Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made his debut in a head spot Saturday and things looked great for him and the Fighting Irish until it all went south.
Notre Dame blew a 28-7 lead and ultimately fell 37-35 as their streak of not winning a major bowl game since January of 1994 continued.
Freeman spoke after the contest and had the following to share in regards to all things Notre Dame and Fiesta Bowl related:
Summarizes Game
“Well, we obviously didn’t finish. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted. We’re obviously disappointed. I thought the kids prepared tremendously. I thought the coaching staff did a great job, but at the end of the day, we didn’t execute when it mattered most. But these guys, man, it’s a special group and for those that aren’t coming back, they’re gonna be greatly missed. More than anything, there’s a group I think that’s one, disappointed, but two, motivated. Motivated to right what happened today and to start the progression for the future. As I told them 28 days ago, this is about right now, this was about finishing this season off the right way. Well, it didn’t happen and it’s okay. All we can do now is start focusing on what we’ll do as we move forward to make sure that we’re successful the next time we are on the field.”
Message to Notre Dame fans
“They deserve a winning product. They deserve a team that every week goes out there and wins. It’s our job to make sure that we prepare and we do everything necessary to give this team, the fan base, the university and everybody else that deserves a really, really good product out on that field. We’ll get back to work. That’s only thing we know how to do and win or lose, we’re going to get back to work and we’re going to find ways to improve and make sure that we’re even more prepared and have a better opportunity to have success next time we’re on the field.”
On coaching first game as head coach
“Like everything else that has happened in these first 28 days, it’s an honor, it’s a surreal feeling at times, and I tried to take it in and tried to understand the platform you’re on. But at the same time, the foot hit the ball and it’s time to go and it’s time to lead and it’s time to be the head coach. I just want to make sure that we’re doing everything in our power to give these kids a chance to have success.”
Oklahoma State’s adjustments
“They did a good job of getting into some 10 personnel, which they really hadn’t shown much all year and it was good. They made some good second half adjustments offensively and defensively to stop what we were doing offensively and to kind of exploit some things defensively. They did a good job and you gotta give them credit where credit’s due.”
Lessons from Fiesta Bowl loss
For me obviously, as the leader of this program, again, it’s a pit in your stomach, as I told the group a minute ago, that you want to bottle it up and you want to remember how this feels. The honeymoon stage is over. The whole, new head coach, it’s a great story, but now it’s about having a great product and it’s about having a great team. We have to make sure that it’s about developing this team for next year. This year is over, so everything we do from now moving forward is going to be development and making sure we’re prepared to have success.”
On Tyler Buchner not getting a single snap
“He was definitely an option. You look at the way our offense was moving the ball first half, I don’t think coach Rees wanted to make that change and he wanted to keep that thing going. As you get to the second half, they did a good job of getting some three and outs but, but obviously not until the fourth quarter did the lead change in terms of who was in the lead. I think at that point you’re just gonna ride with with Jack and Jack played well, man. He played really well. Obviously there are a couple plays we wish we can take back, but we can’t. I’m proud as heck of Jack and I’m looking forward to seeing this QB competition as we move forward.”
On offensive line performance
“I think for the most part, and again, I haven’t gone into evaluated but they protected the quarterback. Again, it’s the tale of two halves in terms of the first half you scored 28 points I think offensively. We’re moving the ball. They’re protecting the quarterback. In the second half, obviously things didn’t go that way. We have to go back, Tommy, and look and say, Okay, what did the defense do second half schematically that gave us issues and let’s try to find a way to make sure that never happens again.”
His next move as head coach
“I’m more motivated now to go, go, go. Everything we do, from staff to personnel to recruiting to whatever it is, this organization needs to improve. That’s all my mindset is.”
Oklahoma State’s tempo
“We knew they were going to go fast and they did. We prepared for it. But at the end of the day, they still executed a little bit better than we did defensively. We wanted to play some zone early in the game and they were starting to exploit some of that zone. So we said, okay, let’s change and play a little bit more man.”
Clarence Lewis’s tough day
“You know what? I trust [Clarence]. You know, [Tay] made some plays. He’s a heck of a player. He’s a heck of a player. We got to do a better job, maybe mixing it up. But you know what, hey, man, C-Lew is gonna do great things for us and he’s done great things for us. You know what, I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”
On Notre Dame’s disappearing pass rush
“You started to see him run some quarterback draws. All of the sudden you get pass-rush and then the quarterback scrambles up the middle. We’re gonna tell our defenders, hey, don’t rush past the quarterback. It’s a chess match. We want to get pass-rush, but we also don’t want the quarterback to scramble right up the middle of our defense. They did a good job of mix it up. They did a good job of getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hand and so that could slow down your pass rush. Your pass rush is non existent if they can get the ball out of his hand so fast. They did a good job. Again, kudos to them. We got to look at how we can fix some things and make sure we’re better prepared.”
