Notre Dame Coach Marcus Freeman’s postgame Press Conference Transcript (vs. Pittsburgh)

Following No. 9 Notre Dame football’s 37-9 win over No. 22 Pittsburgh on Saturday,Irish coach Marcus Freeman addressed the media for about 10 minutes,answering 12 questions. Here is everything he said.

Opening statement

“Yeah, man, obviously a satisfying win over a really good opponent.I was proud of the way our guys prepared,handled the excitement around this game and the hype and Collage GameDay being here. They handled it the right way by using their energy to work, and they prepared the right way and went out and started from the beginning. Started fast.

“It wasn’t perfect, but it’s never perfect against a good opponent. And so we’re going to celebrate it tonight, enjoy this, and then we’ll get ready for this next chance tomorrow for senior day back at home.”

Q. Coach, Adon Shuler’s two-point return is going to be the highlight, but his first third-down breakup, kind of a tone-setting hit by Adon Shuler…was that something you guys felt…there was a couple of drop passes thereafter as well, that’s the tone for your defense?

FREEMAN: “Yeah, there’s a standard the way we play. You have to play with the physicality that we demand. And so it’s not for a certain game, that’s the standard you have to play with. And I’m not saying we always do it, but you’re not OK if you don’t play with that type of physicality. So it was a physical battle, and our guys chose to play the game that way.”

Q. Coach, when it came to the defense as a whole, just what did you see in terms of the clarity and velocity of your team today?

FREEMAN: “Yeah, they played fast, they played hard. We had to make some adjustments for our third-down package based on what they were doing. Their quarterback’s a good player now, right? He was hard to bring down, and he made some really good football players miss.

“And credit to him for the ability to escape, but our guys kept getting pressure. We continued to change up the coverage and the looks, and they played fast. Coach [Chris] Ash and the defensive staff did a really good job making sure our guys were prepared.”

Q. You mentioned College GameDay, you talked a lot all week about some personal noise. There’s a lot of noise attached to this game,maybe coming from the othre coach.

I’m curious how you galvanized the group, and maybe there was nothing said about that noise. But how do you approach a game like this when there is a lot of that on the outside?

FREEMAN: “Yeah, I think any leader will find ways to motivate his group. But they know the opportunity at hand,right? And they know that,man,all we can focus on is this opportunity we have in front of us.

“I don’t have time to focus on anything other than this football program and what we have to do.And if I’m focusing on something other than that, then I’m wasting time. And so that’s our focus, and that’s g

Freeman Reflects on Late-Game Defense and Complementary Football

Q. Marcus, after the game, you seemed pretty focused on moving forward. Was there any temptation to dwell on what happened at the end of the game?

FREEMAN: “No, I wanted to go celebrate, but here’s what I’ll say. I’ll answer it this way. I, to each their own, you know what I mean? I don’t ever comment on another program, but also I don’t have time to think about that.

“Like,they called a timeout? All right,guys,let’s get them stopped,right? And that’s my challenge with our guys. I don’t know what exactly happened and how they scored that last play. We got to evaluate it, but they called a timeout, let’s go. We got to win.We got to win this play.

“I mean, as you feel really good about how the defense played the whole, I don’t care who’s in the game, you don’t give up that touchdown at the very end. And so that’s how I look at it.”

Q.Marcus, you should talk about complementary football. How critically important or gratifying is it this late in the season to see you guys stacking explosive plays on top of each other in different phases?

FREEMAN: “Yeah, defense did a real good job. Tae-Tae’s interception for a touchdown. Adon’s two-point conversion – converted for two points,and then followed up by big plays by your offence.

“And you look at that pick-6 that CJ [Carr] threw, and then it’s followed up by a two-point conversion that’s returned for two points. and sometimes, as you look at last week, it was good, good. We had a great series on offense, a great series on defense, great series on offense, great series on defense. And I can’t remember what the final score was, but you see the margin of victory.

“Today, what you saw was if the offense struggled, it was the defense that stepped up and really did some good things. And that’s complementary football team, too. When one group’s down, you got make sure – you can’t go bad, bad. Bad, bad equals points. And that’s what we can’t have.

“And so, again, I was pleased, man. That’s a good defense that they have. They got a good team, not just good defense.but I’m just proud of the way their guys kept at it.”