Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media again on Monday, the first time in front of everyone since the BYU loss.
There were plenty of questions that he fielded, from how the Irish will react to the devastating loss to how the team will respond in the coming weeks. Freeman didn’t seem too pleased with how the game ended as well, as there more than a few issues with the final drive and plays.
That is now in the past, as he wrapped up the loss to the Cougars along with previewing this weekends opponent Navy. Find out below my top takeaways from what Freeman said on Monday afternoon.
“Sometimes you have to lose to win” - Marcus Freeman
"Sometimes you got to lose to win... We can't use it as an excuse. We got to use it as a reminder." Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on learning from
the BYU loss as the Irish prepare for Navy pic.twitter.com/adHQDmzc88
— Brendan Reidy (@BreidyTV) October 26, 2026
“Our job is to learn as many things as the loss taught us”, stood out to me the most during his opening comments, as Freeman is looking at the loss as a way for improvement. He’d go on to say that every play matters, which in a one-score game, it certainly does. The pain that the team that has gone through since the BYU still hurts, but you have to “fix the process to get a better result.” It’s about reaching the teams full potential, as Notre Dame is still looking for that.
Navy isn’t as bad as their record
Freeman notes that four of Navy’s losses are one-score games, but they have an explosive offense that gets as many yards as anybody.
— Chuck Freeby Sports (@ChuckFreeby) October 26, 2026
Says defense is “exotic and aggressive” and does a heckuva job stopping the run.
“They’re gonna fight until the very end of the game,” as Freeman doesn’t want his team to overlook Navy with Miami lurking at the start of November. He’s aware of the rotating quarterbacks that the Midshipmen use, and on defense, they show a variety of looks and have been good at stopping the run. Freeman thinks his team is ready to get back to work this weekend.
On Notre Dame’s short wide receiver rotation
Freeman said there was a plan to get Mylan Graham in against BYU earlier, but it wound up being a two-minute situation and Notre Dame wanted to go with its starters.
— Jack Soble (@jacksoble56) October 26, 2026
However: "I've been outspoken about it with the staff, we got to find ways to get those guys in the game."
The flow of the game dictate who plays, as they’ll play who the coaching staff trusts. Freeman knows that they need to have a deeper room, but needs to see the receivers be more consistent in practice, “so there’s no hesitation” for them to see the field.
Third down and red zone has hurt Notre Dame
Freeman: We have to be better on third down in the red zone on both sides of the ball.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) October 26, 2026
Freeman emphasized third downs and red zone issues have hurt the team. They haven’t been able to make the plays in those situations, and he knows that for the team to succeed, they’ll need to improve in those areas. “Those are things we have to correct,” which was the focus of practice last week. The hope is that the issues have been fixed and that we’ll see that this Saturday.
When running the ball, Notre Dame has to be more efficient
Freeman feels the team needs to make sure that if they run the ball on third down in a fourth-down situation, the run is efficient (avoid a loss, 1-yard gain).
— Irish Illustrated (@irishillustratd) October 26, 2026
Pushes back on the idea that running on third down is conservative.
The run game has struggled for parts of the year, and Freeman still wants more from the group. He singled out the fact that sometimes the team would like to go for it on fourth down, but can’t due to the run game issues. The backs have had their moments, but Freeman is looking for consistency from the group, eliminating negative plays. He also mentioned that Jonaz Walton needs to see the field more, however, I think he needs to force the issue by either changing the depth chart to reflect that or force offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock to play him more.
Teams are using extra players to help pass blocking vs. Notre Dame
Freeman says that teams are using TEs to chip while keeping an RB in protection, specifically BYU. The team now has some counters for those looks.
— Irish Illustrated (@irishillustratd) October 26, 2026
Freeman has noticed that teams have been using tight end and backs to help in pass protection, which is one of the reasons why the sack numbers haven’t been as good as he would like. BYU also got the ball out fast when passing, and did a great job getting out of situations where the Irish would use their rush package. He gave them credit for a good game plan, but you could hear the frustration in his voice.
On the Notre Dame secondary playing zone vs. man
Freeman: Can't let offenses talk us out of what we want to do defensively. If they beat us in man then fine, let's play man better.
— Irish Sports Daily (@ISDUpdate) October 26, 2026
Some of it was execution, and some of it was the Cougars executing on offense, which is why we saw the secondary struggle a bit. It doesn’t seem like Freeman wants the team to exclusively use man-to-man, as changing the coverages is part of the cat-and-mouse game with an offense. Execution is huge here, and it seems like Notre Dame didn’t do as good of a job doing that.
Losing Boubacar Traore was massive
Marcus Freeman says, “Boubacar [Traore] is a playmaker. He’s a dynamic player. Losing him, I told him he’s worth 7 points at least.”
— Drew Mentock (@AndrewMentock) October 26, 2026
Notre Dame lost to BYU by four points after Traore was knocked out of the game five plays in.
Freeman was asked about losing Traore, and he believes that BYU would have scored one less touchdown, which would have flipped the result. It was a good way to prepare for his absence if an injury popped up, same thing for Bryce Young on the other side. Freeman did say that the coaching staff needed to be prepared better for those situations.
Notre Dame still has plenty of confidence
Marcus Freeman on if the team is still confident following the BYU loss:
— Bruce Straughan (@bruce_straughan) October 26, 2026
“Oh yeah. I’ll never allow our program to lose confidence. If we use this loss correctly we’ll only get that much better moving forward.” pic.twitter.com/bkLHvFhFqy
“Our guys won’t lack confidence,” as Freeman reiterated that his team is in a good mental position. Sure, losing isn’t anything that this team wants to feel, but “we can use this to make us better,” which is exactly what Notre Dame should be doing. You have to learn from your mistakes, correct them, and move forward, which Freeman is leading the charge on.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Takeaways from Notre Dame Marcus Freeman wrapping up BYU, preview Navy
