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Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to reporters Thursday.
Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports
Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with two groups of local beat reporters Thursday as the Irish get ready for summer workouts ahead of the 2025 season.
Here's everything the fourth-year head coach had to say in the session that included Inside ND Sports. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
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► The Heat Index: Notre Dame's lining up strong finish to 2026 cycle on defense
► The Heat Index: More twists and turns at tight end and wide receiver for Notre Dame
► Three-star DL Alister Vallejo sets commitment date
► Counting down a decade of Notre Dame's top 10 freshman summer surprises
► Thinking out loud on storylines affecting Notre Dame in a loud offseason
Q: Throughout the playoff run, your players attributed their success to the notion that “culture wins.” Yet as we move quickly toward a more professional sports model, how do you maintain that culture when the world around it is changing? How do you make sure that culture still matters when money’s going to matter more and more?
Marcus Freeman: “There’s still a lot of similarities between what college football is becoming and the NFL. I still think culture wins in the NFL. I do. I think, as you look at some of the successful franchises or organizations in the NFL, there’s still culture.
“And so, because they’re making money, that has no difference in the culture you are creating in the building. The money you make is the money you make. When you walk into our building, the culture is what you should feel. The culture is what is demanded around here. And that’s how we operate around here. It doesn’t matter how much money you make. You’re not treated that way. You’re not treated any different, no matter if you’re making more money than this person or if your role’s bigger than this person. You’re treated the way you go about your business, and I think that’s important.
“So, that’s what I believe in. I can tell you what our culture is. It’s what they feel, it’s what you feel when you’re in this building [Guglielmino Athletics Complex]. And what you feel is going to be determined not on what money you make.”
Q: Two years ago you thought defensive backs coach Mike Mickens was ready to be a college defensive coordinator. In that light, how were you able to keep him invested in Notre Dame now? And then does his role change with a new defensive coordinator in Chris Ash?
MF: “His role is always continuing to grow based off the confidence that the coordinator has in him. And I think that was something that was built through three years with Al Golden. And that’s something that Chris Ash is learning in his time here. And that’s with all three position coaches. That’s with Mickens, [Al] Washington and Max Bullough. You could ask me the same question about Al Washington, who turned down the Tennessee defensive coordinator’s position four years, five years ago.
“Are they ready to be defensive coordinators? Well, Al Washington was offered the defensive coordinator job at Tennessee, so I believe he is. I believe Mike Mickens is. For me, when I make decisions, it’s more about what does this program need at that moment? And I believe at that moment, we needed Chris Ash, because of the traits that he brings to this program — the traits that we lost versus the traits that we wanted to bring in. That’s what went into that decision.
“So, Mick is going to have a huge role. But again, that’s based off the confidence that he’s been able to gain out of Chris Ash.”
Q: With regard to Charles Jagusah and his best position, what went into the thought process of having him at guard in the spring and presumably moving forward?
MF: “I think it’s: What’s the best five? It’s not make a decision off the best one. On the offensive line, it’s what makes the best five. The decision for Charles Jagusah to play guard might not mean it’s Charles Jagusah’s best position or future position as much as it is what we need out of those five guys. I think Charles Jagusah could be a center, guard or tackle. I mean, he’s a freak. He’s really freaking good.
“I’m evaluating off of practice but also three games — he’s played in three games. But I’m also evaluating based off things I hear from [O-line coach] Joe Rudolph and [offensive coordinator] Mike Denbrock. When I hear Mike Denbrock compare him to the guy at LSU — the guy who got drafted to the Patriots [Will Campbell], that’s high praise now. But that’s what went into the decision for him to play guard. It’s what’s best for the five.’
Q: What do you see as tight end Eli Raridon’s potential?
MF: “Hopefully, a game-changer. I think he’s continuing to progress to be a complete tight end. He’s got to stay healthy. Like, that’s been Eli’s biggest nemesis in his first three years. There’s always something that has kept him from practicing or playing. So, I think he has a high ceiling, but he’s just got to continue to put it together to be a complete tight end. You know, he’s gotten high praise from Denbrock, who’s coached some of the best tight ends Notre Dame has had. And even when we were at Cincinnati, we had two NFL-drafted tight ends.
“He’s got a high ceiling, and he’s progressing. But he’s got to stay healthy and continuously be consistent in all phases of playing tight end. Like, potential and consistency are two different things. We need him to be more consistent. He’s got high potential.”
Q: When you have a quiet moment and you think back to that night in Atlanta, the national championship game loss to Ohio State, what are some of your thoughts on that?
MF: “Hmm. Pain. Devastation.”
Q: Still?
MF: “Oh yeah. When I think back to the season, it’s completely different. When I think back to that game and that night — painful. Disappointing. Underachieved. Those are the things I think about. I wish we could go back and, ‘Let’s do it one more time.’
“We didn’t play our best when our best was needed, and the outcome’s the outcome. But that’s different than when I think about the entire season. I think about the journey’s completely different. That’s a selfish answer. That’s what I feel. Grateful for the seniors. Grateful for the guys who that was their last game. Appreciative of those guys and their sacrifice, but selfishly that’s how I feel when I think about that game.”
