Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is quite accustomed to his team being in the national spotlight, and Saturday’s 56-13 rout of Arkansas put the Fighting Irish back in the College Football Playoff conversation.
Freeman’s squad started off 0-2 with tight, one-score losses to top-10 teams No. 2 Miami and No. 9 Texas A&M, but the Irish righted the ship with two blowout wins through Saturday. Notre Dame put up 56 points for the second-straight week in a rollercoaster season where Freeman had to answer whether criticism or success is harder to deal with.
“You like to use my words against me,” Freeman told reporters with a laugh afterward. “You know what, I still go through my experiences. I still think it’s a lot harder to handle success than it is adversity. And I say this from the competitive side. I don’t mind being with my back against the wall and, ‘Let’s go.’”
Notre Dame has its back against the wall in terms of the College Football Playoff. The defending national runner-ups have two losses, don’t play in a conference, and the lone remaining ranked team on the schedule, No. 24 USC, just got beat by a No. 23 Illinois team that got blown out by 53 points the week before.
Marcus Freeman Embracing Adversity
This year is a different story from when the Irish just ran the table last year after a loss to Northern Illinois. The Irish will need to win big each week and likely get help from outside South Bend to make the postseason.
“But handling success, as you saw us last year, have to learn, as you’re seeing us right now have to continue to remember, when people compliment you all the time and tell you how good you are, how good your offense is, it allows you maybe become complacent,” Freeman said. “Once you become complacent, you start to have habits that are below the standards you set for yourself. And that’s the challenge.”
“Do we have the critical eye as coaches and as players that we have after we have adversity? That’s the challenge,” Freeman added. “Like, in practice and film and (when) we’re grading it, if we just lost or if we didn’t play well on defense, the eye you’re grading film with, the way you’re teaching, the way you’re practicing, has to be the same as when you have you have success. I believe my heart it’s harder to do.”
Notre Dame Overcame Rough Start
Notre Dame didn’t blow the doors off in Fayetteville, Arkansas, right away in the first-ever matchup between the Irish and Razorbacks.
Arkansas made it a one-score game, 14-10,w with a 1-yard touchdown run by offensive lineman Shaq McRoy in the second quarter. Notre Dame allowed a field goal the rest of the way, and the offense took off with four touchdowns in the second quarter alone.
“They’re a good offense, right? Coming into this game, they were top five in the country. But I think it was the ability to say, ‘OK, let’s not give up — we can’t give up the explosive [plays],” Freeman said about the Arkansas offense. “Now, there was some explosive runs that we obviously can’t have, but I didn’t think they gave up really too many of the explosive play passes.”
“So, I think the game plan was simple enough that they could execute at a fast level. Played with great technique and played with passion — got after the quarterback a little bit. Quarterback’s really good,” Freeman added. “He can scramble; he can throw it. I think they did a good job at affecting him.”
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