On significance of being Notre Dame head coach
“You know the enormous responsibility the minute you’re named the head coach of the University of Notre Dame football team and so I understand the expectations. You can’t focus on that. The only thing you can focus on is your guys. The only thing you can focus on is enhancing what you do and that’s what my focus is. It’s not about, hey, do you know the pressure that’s on you? No, it’s about everything in my power that I can do to make sure that this team improves every single day and that we improve as an organization in terms of how we recruit, our culture, how we develop these guys. That’s where my mindset is. It’s not about how big this opportunity is. It’s about taking care of these guys and making sure we’re helping them improve and reach their goals.”
Loss sting any of new coaching buzz?
“It might disappoint some people, but I understand where we’re going in the future. I understand you know what, we have a lot of games ahead of us and we’re going to use this game as motivation. We’re going to use this game to look back and say, you remember that first one, look where we’ve come from there. Sometimes you got to look at it as a blessing man. Hey, we used this. Maybe it wasn’t this honeymoon phase that kept going boom, boom, boom. All of a sudden, everything’s good and bam, reality hits. You know what, we got to work a little bit harder. We got to make sure that we evaluate everything we do a little bit more, so that the next time we step on that field, we’re prepared a little bit more to have success.”
On Tommy Rees’s day
“It was obviously a first time for me being on the offensive side of the ball and listening to their communication. I thought it was really good. Again, the play calling and execution are two different things. Tommy did a great job of getting a call in, it kind of felt like he had a great rhythm and he did a great job. It’s easy to look at the first half and second half and say, hey, it didn’t go as well in the second half. Yeah, it didn’t, but that has nothing to do with the play calls. It’s about execution. We got to execute better. We got to coach better. We got to execute better on both sides of the ball. We’re all going to look at ourselves, right? We’re all going to point the finger at ourselves and say, what can I do as an individual to make sure that we’re more prepared and if we can get everybody in that locker room, everybody that’s involved with our football team to look at theirselves and say, hey, my role is important as the head coach and what do I have to do to make sure that I execute my role better than the person I’m going against. If we get everybody to look at themselves like that, we’re going to be really, really successful.”
On close to first half
“I kind of talked to Tommy and he said, hey man, if we take a shot, they still have a few timeouts. That’s not what we wanted. We felt really good with the 28 to 14 lead going into halftime. Let’s be smart and make sure that we don’t give this team another opportunity to score points and so I thought that was a great decision by the communication between me and Tommy and I wouldn’t change that.”
Self-evaluation of first head coaching performance
“Well, not as well as we wanted. We obviously wanted a victory, but I think we all can learn from it, myself included. Look at every situation and say hey, is there something you could do differently? Is there a timeout you could have called? Is there something defensively you could have done? Maybe a suggestion offensively we could have done. It’s a learning situation. It’s a learning opportunity. You’d like to learn from wins, but this is going to be a learning opportunity from a loss and as long as everybody learns from this, we will be fine.”
Mike Elston as a playcaller
“I think Elston did a great job and I thought he prepared like crazy. I thought this defense was prepared. They gave us a few wrinkles that we hadn’t prepared for and maybe we hadn’t seen them do on film. Again, as I said earlier, kudos to them. They did a good job.”
Thought to punt late in game?
“No, I did not consider punting with three minutes left just because we were reeling a little bit on defense. We hadn’t been able to get the big stops that we needed, so let’s try to put our hat on our offense and see if we can get a fourth down conversion and try to score and obviously, it didn’t go that way. We still got the ball back and had a chance with a minute left to try to get an onside kick to win and it didn’t happen. So, hopefully next time we don’t put ourselves in that situation.”
Fiesta Bowl links:
Notre Dame blows Fiesta Bowl lead – 5 Instant Takeaways
College football world reacts to Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl collapse
Five plays that loomed largest in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss
Five Stars: Best and worst from Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl blunder
Notre Dame tight end sets program record in Fiesta Bowl
Notre Dame running back makes big-time promise following Fiesta Bowl
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