Q: Having come so close to winning a national championship, how are you a better coach because of what you went through at the end there?
MF: “I’ve said this before, but your past experiences continue to be your foundation for the future. And I’m a better coach because of the experience. I’m a better coach because of the understanding what that experience was like, what it took. It’s going to take something different this year. Like, it doesn’t just repeat itself. Just because we did it last year doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, we know the answers.’ But those experiences become the foundation for this upcoming season. I think it’s made us all better, but me included.”
Q: Following up a runner-up finish, what have you learned that feels different about his offseason?
MF: “I think it’s very similar to the answer I just gave. It’s understanding that the experience told us what it took. And how does that make us better for this year? We have experiences, the foundation. They understand that we can be as good as anybody in the country. It’s that belief and the confidence that you have. Like, confidence goes a long way. What will it be like? We know. We know. Now, there’s new talent, new coaches, new personnel. They have to be able to be on that journey without being here physically. That’s a challenge for me to make sure, ‘You might not have been here last year with us, but you have to understand the things we learned — even though you weren’t here last year.’
“And I always use the idea of relationships. Like, when you’re in a relationship and you come and join this program, you have to go through the previous experiences. If there’s things we learned from last year, you have to understand that and have those same feelings that we have. And again, it’s a new year. It’s a totally new group, got a new coordinator. But it’s the understanding that, ‘Hey, we know. It’s not foreign to us anymore. We’ve got what it takes.”
Q: Have you thought about the fact that the House v. NCAA settlement hasn’t been resolved yet? And you’ve talked about having contingency plans — is it that simple?
MF: “When they made the decision on grandfathering in the walk-ons, that kind of was a major decision that we needed to know — do we have to make cuts or not? And assuming they’re going to approve it — but no matter if they approve it or not, we don’t have to make roster cuts. Which was a huge decision we had to make.
“As far as the other things in the settlement, again, we’re moving forward as if it’s probably going to be approved here in the next week, days.”
Q: Last year quarterbacks Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr didn’t have a chance to be involved in the game plan. What have you learned about them in the last four months, now that they’re getting their opportunities?
MF: “They’re both high-ceiling guys. They are highly intelligent, highly talented football players. But they also lack in game experience. There’s no substitution for that. And so, how do I create as many game-like situations for them in fall camp? It’s going to be really important, but I think they both are really high-ceiling guys, talented, talented. And maybe different in certain areas and in certain aspects. But when you look at the overall picture of the quarterback, they’re both really, really talented individuals.”
Q: It’s been about a year since you brought director of football strategy Anthony Treash into the program. What are some of the ways you’ve expanded analytics since then, and how has Anthony impacted what you do on game day?
MF: “He is obviously my right-hand man on game day in terms of game-management decisions. But a lot of that work is done throughout the week. We meet three, four times a week — one to learn from our experiences, from other people’s experiences but also to prepare. The first couple of days we might say, ‘Let’s learn from our game. Let’s learn from the NFL. Let’s learn from other college teams. What would I do in that situation? What would you do? Would you accept the penalty? Would you go for it? Dah, dah, dah.’ All these different situations.
“And then as we get closer to game day, we say, ‘OK, what’s the plan? Hey, what’s the book telling us where we’re going to go for it? Let me communicate with the coordinators. Where’s the kick line? All those different things.’ That’s in terms of game management. But he also has a lot of value in helping with the personnel, with using analytics in terms of evaluation, and that’s been something that he’s done a terrific job of doing.”
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Q: You had pretty good placement on the EA Sports College Football 26 cover. Is there any photoshop that goes into that?
MF: “I was there. That’s where I was at.”
Q: That’s where you were actually standing?
MF: “Yeah. They did some photoshopping, but that’s exactly where we were standing.”
Q: What goes into that? Any funny stories with that? What’s the effect of Notre Dame being almost front and center in something so important to so many young people?
MF: “That was, I think, voting from fans where we should be placed. No, I’m just messing with you. I don’t know what what into it. I just went there, and I was told, ‘Hey, you go stand here.’ Now, I know the guy I was standing beside was enormous: Dylan Stewart. I was like, ‘Holy cow!’ The quarterback at Michigan, [Bryce] Underwood, holy cow!
“I didn’t know who was gonna be there. I just knew me and Jeremiyah was going to be there. Then all of a sudden I saw Tim Tebow and Reggie Bush, and I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, this is pretty cool.’ I was there and you kinda saw what they were trying to do. It was pretty cool. I don’t take a lot of pride in where I was standing, but that was up to EA Sports.
“It was cool to be with those guys. We spent some time together all the coaches and players.”
Q: What does the Notre Dame-USC rivalry mean to you and your program? And especially in terms of continuing to have that flag planted in recruiting in Southern California?
MF: “It’s a great rivalry for all of college football. If it was up to me, we would play them every single year for the rest of college football time. It’s pretty black-and-white for me. You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them. Start of the season, middle of the season, end of season — I don’t care. I want to play USC every year, because I think it’s great for college football.
