Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1482392
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 29, 2022 13 UNDER THE DOME "Notre Dame isn't winning a national champion- ship this year. It's not making the College Football Playoff. You've known that for a while. All Notre Dame can do is work toward a future run. And that means keeping this [2023] class together. If [Marcus] Freeman can control anything during his first full year on the job, it should be that." — The Athletic's Pete Sampson "We're going to be OK. … I was a completely dif- ferent person after Marshall. We lost to Ohio State, lost to Marshall. I didn't know what was going on. I was struggling. You use the past three games — the second half of Cal, North Carolina, BYU — we have a good football team, but we have to get to perform consistently. The culture of this program is we're going to have to embrace these tough times and these growing pains of getting this program to where we want it to be." — Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman "It's not a surprise that Marcus Freeman has looked over his head as a first-time head coach. Most do. A Year 1 learning curve was baked into the expectations, especially after what we saw from Freeman looking uncomfortable on the side- lines in the Fiesta Bowl. But Freeman wasn't sup- posed to be drowning six games into his official tenure. He wasn't supposed to look constantly bewildered." — On3's Jesse Simonton "Ultimately when you look at Notre Dame, it's a difficult place to cut your teeth. Every single mistake that you make is going to be highlighted. And if you're a first-time head coach, the likeli- hood of you making a mistake or two, three or 10 is incredibly high. "Guess what? Every other first-time head coach is making the same mistakes. Marcus Freeman is not alone. But let's say the first-year head coach at 'Fill-in-the-blank University,' they're not being talked about here on a national show. They're not being highlighted on ESPN, College GameDay, FOX Big Noon Kickoff or whatever it may be. They're not getting talked about, but guess who is? Marcus Freeman. "That's what you get when you sign up to be the head coach at Notre Dame, and there's certainly no sympathy for his shortcomings there. But, man, learning your head coaching style is not an easy process. Doing so in the midst of adversity is even more difficult. Then doing so under the most in- tense microscope that you can have as a head coach ramps up the difficulty level even higher. … I think Marcus Freeman's a great coach. I think he's gonna be defined by what he does in the future, not by what he does in Year No. 1 in a state of tran- sition." — ESPN analyst Greg McElroy on Freeman "I try to internalize it. How can I do better? How can I help? What could I have done? I was up all night going through calls that didn't hit. I could have done this. I could have done that. I should have done this. You've got to try to move ahead and continue to put our guys in the best position possible. "This is about the players. What we do, our pro- gram, what we're about is trying to put those guys in the right spot. That's what I owe them and that's why we work the way we work. "If all the blame is going to go toward me, that's a good thing because it means it's not falling on our guys. I'd rather have it that way." — Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees on his unit's performance vs. Stanford compared to its successful outings against North Carolina and BYU "We have to take another step for sure. We were doing well with the explosives early in the season, and then we hit a bad streak where we let up too many explosives. We have to get that back under control. We just have to start getting some of these [loose] balls — three balls on the ground the other night and we didn't get any. I know some don't bounce your way, but you have to make your op- portunities. "We have to deflect some balls, bat some balls, get some interceptions. We have to help our team out. It's not good enough to just stop them. We have to create some field position, help the of- fense, make an explosive play ourselves." — Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden on his unit PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER TOP TWEETS THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "You can't fathom in your brain scoring in front of 80,000. I watched it back and I'm like, 'That's me?' It's a surreal moment." — Freshman wide receiver Tobias Merriweather on his 41-yard touchdown reception vs. Stanford Oct. 15