Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 15, 2022 17 else, miscues and bad habits that might have lingered until later of the season because they were masked by overall success were brought to light in defeat. "I don't care if we're completing the ball or if it's a tackle for loss," Freeman said. "What did Johnny do on this play? Did he do his job, yes or no? If not, let's fix it. "We have to evaluate every play and not worry about the outcome. It's a point of emphasis. If we have to stop practice, stop practice. If we're in the middle of a scout team period and we need to correct somebody, stop and cor- rect it. We can't just go on and say, 'We made a good play, Johnny didn't do his job, but we scored a touchdown.'" When Freeman talked about finishing in the aftermath of the Ohio State loss, it felt more like an urge to his players than a process where he had a formula to show them. He lamented late run defense failures and an offensive pass interference penalty that nuked a prom- ising drive in response to the Buckeyes taking the lead with 17 seconds left in the third quarter. "You want to say it's a mindset," Free- man said after that game. "We have to go back to work and say, 'Where weren't we able to execute offensively, defensively and on special teams late in the game?" Freeman appeared more frustrated with the timing of the mistakes than the mistakes themselves. One week later and deep into his autopsy of the poor start, Freeman realized that needed to be flipped. "There are plays in the first quarter we weren't executing the way we're supposed to," Freeman said. "Let's take the emphasis off finishing, look at every play of the game and focus on execution and preparation. … The point of em- phasis being, are we executing in prac- tice the way we need to help us execute in the game?" That wasn't the message he envi- sioned giving in September or one he frequently relayed in August. He had a feel for how put it into action, though. "It's a point of emphasis post-prac- tice and in our coach's meetings," Free- man said. "I tell our coaches to coach every play. 'Don't worry about the out- come. Don't worry about if we won the game or how we did in practice. Just coach every play. Just coach these guys.' Players have to hear that and say, 'I want to be coached every play.'" In essence, a season that began with playing for a national championship has turned into playing for week-to-week, day-to-day, play-to-play improve- ment. Freeman's job is to find the right way to flip his players' minds toward that and help them find motivation in a season when their primary goal isn't an option anymore. Wounded pride from losing as a heavy favorite can only fuel a team so much through 10 games. When the ideal outcome is no lon- ger possible, maybe an outcome-driven emphasis should go away too. Notre Dame still wants to win every game, of course. But the Irish are less consumed with the result itself and more inter- ested in doing the work outside games that should produce positive results. "[Winning out is] part of it, but we're focused on Coach Freeman's message and not worried about the end result," Patterson said. "Just focusing on day by day, week by week. That's what matters most, being the program he wants us to be." ✦ Freeman realized he had to shift his message from being too results-focused after Notre Dame started 0-2. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER