Freeman tackles playoff snubs, NFL rumors, and portal chaos, revealing Notre Dame's aggressive strategy for championship aspirations.
Notre Dame is just now getting the offseason kicked off and I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been eventful since the end of the regular season. Since their game on November 29th against Stanford, the Irish were snubbed from the playoffs, elected to sit out of the bowl game, signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, there's been NFL rumors swirling around heralded coach Marcus Freeman, the transfer portal has been a roller coaster of emotions and the alleged altercation with Freeman and a high school wrestling coach at a meet was vastly blown out of proportion.
That being said, Notre Dame has still maintained the meat and potatoes of their roster, signed the best recruiting class in the country and are actively bringing in high level talent in the portal. This has been an eventful offseason and it's only been a month and a half, but it's not distracting this program from the ultimate goal, winning a title. Today, Freeman stepped up to the podium to give a 'state of the union' type of address.
You can watch the full press conference here:
Here are some of Freeman's quotes from today's press conference:
Freeman On How He Processed Being Left Out Of The Playoffs
"I think a lot of the authentic emotions and reactions are captured on Here come the Irish documentary," Freeman explained. "You can see the disappointment and the confusion. As we look at that moment, it was obviously disappointing. But you have to move forward and that's what we've done as a program. That's what I've done as a leader. I reminded the group in our team meeting on Sunday that it's our responsibility to make sure we leave no doubt. Moving forward, we can't blame it on somebody else, we can't. I may be confused about some of the criteria in the committee's rankings and all those different things, but it's our job, as we move forward, to make sure we leave no doubt."
Freeman On His Future At Notre Dame
"I didn't have to reevaluate," Freeman stated. "Other people may say I reevaluated. I didn't ever have to reevaluate. The only statement I put out was, 'Let's run it back' and I was intentional about that. I don't need to come out with a statement every time one of these job openings happens. I always say the future is uncertain. That's what I tell our players and that's what I tell myself. It's the reality of life."
"Everything I want and everything that I need personally can be achieved right here as the head coach of this program," Freeman continued. "I hope this is something we have to address every year, I really do. It means we're having a lot of success right here at Notre Dame. If this isn't something we'd have to address, then there's bigger issues. What we're doing as a football program, because as your program has success, these type of things are going to occur."
Freeman On The Strategy Of The Portal Announcements
"I'm an aggressive person," Freeman said. "I want to go 1,000 miles an hour. Mike Martin continued to reiterate to me, 'Marcus, let's run our race; run our race.' He has a lot of experience with free agency from his NFL time. I trusted him. Let's be intentional about what we're doing. As we looked at our plan and how well we execute it, it was developed around number one: roster retention. We wanted to take as much time as it took to retain the right guys on our current roster. That was the most important thing to do is to retain our roster. Then we had to have patience knowing that."
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