Last night, the 9th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish won the battle for the Legends Trophy inside of Stanford Stadium 49-20 over the Cardinal. The Irish capped off their regular season in style winning their 10th straight game by double digits. Notre Dame out-gained Stanford 524 yards to 312 yards, went 11-18 on third down, three for three on fourth down and were extremely efficient down inside of the red zone.
Despite the 29-point victory, the win was still sloppy at times, but that doesn't take away from the overall dominance we saw on display last night. The Irish are sitting in an interesting position heading into Championship Saturday. Next Tuesday will shed quite a bit of light on where they're projected to be heading into the playoffs. Last night, head coach Marcus Freeman talked through their dominant win over Stanford, the regular season and the outlook on the playoffs.
You can watch the full press conference here:
Here are some of Freeman's quotes from today's post-game press conference:
Freeman On His Message To The Playoff Committee
"You talk about a team that's playing as well as anyone right now," Freeman answered. "We've won 10 straight games in a row, I think all of them by double digits. You want the 12 best teams now. I know you have the conference champions and the group of five highest ranked team, but you talk about who are the best teams now, not week one, but now, and it's hard to argue we aren't one of those teams."
Freeman On Focusing On Things Outside Of Their Control
"Personally, I don't do those things but maybe some other people in our program might," Freeman said. "It doesn't help us take advantage of the opportunity that we have at hand. That's what I kept trying to tell those guys; you have to value what you have. We have this opportunity right now. It was like this every week."
"If you don't value what you have you'll lose it, you'll lose the opportunity and you won't maximize it," Freeman continued. "If you're not thinking about this opportunity that we just had, then you're wasting this opportunity that you do have on things you don't control. It's so true to life. If you don't focus on what you have and what you can control, you're not going to maximize that opportunity."
Freeman On Running Back Aneyas Williams
"Every time he goes in the game, he's scoring touchdowns man," Freeman said about running back Aneyas Williams. "He's a guy that's an example of working with what he has. You'll often here me say 'work while you wait'. He had a small role, maybe it was as a kick returner or as the third back. But if practices, works and embraces his role, then when he gets a bigger role he maximizes it. That doesn't happen by chance, it's because he works his tail off and is preparing for that opportunity even when he doesn't know when it will present itself."
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