What Marcus Freeman Said After Notre Dame Obliterated Arkansas

"Yeah, I don't know if anybody compares themselves. For him, it's just he's got to compete against himself. And how does he get better? How does he after three really good performances, he's getting better. I've challenged him. 

"How do you continuously get better in terms of your routine, your preparation, and he prepares his tail off. That's a reflection of what you see. I mean, he's a talented individual, but he prepares his butt off and he's playing with a lot of confidence right now."

Marcus Freeman Recaps the Week of Practice:

"Yeah, I wish I could tell you exactly it's one thing. This is when I knew. You don't, right? It's a choice that everybody has to make, that this is us. It's not Chris Ash's, it's not Marcus'. It's all of ours. We own this thing. And if you have that mentality, then you're willing to fix it. If you want to pass blame, then you're never going to do the things that takes to fix it. And I knew the leaders on a defense wouldn't point the finger. 

"They would point it at themselves, and I was very confident that they would stay together and it was a challenging week. It's easy to pass the blame. That's the easy thing to do and that's the default thing to do. But they stuck together leadership from Coach Ash on down to the position coaches on down to the leaders on the defense, on down to everybody really was to me the thing that helped them get through a rough week and perform."

Marcus Freeman on Notre Dame's Improved Secondary Saturday:

"Again, I think understanding what they're being asked to do, playing with an aggression and a hungry mentality. I think all those things go into it. I know you guys always want me to give you this one great answer to just, this is what happens to get 'em to play. It's a lot of things that go into it. It's a mindset, it's a preparation. It's clarity on what you're being asked to do and then you got to go out there and do it."

Marcus Freeman on Holding Arkansas to Early Field Goals

"It was huge, man. They're a good offense all across the field. And to be able to hold that offense to field goals early in the game. I know the third series, they got the touchdown, but then again after that, the fifth series, they got another field goal. Like those things, those are four-point swings and those (are) huge. It's huge by our defense, the game plan, but the execution of it."

Marcus Freeman on Jordan Faison's Big Start to 2025:

"Yeah, (Faison) finds a way. You know what I mean? He finds a way. He's a great football player, but he's a great competitor. I'm going to piggyback and just compliment that entire room. It's like JG. You could throw the ball to JG every play probably, and he's probably going to win most of them. He took advantage of his opportunity. 

"It was one-on-one, they threw it up, he did. Malachi Fields, the same thing. Will Pauling, I mean Coach (Mike) Brown and Coach (Mike) Denbrock, it's a little bit of a reflection of the running back room. That's an unselfish room that knows they can get the ball at any moment, but they choose to continue putting the team in front of themselves. If we all do that, we can be pretty special."

Marcus Freeman on Outside Noise:

"You like to use my words against me, don't you? 

"You know what? I still go through my experiences. I still think it's a lot harder to handle success than it is adversity. I say this from the competitive side. I don't mind being with my back against the wall and let's go, but handling success, as you saw this last, you 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 to maybe become complacent. 

"And once you become complacent, you start to have habits that are below the standards you set for yourself. And that's the challenge, right, is do we have the critical eye as coaches and as players that we have after we have adversity. That's the challenge in practice and film and we grading it if we just lost or if we didn't play well on defense, is the eye you're grading film with the way you're teaching, the way you're practicing, has to be the same is when you have success. And I believe in my heart it's a lot harder to do."

Marcus Freeman on CJ Carr's Growth While Succeeding

"I think there's very few people that you come in contact with that are blessed with that just leadership competitive trait. I'm talking like not normal. Very few people have that competitive trait that's so competitive that they just want to find - Listen, here's what the thing is with CJ, it's more important for us to win than it's for him to play well. That's his mindset. 

"He's so competitive. I want to do whatever it takes to make sure this offense performs well and we win. That's more important than how many yards I throw for and how many receptions and all those different things. It's like I want to do whatever it takes to win, and he's one of those rare individuals, man. He's just ultra, ultra competitive. And I think that's the driving force to his preparation and the way he practices."