The 10th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish by the Associated Press take on the 7-1 Navy Midshipmen this Saturday night in South Bend. The Irish are coming off of a sloppy 15-point win over the Boston College Eagles while the Midshipmen are looking to bounce back after their first loss of the season this past weekend to North Texas 31-17. Notre Dame is riding a six-game win streak dating back to the Purdue game on September 20 and need to make a strong impression on the playoff committee after their 25-10 win over Boston College. Head coach Marcus Freeman spoke today about their win over Boston College, the challenges of preparing for Navy's triple option and the College Football Playoffs.
You can watch the full press conference here:
Here are some of Freeman's quotes from this afternoon's press conference:
Freeman On Tae Johnson's Maturation
"He's matured tremendously," Freeman said about safety Tae Johnson. "He's matured as a football player, as an individual, as a father and as a person. You have to first understand that you need to grow. If you don't think you need to grow or mature, that's the most important thing. If you don't think you need to grow and mature, you're not going to do the things to grow and mature. He understood that; he's embraced that. He's put the work in. You're seeing some of the rewards on the football field, but off the field, he's maturing. He's having rewards in the classroom, he's doing good in school and in all areas of his life. I'm really proud of him and I know he's going to continue to do great things on and off the field."
Freeman On The Importance Of A Dynamic Offense
"When you look at last year, teams could stack the box and you still have the element of a quarterback run," Freeman explained. "That paralyzes the extra person they put in the box. That's not CJ [Carr's] strong suit, but we know that if you continue to stack the box, he has opportunities to throw the ball over the top of the defense, make good checks and put the ball in good areas. That has to be a staple of what we do. We have to be able to run the ball, but if teams aren't going to allow you to run the ball, as you're seeing some teams try to do, we have to be able to throw the ball over the top of the defense and we're having some success doing it."
Freeman On Possibly Running More 21 Personnel
"There's so many different ideas that you can experiment with," Freeman stated. "We're having a lot of success with what we're doing. We experimented with that earlier in the season and if there comes a game that we think that can give us an edge then we'll try it. We just have to continue doing what we're doing better. We're greedy people, we all want perfection but what we're doing right now is really good. We just have to continue to make it better and look for ways to enhance. If that's a way to give us an added edge then we'll definitely consider that."
-------
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @TTrow5
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook