Freeman preaching mindset as Irish prepare for Notre Dame

By Rusty Nixon, Sports Editor Pilot News, Photo by Maggie Nixon

SOUTH BEND — A loss still stinging from Saturday at the hands of Northern Illinois, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman addressed the media in his Monday press conference with an analysis and a path forward for his team.
Freeman pointed out that the Huskies had won the battles in time of possession, turnovers, explosive plays, rushing, and third downs, adding that “…you don’t win any games when you lose those five categories.”
“In the past 48 hours the challenge for everybody in our program is to figure out why those things happened,” said Freeman. “There are some schematic things that we have to improve. I think the biggest thing we have to learn is how to handle success. That is what really spoke to me watching the film.”
“This is the first time in my time here that we won the big game to start the season,” said Freeman. “We lost to Ohio State twice. Everybody says ‘You are going to the playoffs. You have an easy schedule,” and we all hear it. We started to believe that. There is a physical approach to preparation for a game and I think that physically we prepared the right way. There is also a mindset you have to have every week and that’s where we failed.”
That message will be the one that he brings to his team this week as they get ready to start the long climb back to the position the Irish expected to be in at the season’s end.
“We have to be able to handle success,” said Freeman. “The way you do that is you don’t change the way you approach your mindset, every week no matter what you hear. It’s easy to hear all the good things and nobody wants to hear the bad things. It shouldn’t matter. Your approach should be the same.”
The challenge this week is no small one as the Irish will go to Lafayette to take on their in-state rival at Purdue.
“As you watch film this is a team that has continued to improve,” said Freeman. “Hudson Card is a really good player and he runs their offense very well. They do a really good job of running the football. They led the Big 10 in rushing a year ago. We have to be sure we are prepared to stop the run. They have really good skilled players.”
“They have a unique defense that you don’t see every week,” said Freeman. “They stack the box and they take pride in stopping the run. They play a lot of man coverage. We have to be able to beat man coverage. They are really good up the middle and they do a good job of pressuring the quarterback.”
“I have to be sure that our guys understand that now everybody is like ‘You’ll be fine. Run the table go 11-1,’ and they have to know that doesn’t matter. This week is all that matters. We want to take care of this week. That has to be our mindset. Our preparation has no opponent.”