Some quick hitters
Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Marcus Freeman met with journalists Fri to discuss the development and debut of freshman QB CJ Carr, talk special teams business and more before the Irish take on the Miami Hurricanes.
Shaping the Signal Caller Position
On the long-term quarterback development plan for non-starters ahead of Carr’s debut, the coach said, “Every role is different in how they prepare for a game, but the overarching theme is, everybody has to continue to develop.
And I’ve said this from probably a year ago, that I want to continue to find our quarterbacks through high school, recruiting and develop them. And I think that’s an example of both CJ and Kenny [Minchey], and you’ll see it in Blake [Hebert]. Blake’s role right now is to be the scout team quarterback. I think it’s better for his development to be that guy, as it was with CJ Carr last year. And so, he’s been doing a good job of being a scout team quarterback, developing and watching it and meeting. And again, Kenny’s got to be prepared, so Kenny’s going to get a lot of reps in practice, as you do with all your backups. So again, it’s about preparing for the game, but also it’s still a developmental period for all of our players and especially our quarterbacks.”
Kicking off the Season
On the possibility of taking three kickers, and specifically Erik Schmidt taking long kicks, Freeman said, “Noah Burnett will be our field goal kicker at any distance, and Marcello [Diomede] will be our kickoff specialist. Eric is a guy that has a huge leg. Right now, the plan isn’t to play him as of today, but we have a lot of confidence in that entire room, all three of those guys, and if it comes to a point where we feel like somebody might give us a better opportunity to make a field goal from a certain distance, then we’ll do that. We compete. Obviously, we name roles for each week, but we also still have to compete, and we will do that, but we feel really confident in what Noah provides in terms of being able to make field goals from the distance that we will decide once we get down there. And then we feel great about Marcello and his leg for kicking off.”
Always Adapting
On recent rule changes, specifically the addition of the defensive false start penalty, Freeman said, “We’ve spent a lot of time with our ACC officials during training camp, of really trying to get a clarification on how they’re going to call defensive delay a game. And the objective on defense isn’t to get the offense the false start. And that’s not our objective. Our objective is to, you know, at times, change the look for the offensive line, and we want to make sure that we don’t get called for defensive delay games. So we’ve practiced it. We’ve had officials evaluated, officials that practice throw penalties, and hey, you’re calling it on which side of the ball for what reason? We just got to try to make sure we are coaching it and teaching it and executing in a way that we believe is fair, and they’re going to call it the way they’ve said they’re going to call it, and so officials are human too. That I can’t sit here and say they’re going to be perfect, but we have to make sure we’re coaching it in a way, and practicing in a way that is not going to encourage the officials to throw a penalty on our defense.”
Some Name Drops
On what Cole Mullins and Elijah Hughes have done to make themselves assets on the defensive line ahead of the Miami game, the coach said, “Those two have had a great training camp. You talk about Cole, a guy that didn’t get to practice a whole bunch last year because of some lingering issues from his knee in high school. I think he messed it up a little bit last year, but he’s developed tremendously. He has really done a great job in practice, of earning trust. And the same thing with Elijah, a guy that transferred here in the spring, and has continued to learn the system. Those guys are continuously working or practicing hard, we’ll see what their role is in the game, but, I’m very confident they’re in the game, that they’ll get their job done.”
On his observations of Carr as he prepares for the Sunday ahead, Freeman said, “A lot of the things he’s done in the past and since he’s been here have told me he’ll be ready for this moment. Fall camp has told me he’ll be ready for this moment. This week’s been really good. He’s done a really good job at doing what his coaches have asked of him to do. As I’ve told him, there’s growing pains of elevation that every person has to go through, and it’s never going to be how we dream about it. It’s never going to be how we foresee it. But I truly believe that we can expedite the process of getting better quicker, and that’s just what I want him to know, like, you’re not going to be perfect. There’s growing pain. You got to go through some ups and downs to kind of figure out what being the quarterback at Notre Dame is all about. And I’m sure he thinks he has an idea, but he’ll go, and I’m not talking about one game. I’m just talking about a career I’m talking about what this season will look like, and so he’s just gotta do what he does best, and that’s… He’s an ultra-competitive individual. He’s a natural leader. Has extremely strong arm strength. He prepares his tail off, and so all those things are going to help him perform the way we need him to perform. But there’s a lot of people around him on that offense, between the players and coaches that are also there to support him, and that he has to utilize, and he will utilize. And I always say he emulates the head coach more than anybody else in this program, and so just note, it takes people. It’s not one person. It takes people. And I’m confident what he’ll do on Sunday.”
Follow me on X.
