make sense? And so, we start with being able to create pressure with our defensive ends and a four-man rush in whatever way we do that.

“And one is recruiting, right? You recruit elite, talented players like Bryce Young and Boubacar Traore. Then you have to be creative and say, “OK, do we do simulated pressures?’ Meaning you bring a guy and you drop a guy to try to conceptually confuse the offense, right? Or we’re going to bring one more than they have to protect. Like, there’s a lot of different ways, but it all goes down to the foundation of being able to create pressure in a four-man base pass rush. And our guys did a pretty good job today.”

Q: What was your impression of Rodney Dunham?

Freeman: “When you think about a freshman class coming in, we evaluate high school prospects probably playing as fast as they can play, because they know what they’re doing. They know why they’re doing it, whatever they’re being asked to do. When they get to college, the ones that usually play earliest are the ones that can play fast. They’re not thinking.

“They understand what’s being asked to do. And Rodney’s a guy that has been able to grasp what we’re asking him to do, so he’s been able to play at a high, fast pace. And that’s what you saw today. He made some big plays and he’s a good football player. He’s just come in at a higher level. That doesn’t mean his ceiling is higher than anybody else, but it just means that at this point in his college career, he’s doing a really good job and playing well. And I believe he’ll help us this year.”

Q: How do you see your role with your players who are getting ready for the NFL Draft?

Freeman: “I always say it’s like your relationship with the guys that end up leaving your program, even actually when they’re here is what they need you to be for them. And, I mean, when they’re all back, we all talk. If I need to reach out to them, I do. They reach out to me. But everyone’s different. But I always tell them the same thing, when you’re experiencing a draft, is that you’re always going to go later than you expect. because they’re going to give you a range. And we tend to listen to that first number. Well, OK, I might go to this high.

“The only person that doesn’t have to wait is the first pick, because the second pick probably thinks he could have been the first pick. And so try to enjoy it. Don’t stress. Don’t watch every minute of it, because it can be really long. But then I try to tell them, in that moment, try to enjoy it, because they’re going to wake up the next day. like we all do. and go back to work. They’re going to go back to work and to try to be that thing they were just drafted to be. But my advice is enjoy it. Enjoy that process. Enjoy that moment. Because no matter when your name is called, it’s a huge moment that they’ll always remember.”

Q: What is the advice you gave them at Notre Dame that you want them to remember?

Freeman: “Probably choose hard. It’s something that I want them to carry for the rest of their lives and continue to put other people in front of yourself. It’s a great trait. But more than anything, that’s a hard thing to do. So choose hard. That’s the thing that probably hopefully sticks in their mind more than anything else.”

Q: I think I had Jordan Faison down for seven receptions today. Is that reflective of what you’ve seen so far this spring? And what areas has he improved in, with this being his first full spring of just football and no lacrosse?

Freeman: “Yeah, what you saw today is what we’ve seen out of Jordan Faison for. I don’t know, probably for the past couple years. I mean, that’s what consistent football players do. Consistent football players do that. Like I always say, great players are consistent. Jordan Faison is a great player because he’s consistent. So, what he did today is what he consistently does in practice. Because he works. He does what it takes to come out and practice at a high level like he did today.

“I think it’s good for him [to focus on just one sport]. I’ve seen his play at a high level in the spring when he just hasn’t been here. We’ve gotten to that in the fall, but I think where he’s gotten his play to at this point is going to give him a chance to elevate it even more as we get into fall camp, because he’s never had this winter and spring with the football team. So, there’s a mental side to that. There’s a physical side to that. And, again, he’s done a really good job.”

Q: Luke Talich had the pick today. He was playing a little bit of the SAM linebacker in addition to safety. Why is he someone that you’d want to get on the field just as much as you can this season? How does he take to playing multiple roles like that?

Freeman: “Yeah, you’ve got to be really intelligent to be able to grasp everything you’re asked to do at multiple positions. You’ve got to have a unique skill set to be able to do different positions. And Luke Talich has both of those. He’s extremely talented. He works at the preparation, but he has a physical body that could play nickel, linebacker. He’s athletic enough and fast enough to play safety. And we’ve got to find ways to get Luke Talich on the field. We will find ways to get him on the field, but he’s done a tremendous job this spring with playing multiple positions.

Q: What kind of spring has Mylan Graham had?

Freeman: “Yeah, he’s talented. He’s been able to play inside and outside for us. Again, like I said with Luke Talich, you have to mentally be able to handle that too, and he’s done a really good job. “His transition into Notre Dame has been really good. There’s a balance you have to have in time management and your demands when you’re here, and he’s done a really good job at handling everything that’s been thrown at him. And he’s doing that and playing football at a high level. And so just keep being consistent. Handle the bad like you handle the good, and he’s got a bright future here.”