“It’s great for college football that rivalry, USC-Notre Dame. Before I even got to Notre Dame, everybody watched that game. Everybody remembers moments from that game that just stick out in your mind. If [athletic director] Pete [Bevacqua] or [deputy athletic director of football] Ron [Powlus] or anybody asks me, that’s how I feel. Everybody knows that’s how I feel.
“But also I’m not the one dealing with the administration part of scheduling games. I think it’s important that we continue this rivalry.”
Q: Can you elaborate on the part of players who sign here can go home twice a career if they’re from California?
MF: “We’re such a national brand. We recruit coast-to-coast, but we’ve done a really good job in the state of California, the West Coast. More than that, all of the West Coast. You’re talking about Hawaii, California, Wyoming, keep going. It’s important that they understand we sell play coast-to-coast. We play from New York to California. We go to Florida this year. We’re in Texas. That’s what Notre Dame does. To eliminate that, it really wouldn’t be beneficial for our program.”
Q: What are the expectations for wide receiver Jaden Greathouse to build on this past season? And what kind of roles will Malachi Fields and Will Pauling have? How can they impact your offense as you look to take that next step in the passing game?
MF: “What Riley [Leonard] and what we learned toward the end of that season is that if Jaden Greathouse covered one-on-one, he’s not covered. Throw him the ball. He’s able to make some catches that some people would assume that he’s covered. We have to trust him. He’s not always going to outrun everybody. He’s not going to be wide open. If he’s one-on-one, give him a chance. Because more than not, he’s gonna make the play.
“We’ll continue to see elevation out of Jaden, because he’s a grinder. He’s a guy that’s obsessed with improvement. He’s going into his third year. Gosh the time flies. He’s just continuously getting better. He’s a playmaker for us. Very similar to what we’ve had in Jordan Faison too.”
“As far as adding those two guys, we had Will here in the spring. He was a little bit phased in because he was coming off of an injury. The thing I respect about Will is the way he practiced. When he was in there at practice, he practiced at a different pace and at a different effort level than what I have seen in the past. What’s that gonna do? Elevate the guys around him. I love dudes that practice hard, and he’s one of those guys. He’s a playmaker. He can make plays. He’s experienced. What I like more than anything is his effort. The way he plays with effort. He’s tough. You don’t always say that about wideouts — tough. He is tough.
“It was funny. I was watching the Virginia game probably last week. I sent Coach [Mike] Brown a couple text messages. One, I was impressed with the way Malachi threw the ball on the double pass. I said Faison’s gonna have some competition on who’s gonna be the wideout who can throw the ball. But two, go back and watch that game. All the screens he was at the point of attack. That tells me a lot about him. If you’re at the point of attack, and you’re supposed to be the star wideout and you’re not getting the ball on the screens, but they put you to the boundary when they run a screen to the boundary. They put you in the slot to the field, when they run that. That tells me what type of football player you are: tough, gritty, high effort and you take pride in blocking. Everybody knows he’s a gamechanger as a wideout. You put him to the boundary, and say, OK, let’s go. You want to play me man-to-man? Or are you gonna play zone on me? If you’re gonna play man-to-man, we believe we can win. That’s what I see when I watch Malachi Fields on film. But more than that now, I have an even greater respect because of how they used him.”
Q: What are your expectations for your defensive ends as Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore work back from injury and the opportunities that were opened up for Junior Tuihalamaka, Josh Burnham and Bryce Young last year?
MF: “We have high expectations for Boubacar and Jordan being able to fully get back and going full go. We know what they can do. There’s a lot of trust built with Junior and Josh Burnham and even Loghan Thomas now.
“We’re playing left and right end now. We kind of got away from a true vyper. We have a vyper and we call him a vyper, but we’re playing really left and right more than anything right now. It makes those guys a little bit interchangeable. You have four guys who have played a lot of ball that can at any moment go into the game and you’re to the left, you’re to the right, let’s go.
“We’re gonna be able to play multiple guys with experience. I love it. They’re all back. They’re all getting better. You lose RJ Oben, but those four guys are all back. They’re getting better. Loghan Thomas is getting better. That’s gonna be a position that we’re gonna have a lot of depth. We gotta find ways to get them on the field, roll them.
“There’s another lesson last year told us. The season’s long. You’re gonna have to roll guys. Stop making permanent decisions based off week one. Let the normal football season play out. You’re gonna need depth. That’s what they all understand.”
Q: What were the conversations with quarterback Steve Angeli at the end of spring? How hard was it to lose him after what he’s done during his Notre Dame career and handled himself?
MF: “What Steve Angeli has done for this program in his three years have been amazing. I’m a huge fan of Steve Angeli. We had a competition in the spring, and that competition wasn’t answered after 14 practices. You have to have honest conversations with those guys in that room. That’s what I did. At the end of the day, Steve made the decision to transfer where there was probably a better opportunity for him — nothing’s guaranteed, but a better opportunity for him to be the starter in the fall. There’s a more clear picture.
