On Monday, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman got in front of the media for his weekly press conference. The Irish are coming off of a 28-7 win over Boise State, and will now play host to the NC State Wolfpack.
One of the “themes” ( I guess you can call it) coming out of the Boise State game was the incfredible amount of penalties that were issued. It was a major part of Freeman’s opening statement
.“The film confirmed what I felt Saturday, probably when I met with you all. It was a tough, hard-fought victory over a really good, fundamentally sound football team. We didn’t execute on certain plays in both phases. We didn’t execute as well as we all aspired to, but we executed well enough to get the outcome that we wanted.”
“We gotta clean up some of the penalties. That’s something that sticks out. Way too many penalties for the team we aspire to be. And I’m not talking about aggressive penalties. I always say there’s a difference between aggressive penalties and undisciplined penalties. The undisciplined ones have really been the ones we’ve been able to prevent the first couple games of the year.”
“But false starts and offsides and late hits out of bounds, those are selfish penalties, undisciplined penalties that we can’t have. We gotta make sure we clean those up with urgency and get back to work and find a way to improve for NC State.”
Later, Freeman was pressed to explain his penalty theorum a little further, and he wanted to make it clear that he doesn’t like using the word, “selfish” and wants to use a different nomenclature.
“I shouldn’t say selfish. Undisciplined is the word I like to use. There’s aggressive penalties and undisciplined penalties. Undisciplined penalties are lack of focus. I don’t think it’s the flow of the game. It’s just a lack of focus in that moment. If you false start, I’m just not locked in. If I jump offsides, I am not focused on what I’m supposed to be focused on on that play. That’s one of the great challenges.”
“Tae-Tae [Johnson]’s got to know better where he’s at on the field, and we’ve got to make better decisions in that situation there. Some of the aggressive penalties, you grab a guy’s jersey. We don’t want you to grab a guy’s jersey, but that’s part of the game. Sometimes it’s just a little tug. A little tug, and they caught Luke [Talich].”
“I can go through a couple different ones. But aggressive penalties, I’m OK. It’s just the lack of discipline penalties we’ve got to clean up.”
The thing about thinking too much about penalties is that it can bottle up a player from playing free — which generally means fast and aggressive. It’s definitely something that Freeman doesn’t want to hinder.
“Yeah, that’s, I mean, it’s very similar, I think, to what I just said earlier with Tyler. Just, there’s undisciplined penalties and there’s aggressive penalties. Aggressive penalties are a part of the game. You always try to clean up some of the aggressive penalties with technique, right, and playing with proper technique. The undisciplined penalties are ones that have to be expedited with urgency.”
“And those are — you go on two on scout team, right? You go on three, you clap three times. There’s intentional ways to improve those things, right? If you’re an offensive lineman, the scout defense should stem because that’s what they’re going to do in the game. And so you got to practice those things. And then, you know, [Tae Johnson’s] one is just awareness.”
“Tae-Tae, you got to be aware of where you’re at on the field, right? And that wasn’t intentional, but you got to be aware. We can’t have that. And so that’s how you attack those undisciplined penalties with urgency.”
So here’s the thing and I’m going to tell you… however it happens, the Irish HAVE to reign in the penalties. Not only do they help create a path for a possible upset, they severely limit Notre Dame’s full potential on the field and on the scoreboard. We all know the irish need to keep winning for a playoff berth, but winning immpressively will help them even more.