Q: Defensive coordinator Chris Ash has three new coaches with coordinator experience. How is that dynamic playing out?

Freeman: “I think at times it could be a double-edged sword. One is that everybody has knowledge and everybody has wisdom, but what can we package that our players and our young people can understand? And I say that, because in order to do that, the relationship between the coordinators and the position coaches have to be one of synergy. Like, they have to understand each other and know when to give ideas and when to just listen to the call or listen to the philosophy. ‘This is what we’re doing. Go teach it.’

“But more than anything, there’s a lot of synergy in that room, and probably because of previous relationships. He has previous relationships with two of those guys, and coach BJ [Brian Jean-Mary] has been tremendous. And so I really, really like what’s been going on in their meetings, their communication, their coaching, their alignment has been really good for us.”

Q: When did you realize you might have something special in Nolan James Jr.?

Freeman: “I’ve seen that since he stepped in the building. He’s got a unique build, man. He’s got great contact balance. He’s powerful. He’s explosive. He’s hard to bring down. I always told him his brother’s probably the best wrestler in the country at his age, and told Nolan he’d be a heck of a wrestler if he wrestled, because he just has that low center body of gravity.

“But he’s shown that from the moment he walked in here. The minute we put on pads and we gave Nolan James the ball, we said, ‘Oh, this guy can run. He’s got great balance. He’s tough.’ And so he’s been doing a good job, man. He’s going to help us tremendously this year.”

Q: What did you see from the linebacker position today?

Freeman: “I’m trying to think. I saw Teddy [Rezac] made a good play. Teddy made a big play. I don’t really know exactly today. My eyes were all over the place. But when you go back and evaluate, I can tell you from the first 11 practices, [Jaylen] Sneed and [Jaiden] Ausberry, being older guys, have really done a great job with the 1s.

“And what I like is they’ve had to rotate positions, which is going to help them. Because now when you add Drayk [Bowen] and you add Kyng [Viliamu-Asa] back into it, you’ve got a guy that doesn’t have to be a Mike or a Will. They can be interchangeable, which is important. So, they both have had to get outside their comfort zone. And they played Will linebacker last year. Well, guess what? You guys can play some Mike. You guys are going to switch. And so they’ve done a really good job.

“And then, you look and Teddy Rezac’s done a much better job this spring. He’s made a huge, huge positive step. Ko’o Kia, too. Ko’o is really good. He’s got some good traits. And so Thomas Davis, he’s young. He’s figuring it out. He’s a young deer. But he’s got some skill set, too. And so it’s good. It’s good to have those guys. I mean, it’s not super deep. Shoot, I’ve got to give Tommy Powlus a shout-out. I started calling him ‘Tommy Butkus’ sometimes. He’s making some good plays.

“So, to me, I say all those things as a reflection of the coach. They’re getting better, right? They’ve grasped the new teaching. They’ve grasped how coach BJ teaches them. And they’re playing better than they have in the past. And this isn’t about who their coach is. This is more about understanding new teaching. And ultimately the output is improvement. And that’s what we want. We want to see it.

Q: Going back to the defensive line, how have Armel Mukam and Sean Sevillano Jr. progressed this spring? 

Freeman: “You know, Big Sean has lost some weight. I probably shouldn’t call him ‘Big Sean.’ I’ll call him ‘Little Sean’ now. You know, he’s lost some weight. And that was something that was important to him. He felt like he needed to be at a certain weight to help contribute in the way he wanted to, which is credit to him. He’s put a lot of work in.

“And it’s great to have Armel back. He was, at one point, in the portal. We didn’t think we were going to have him. And to have him back, not only the production on the field, the big body, but the person he is, he makes our team better. He makes his teammates better. And he’s playing really, really well. And, again, very similar to the comments I made about the linebackers. It’s a reflection of being able to take new coaching, understand that coaching, then go play at a higher level.

“Credit goes to their coaches, too. I don’t speak highly enough about the coaching staff and what they’ve done. We’ve got some new coaches that come in here and just bought into Notre Dame, what we do, how we do things, and poured into our players. And you think of coach [Charlie] Partridge, coach BJ, coach [Aaron] Henry, those guys have done a really tremendous job. Credit to coach Ash for leading that room. I’m really pleased by what I’ve seen out of the defense this spring.”

Q: When did Blake Hebert suffer the injury and how serious is it? How long will he be out?

Freeman: “It happened yesterday in practice. He tried to give it a go today. But I just think he just tweaked his knee. I don’t think it’s anything serious, because he just came out today and was like, ‘I’m going to try to give it a go.’ He said it didn’t feel good enough to perform. But it happened yesterday in practice. It wasn’t something that’s happened for a while. But I think it’s minor.”