“That’s why he made that decision, and he’s graduated. There’s no hard feelings. It was sadness for me, because I love Steve Angeli as a person and a football player. But I support him, because it was the right decision for Steve.”
Q: What has been the difference with recruiting in the last couple months? Was it just a matter of timing? Why have you had so much success the last two months?
MF: “We’re on the right guys. I’ve been a little bit hesitant of saying we’ve gotta get guys to commit right now. I think previously there’s been a push to how fast can we get as many as we can. Right now, it’s like let’s get the right guys. Let’s continuously recruit the right guys, stay on the right guys. That was more important than getting guys to commit just to put pressure on other guys. That’s kind of what we’ve done. Everybody in the program has taken on a little bit of ownership of how do we help sell this place. How do we help recruit and develop relationships? It’s just being consistent with the right guys. Not being patient — I’m not a patient person. But also understanding that sometimes the great ones take time. We want it now, but a little delayed gratification is what we’re seeing.”
Q: What’s gone into the decision to use more left and right defensive ends?
MF: “It’s more of personnel. We don’t need to just put guys into the boundary and say you’re a guy that can drop. Let’s just only play you at vyper. It just limits the opportunities to get on the field. To be able to say we can play left and right, your end to the field can drop. Your end to boundary can drop. It helps you become a little bit more balanced and unpredictable, because usually we only drop the guy to the boundary. That’s why we called them the vyper. We can drop anybody now, because they’re playing left and right.”
Q: How has your perspective on analytics and fourth-down decisions specifically, changed since Treash has been here? Is there an example of a decision you made last year that you might not have without an analytics guy behind you.
MF: “A lot of my decisions on fourth down is the confidence I have in our offense. When you have a quarterback that you believe can get any first down, you’re gonna make those decisions. On third you’re gonna sequence calls to be able to go for it on fourth. It wasn’t going for it on fourth down as much as some of the decisions on two-minute situations, how I want to use the timeout. There’s a lot of little things that you guys probably don’t even care about that goes into game management. Snap the ball at six seconds on the play clock, because we want to make sure that we’re gonna have to snap it again before a two-minute situation. That’s more important than anything.
“There’s not a situation where I said, ‘Hey, Treash, should we go for it on fourth down here?’ He’ll tell me what’s a go. That’s his job. What’s a go? He’ll tell me that on every down. What’s a go? I make the decision on do I want to go for it or not. I communicate with [offensive coordinator Mike] Denbrock on what I think on third down. It’s the work that’s done outside of Saturdays that have been more beneficial than anything.”
Q: What’s the challenge of building the most physical team with in-season practices while also knowing that you want a team that can hold up physically for the long haul and avoid the nicks and concussions especially?
MF: “I think we practiced close to 15% more than we ever had. It was the healthiest season we’ve had in my time in terms of injuries from practice. There were some non-preventable injuries in games. It happens. If you look at the patterns over years across football, the patterns are going to tell us we’re going to have one of the healthiest years in terms of non-preventable injuries in a game. That’s just what the graphs tell you. But when you talk about practice injuries, it was the healthiest season we had, and we practiced a lot more this past year.’
“And so, it’s a constant conversation we have as far as a sports performance staff. And I’ve got to be willing to bend a little bit. It’s not, ‘Hey let’s shorten things.’ It’s, ‘How do we ebb and flow practice? How do I weigh practice in a way to keep our players safe?’ I’ve got to be willing to hear, ‘Hey coach, we’ve got to change a little bit. Hey, we’re running high. Let’s pull back a little bit.’ And then I’ve got to make decisions. I don’t like to sometimes, but to me I don’t have to if you have a good plan. If you have a good plan, you go out and practice and then be adaptable to what the science is telling you.”
Q: For your first three years here, you’ve been peppered with questions about: How are you going to get better as a head coach? Today, not so much, but knowing you, that's still a priority. So, what did that look like this offseason?
MF: “I didn’t do as much traveling. This year there were a lot of things that prevented me from traveling as much. I’ve done a lot more conversations, profession development, over the phone with all different types of individuals. I don’t want to name drop, but I talked to [Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick] Sirianni for a while. I talked to some guys in the NFL, just about: How do we enhance our game management? How do we practice better? How do I use analytics better? How do we evaluate the roster in terms of financial reasons? All those different things. What’s my opinion on the changing landscape of college football?
“And to gather an opinion on that, I have to hear, I want to hear other people’s opinions. I want to hear some wisdom. The playoffs — that kind of thing. That’s kind of been my personal challenge this offseason. And I had a chance to really do a third, fourth and fifth self-scout, which has been beneficial for me. And I had more time this offseason to truly self-scout with the coaches than I’ve ever had. And that was really beneficial for our entire program, to challenge our coaches and myself in terms of how do we practice better?
“How do we start the season? I mean, we start the season with some dingers now. So, we can’t ease into this thing. So, let’s go back and watch Texas A&M. Let’s go back and watch Northern [Illinois]. What were the issues and how do we attack them in fall camp? That’s probably the areas of growth that I definitely try to find ways to improve.”
