Notre Dame's head coach Marcus Freeman spoke with the media today for the first time since their 34-24 win over USC on October 18. The Irish just wrapped up their second and final bye week of the regular season and are gearing up for their five-game home stretch where Freeman and the Irish look to finish off a 10-game winning streak like they did last season. Freeman spoke about some bye week adjustments, players getting back to health and the outlook on the remainder of the season.
The kickoff time for the Boston College game was released this past weekend; the Fighting Irish and the Eagles will kickoff at 3:30PM ET on ESPN in their 27th meeting all time and Notre Dame's first trip out to Chestnut Hill since 2020.
You can watch the full press conference here:
Here are some of Freeman's comments from this afternoon's press conference:
Freeman On The Place Kicking Struggles
"I think it's both," Freeman answered when asked about the kicking struggles being about injuries or technique. "Injuries make you compensate technique. The extra-point and the field goal we missed were technique issues that were a result of injuries. I think Noah [Burnette] is feeling a lot better as we go into this week, but he has to continuously use his technique and trust his technique and not let the previous injury dictate the technique he uses. We have to continue to trust our technique, but we also have to make sure if we're going to put him out there, he has to be healthy and be confident in utilizing that technique."
Freeman On Gabriel Rubio's Status
"Gabriel [Rubio] will be out this week," Freeman explained. "At some point, we plan on getting him back before the season is over. I don't have a great timeline for when that's going to be but we believe it will be before the season is over. But I do believe the defensive line will continue to enhance. That has to be everyone in our program; that has to be the defensive tackles to the head coach. It's a mindset; we have to continue to get better. One is to have that mindset, but then you have to have the ability to find the answers to help you get better. You have to want to get better and believe that you can get better. But there's answers out there to help you get better."
Freeman On Christian Gray's Lapses In Technique
"I think it starts with health for him," Freeman stated. "He's a guy that's been pretty injured and banged up. But the thing about Christian [Gray], he's such a tough individual. He never wants to come out of the game and never wants to tell people how he's truly feeling. We know he's banged up without him even saying it. We were proactive with evaluating him and his body and what areas truly need to recover. That's where a lot of his issues came from were injuries that caused him to play with poor technique in certain situations. That's the first thing. The second thing is continuing to trust that technique and do it consistently. He'll never be the guy to make an excuse, but we have to make sure he keeps getting healthy to make sure he can play at a high level."
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