Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman Praises NC State Duo

The two have found their stride under offensive coordinator Kurt Roper, and it’s created a headache for opposing teams to prepare for. 

• “Yeah, I mean, you said what I see on film, right?” Freeman said. “The length of the quarterback and his ability to throw it and spread it out. I know the tight end has the most receptions, but he does a good job of spreading the ball and making good decisions."

• "And Smothers is a real problem. He is a challenge. He is really good. He's got great contact balance. He makes you miss a really good spin move, and so we have to continue to pursue the ball.”

• “There's going to be missed tackles. In any game, there are missed tackles, but we have to make sure that we're gang-tackling Smothers. That we're relentlessly pursuing the football and we're physical when we get there, and we're taking good and proper angles."

• "And with Bailey, you've got to try to make him uncomfortable with pre-snap reads. You've got to try to get pressure on him, and you can't let him escape vertically. You can't let him escape through the B-gap and run vertically to extend plays as a passer.” 

Preparing for opposing players takes an entire team’s effort. The scout team is tasked with preparing the starters for a glimpse of what they’ll see on Saturday, but Bailey is hard to replicate, standing at 6-foot-6. The Fighting Irish have a solution. 

• “If you've got some guys that can kind of try to emulate (Bailey) throwing the ball, but, with some of those athletic, really athletic quarterbacks, we can use Scrap Richardson to do some running,” Freeman said. “We used him this week to emulate the Wildcat quarterback. But Blake [Hebert] has done a great job of being our scout team quarterback.”