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Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports
Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with two groups of local beat reporters Thursday as the Irish get ready for summer workouts ahead of the 2025 season.
Here's everything the fourth-year head coach had to say in the session that included Inside ND Sports. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
SUBSCRIBE TO INSIDE ND SPORTS TO STAY IN THE KNOW ON NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS
Click here to sign up!
More Content
► The Heat Index: Notre Dame's lining up strong finish to 2026 cycle on defense
► The Heat Index: More twists and turns at tight end and wide receiver for Notre Dame
► Three-star DL Alister Vallejo sets commitment date
► Counting down a decade of Notre Dame's top 10 freshman summer surprises
► Thinking out loud on storylines affecting Notre Dame in a loud offseason
Q: Throughout the playoff run, your players attributed their success to the notion that “culture wins.” Yet as we move quickly toward a more professional sports model, how do you maintain that culture when the world around it is changing? How do you make sure that culture still matters when money’s going to matter more and more?
Marcus Freeman: “There’s still a lot of similarities between what college football is becoming and the NFL. I still think culture wins in the NFL. I do. I think, as you look at some of the successful franchises or organizations in the NFL, there’s still culture.
“And so, because they’re making money, that has no difference in the culture you are creating in the building. The money you make is the money you make. When you walk into our building, the culture is what you should feel. The culture is what is demanded around here. And that’s how we operate around here. It doesn’t matter how much money you make. You’re not treated that way. You’re not treated any different, no matter if you’re making more money than this person or if your role’s bigger than this person. You’re treated the way you go about your business, and I think that’s important.
“So, that’s what I believe in. I can tell you what our culture is. It’s what they feel, it’s what you feel when you’re in this building [Guglielmino Athletics Complex]. And what you feel is going to be determined not on what money you make.”
Q: Two years ago you thought defensive backs coach Mike Mickens was ready to be a college defensive coordinator. In that light, how were you able to keep him invested in Notre Dame now? And then does his role change with a new defensive coordinator in Chris Ash?
MF: “His role is always continuing to grow based off the confidence that the coordinator has in him. And I think that was something that was built through three years with Al Golden. And that’s something that Chris Ash is learning in his time here. And that’s with all three position coaches. That’s with Mickens, [Al] Washington and Max Bullough. You could ask me the same question about Al Washington, who turned down the Tennessee defensive coordinator’s position four years, five years ago.
“Are they ready to be defensive coordinators? Well, Al Washington was offered the defensive coordinator job at Tennessee, so I believe he is. I believe Mike Mickens is. For me, when I make decisions, it’s more about what does this program need at that moment? And I believe at that moment, we needed Chris Ash, because of the traits that he brings to this program — the traits that we lost versus the traits that we wanted to bring in. That’s what went into that decision.
“So, Mick is going to have a huge role. But again, that’s based off the confidence that he’s been able to gain out of Chris Ash.”
Q: With regard to Charles Jagusah and his best position, what went into the thought process of having him at guard in the spring and presumably moving forward?
MF: “I think it’s: What’s the best five? It’s not make a decision off the best one. On the offensive line, it’s what makes the best five. The decision for Charles Jagusah to play guard might not mean it’s Charles Jagusah’s best position or future position as much as it is what we need out of those five guys. I think Charles Jagusah could be a center, guard or tackle. I mean, he’s a freak. He’s really freaking good.
“I’m evaluating off of practice but also three games — he’s played in three games. But I’m also evaluating based off things I hear from [O-line coach] Joe Rudolph and [offensive coordinator] Mike Denbrock. When I hear Mike Denbrock compare him to the guy at LSU — the guy who got drafted to the Patriots [Will Campbell], that’s high praise now. But that’s what went into the decision for him to play guard. It’s what’s best for the five.’
Q: What do you see as tight end Eli Raridon’s potential?
MF: “Hopefully, a game-changer. I think he’s continuing to progress to be a complete tight end. He’s got to stay healthy. Like, that’s been Eli’s biggest nemesis in his first three years. There’s always something that has kept him from practicing or playing. So, I think he has a high ceiling, but he’s just got to continue to put it together to be a complete tight end. You know, he’s gotten high praise from Denbrock, who’s coached some of the best tight ends Notre Dame has had. And even when we were at Cincinnati, we had two NFL-drafted tight ends.
“He’s got a high ceiling, and he’s progressing. But he’s got to stay healthy and continuously be consistent in all phases of playing tight end. Like, potential and consistency are two different things. We need him to be more consistent. He’s got high potential.”
Q: When you have a quiet moment and you think back to that night in Atlanta, the national championship game loss to Ohio State, what are some of your thoughts on that?
MF: “Hmm. Pain. Devastation.”
Q: Still?
MF: “Oh yeah. When I think back to the season, it’s completely different. When I think back to that game and that night — painful. Disappointing. Underachieved. Those are the things I think about. I wish we could go back and, ‘Let’s do it one more time.’
“We didn’t play our best when our best was needed, and the outcome’s the outcome. But that’s different than when I think about the entire season. I think about the journey’s completely different. That’s a selfish answer. That’s what I feel. Grateful for the seniors. Grateful for the guys who that was their last game. Appreciative of those guys and their sacrifice, but selfishly that’s how I feel when I think about that game.”
Q: Having come so close to winning a national championship, how are you a better coach because of what you went through at the end there?
MF: “I’ve said this before, but your past experiences continue to be your foundation for the future. And I’m a better coach because of the experience. I’m a better coach because of the understanding what that experience was like, what it took. It’s going to take something different this year. Like, it doesn’t just repeat itself. Just because we did it last year doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, we know the answers.’ But those experiences become the foundation for this upcoming season. I think it’s made us all better, but me included.”
Q: Following up a runner-up finish, what have you learned that feels different about his offseason?
MF: “I think it’s very similar to the answer I just gave. It’s understanding that the experience told us what it took. And how does that make us better for this year? We have experiences, the foundation. They understand that we can be as good as anybody in the country. It’s that belief and the confidence that you have. Like, confidence goes a long way. What will it be like? We know. We know. Now, there’s new talent, new coaches, new personnel. They have to be able to be on that journey without being here physically. That’s a challenge for me to make sure, ‘You might not have been here last year with us, but you have to understand the things we learned — even though you weren’t here last year.’
“And I always use the idea of relationships. Like, when you’re in a relationship and you come and join this program, you have to go through the previous experiences. If there’s things we learned from last year, you have to understand that and have those same feelings that we have. And again, it’s a new year. It’s a totally new group, got a new coordinator. But it’s the understanding that, ‘Hey, we know. It’s not foreign to us anymore. We’ve got what it takes.”
Q: Have you thought about the fact that the House v. NCAA settlement hasn’t been resolved yet? And you’ve talked about having contingency plans — is it that simple?
MF: “When they made the decision on grandfathering in the walk-ons, that kind of was a major decision that we needed to know — do we have to make cuts or not? And assuming they’re going to approve it — but no matter if they approve it or not, we don’t have to make roster cuts. Which was a huge decision we had to make.
“As far as the other things in the settlement, again, we’re moving forward as if it’s probably going to be approved here in the next week, days.”
Q: Last year quarterbacks Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr didn’t have a chance to be involved in the game plan. What have you learned about them in the last four months, now that they’re getting their opportunities?
MF: “They’re both high-ceiling guys. They are highly intelligent, highly talented football players. But they also lack in game experience. There’s no substitution for that. And so, how do I create as many game-like situations for them in fall camp? It’s going to be really important, but I think they both are really high-ceiling guys, talented, talented. And maybe different in certain areas and in certain aspects. But when you look at the overall picture of the quarterback, they’re both really, really talented individuals.”
Q: It’s been about a year since you brought director of football strategy Anthony Treash into the program. What are some of the ways you’ve expanded analytics since then, and how has Anthony impacted what you do on game day?
MF: “He is obviously my right-hand man on game day in terms of game-management decisions. But a lot of that work is done throughout the week. We meet three, four times a week — one to learn from our experiences, from other people’s experiences but also to prepare. The first couple of days we might say, ‘Let’s learn from our game. Let’s learn from the NFL. Let’s learn from other college teams. What would I do in that situation? What would you do? Would you accept the penalty? Would you go for it? Dah, dah, dah.’ All these different situations.
“And then as we get closer to game day, we say, ‘OK, what’s the plan? Hey, what’s the book telling us where we’re going to go for it? Let me communicate with the coordinators. Where’s the kick line? All those different things.’ That’s in terms of game management. But he also has a lot of value in helping with the personnel, with using analytics in terms of evaluation, and that’s been something that he’s done a terrific job of doing.”
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Q: You had pretty good placement on the EA Sports College Football 26 cover. Is there any photoshop that goes into that?
MF: “I was there. That’s where I was at.”
Q: That’s where you were actually standing?
MF: “Yeah. They did some photoshopping, but that’s exactly where we were standing.”
Q: What goes into that? Any funny stories with that? What’s the effect of Notre Dame being almost front and center in something so important to so many young people?
MF: “That was, I think, voting from fans where we should be placed. No, I’m just messing with you. I don’t know what what into it. I just went there, and I was told, ‘Hey, you go stand here.’ Now, I know the guy I was standing beside was enormous: Dylan Stewart. I was like, ‘Holy cow!’ The quarterback at Michigan, [Bryce] Underwood, holy cow!
“I didn’t know who was gonna be there. I just knew me and Jeremiyah was going to be there. Then all of a sudden I saw Tim Tebow and Reggie Bush, and I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, this is pretty cool.’ I was there and you kinda saw what they were trying to do. It was pretty cool. I don’t take a lot of pride in where I was standing, but that was up to EA Sports.
“It was cool to be with those guys. We spent some time together all the coaches and players.”
Q: What does the Notre Dame-USC rivalry mean to you and your program? And especially in terms of continuing to have that flag planted in recruiting in Southern California?
MF: “It’s a great rivalry for all of college football. If it was up to me, we would play them every single year for the rest of college football time. It’s pretty black-and-white for me. You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them. Start of the season, middle of the season, end of season — I don’t care. I want to play USC every year, because I think it’s great for college football.
“It’s great for college football that rivalry, USC-Notre Dame. Before I even got to Notre Dame, everybody watched that game. Everybody remembers moments from that game that just stick out in your mind. If [athletic director] Pete [Bevacqua] or [deputy athletic director of football] Ron [Powlus] or anybody asks me, that’s how I feel. Everybody knows that’s how I feel.
“But also I’m not the one dealing with the administration part of scheduling games. I think it’s important that we continue this rivalry.”
Q: Can you elaborate on the part of players who sign here can go home twice a career if they’re from California?
MF: “We’re such a national brand. We recruit coast-to-coast, but we’ve done a really good job in the state of California, the West Coast. More than that, all of the West Coast. You’re talking about Hawaii, California, Wyoming, keep going. It’s important that they understand we sell play coast-to-coast. We play from New York to California. We go to Florida this year. We’re in Texas. That’s what Notre Dame does. To eliminate that, it really wouldn’t be beneficial for our program.”
Q: What are the expectations for wide receiver Jaden Greathouse to build on this past season? And what kind of roles will Malachi Fields and Will Pauling have? How can they impact your offense as you look to take that next step in the passing game?
MF: “What Riley [Leonard] and what we learned toward the end of that season is that if Jaden Greathouse covered one-on-one, he’s not covered. Throw him the ball. He’s able to make some catches that some people would assume that he’s covered. We have to trust him. He’s not always going to outrun everybody. He’s not going to be wide open. If he’s one-on-one, give him a chance. Because more than not, he’s gonna make the play.
“We’ll continue to see elevation out of Jaden, because he’s a grinder. He’s a guy that’s obsessed with improvement. He’s going into his third year. Gosh the time flies. He’s just continuously getting better. He’s a playmaker for us. Very similar to what we’ve had in Jordan Faison too.”
“As far as adding those two guys, we had Will here in the spring. He was a little bit phased in because he was coming off of an injury. The thing I respect about Will is the way he practiced. When he was in there at practice, he practiced at a different pace and at a different effort level than what I have seen in the past. What’s that gonna do? Elevate the guys around him. I love dudes that practice hard, and he’s one of those guys. He’s a playmaker. He can make plays. He’s experienced. What I like more than anything is his effort. The way he plays with effort. He’s tough. You don’t always say that about wideouts — tough. He is tough.
“It was funny. I was watching the Virginia game probably last week. I sent Coach [Mike] Brown a couple text messages. One, I was impressed with the way Malachi threw the ball on the double pass. I said Faison’s gonna have some competition on who’s gonna be the wideout who can throw the ball. But two, go back and watch that game. All the screens he was at the point of attack. That tells me a lot about him. If you’re at the point of attack, and you’re supposed to be the star wideout and you’re not getting the ball on the screens, but they put you to the boundary when they run a screen to the boundary. They put you in the slot to the field, when they run that. That tells me what type of football player you are: tough, gritty, high effort and you take pride in blocking. Everybody knows he’s a gamechanger as a wideout. You put him to the boundary, and say, OK, let’s go. You want to play me man-to-man? Or are you gonna play zone on me? If you’re gonna play man-to-man, we believe we can win. That’s what I see when I watch Malachi Fields on film. But more than that now, I have an even greater respect because of how they used him.”
Q: What are your expectations for your defensive ends as Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore work back from injury and the opportunities that were opened up for Junior Tuihalamaka, Josh Burnham and Bryce Young last year?
MF: “We have high expectations for Boubacar and Jordan being able to fully get back and going full go. We know what they can do. There’s a lot of trust built with Junior and Josh Burnham and even Loghan Thomas now.
“We’re playing left and right end now. We kind of got away from a true vyper. We have a vyper and we call him a vyper, but we’re playing really left and right more than anything right now. It makes those guys a little bit interchangeable. You have four guys who have played a lot of ball that can at any moment go into the game and you’re to the left, you’re to the right, let’s go.
“We’re gonna be able to play multiple guys with experience. I love it. They’re all back. They’re all getting better. You lose RJ Oben, but those four guys are all back. They’re getting better. Loghan Thomas is getting better. That’s gonna be a position that we’re gonna have a lot of depth. We gotta find ways to get them on the field, roll them.
“There’s another lesson last year told us. The season’s long. You’re gonna have to roll guys. Stop making permanent decisions based off week one. Let the normal football season play out. You’re gonna need depth. That’s what they all understand.”
Q: What were the conversations with quarterback Steve Angeli at the end of spring? How hard was it to lose him after what he’s done during his Notre Dame career and handled himself?
MF: “What Steve Angeli has done for this program in his three years have been amazing. I’m a huge fan of Steve Angeli. We had a competition in the spring, and that competition wasn’t answered after 14 practices. You have to have honest conversations with those guys in that room. That’s what I did. At the end of the day, Steve made the decision to transfer where there was probably a better opportunity for him — nothing’s guaranteed, but a better opportunity for him to be the starter in the fall. There’s a more clear picture.
“That’s why he made that decision, and he’s graduated. There’s no hard feelings. It was sadness for me, because I love Steve Angeli as a person and a football player. But I support him, because it was the right decision for Steve.”
Q: What has been the difference with recruiting in the last couple months? Was it just a matter of timing? Why have you had so much success the last two months?
MF: “We’re on the right guys. I’ve been a little bit hesitant of saying we’ve gotta get guys to commit right now. I think previously there’s been a push to how fast can we get as many as we can. Right now, it’s like let’s get the right guys. Let’s continuously recruit the right guys, stay on the right guys. That was more important than getting guys to commit just to put pressure on other guys. That’s kind of what we’ve done. Everybody in the program has taken on a little bit of ownership of how do we help sell this place. How do we help recruit and develop relationships? It’s just being consistent with the right guys. Not being patient — I’m not a patient person. But also understanding that sometimes the great ones take time. We want it now, but a little delayed gratification is what we’re seeing.”
Q: What’s gone into the decision to use more left and right defensive ends?
MF: “It’s more of personnel. We don’t need to just put guys into the boundary and say you’re a guy that can drop. Let’s just only play you at vyper. It just limits the opportunities to get on the field. To be able to say we can play left and right, your end to the field can drop. Your end to boundary can drop. It helps you become a little bit more balanced and unpredictable, because usually we only drop the guy to the boundary. That’s why we called them the vyper. We can drop anybody now, because they’re playing left and right.”
Q: How has your perspective on analytics and fourth-down decisions specifically, changed since Treash has been here? Is there an example of a decision you made last year that you might not have without an analytics guy behind you.
MF: “A lot of my decisions on fourth down is the confidence I have in our offense. When you have a quarterback that you believe can get any first down, you’re gonna make those decisions. On third you’re gonna sequence calls to be able to go for it on fourth. It wasn’t going for it on fourth down as much as some of the decisions on two-minute situations, how I want to use the timeout. There’s a lot of little things that you guys probably don’t even care about that goes into game management. Snap the ball at six seconds on the play clock, because we want to make sure that we’re gonna have to snap it again before a two-minute situation. That’s more important than anything.
“There’s not a situation where I said, ‘Hey, Treash, should we go for it on fourth down here?’ He’ll tell me what’s a go. That’s his job. What’s a go? He’ll tell me that on every down. What’s a go? I make the decision on do I want to go for it or not. I communicate with [offensive coordinator Mike] Denbrock on what I think on third down. It’s the work that’s done outside of Saturdays that have been more beneficial than anything.”
Q: What’s the challenge of building the most physical team with in-season practices while also knowing that you want a team that can hold up physically for the long haul and avoid the nicks and concussions especially?
MF: “I think we practiced close to 15% more than we ever had. It was the healthiest season we’ve had in my time in terms of injuries from practice. There were some non-preventable injuries in games. It happens. If you look at the patterns over years across football, the patterns are going to tell us we’re going to have one of the healthiest years in terms of non-preventable injuries in a game. That’s just what the graphs tell you. But when you talk about practice injuries, it was the healthiest season we had, and we practiced a lot more this past year.’
“And so, it’s a constant conversation we have as far as a sports performance staff. And I’ve got to be willing to bend a little bit. It’s not, ‘Hey let’s shorten things.’ It’s, ‘How do we ebb and flow practice? How do I weigh practice in a way to keep our players safe?’ I’ve got to be willing to hear, ‘Hey coach, we’ve got to change a little bit. Hey, we’re running high. Let’s pull back a little bit.’ And then I’ve got to make decisions. I don’t like to sometimes, but to me I don’t have to if you have a good plan. If you have a good plan, you go out and practice and then be adaptable to what the science is telling you.”
Q: For your first three years here, you’ve been peppered with questions about: How are you going to get better as a head coach? Today, not so much, but knowing you, that's still a priority. So, what did that look like this offseason?
MF: “I didn’t do as much traveling. This year there were a lot of things that prevented me from traveling as much. I’ve done a lot more conversations, profession development, over the phone with all different types of individuals. I don’t want to name drop, but I talked to [Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick] Sirianni for a while. I talked to some guys in the NFL, just about: How do we enhance our game management? How do we practice better? How do I use analytics better? How do we evaluate the roster in terms of financial reasons? All those different things. What’s my opinion on the changing landscape of college football?
“And to gather an opinion on that, I have to hear, I want to hear other people’s opinions. I want to hear some wisdom. The playoffs — that kind of thing. That’s kind of been my personal challenge this offseason. And I had a chance to really do a third, fourth and fifth self-scout, which has been beneficial for me. And I had more time this offseason to truly self-scout with the coaches than I’ve ever had. And that was really beneficial for our entire program, to challenge our coaches and myself in terms of how do we practice better?
“How do we start the season? I mean, we start the season with some dingers now. So, we can’t ease into this thing. So, let’s go back and watch Texas A&M. Let’s go back and watch Northern [Illinois]. What were the issues and how do we attack them in fall camp? That’s probably the areas of growth that I definitely try to find ways to improve.”
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