Aug. 28—SOUTH BEND — Under the looming warnings of excessive heat, Notre Dame’s third year head coach Marcus Freeman refused to dread the incoming heat wave, instead, singing a different tune.
“[I] appreciate the good Lord almighty bringing the heat here,” Freeman said Monday. “What else would you want being here at Notre Dame? Our Mother on top of the Golden Dome will bring a little heat on Monday, Tuesday and probably into Wednesday.”
Northern Indiana, especially the South Bend area, experienced a dry warmth to begin this week as temperatures ran as high as the heat index reached 109 degrees. Freeman added, “it’s not to late” to take advantage of the weather, keeping in mind that on Saturday, his 7th-ranked Irish will be likely playing under the Texas sun (and possibly wet conditions) against the No. 20 Texas A&M Aggies.
“It’s a great reminder for our players,” Freeman said. “You have your routines for hydration and refueling, but now you have to do it with the heat. It’s not just, hey, remind you to drink fluids and to have carbs during these breaks that we have. The heat will force you to do that too.”
Notre Dame begins the season away from home for the fourth straight season.
Freeman, who under his tenure is 10-6 in games played outside of South Bend, understands the underwhelming starts his teams have gotten out to in big road contests. In 2023, the Irish lost games at Louisville and Clemson by a combined 21 points. Notre Dame managed to salvage a score in the fourth quarter at Duke in an ugly offensive output.
“We’ve trained, really, being able to execute your assignment in crazy conditions with crowd noise and trying to do surprise situations in practice,” Freeman said about the preparation for Saturday’s opener. “But at the end of the day, they gotta do it when it matters, right? You can do it in practice. That builds confidence within yourself and with your coaching staff., but you gotta do it when it matters versus an opponent, and we won’t know that answer until we get to Saturday.”
Part of that has been throwing transfer quarterback Riley Leonard into difficult situations. A few have included crowd noise loud enough to block out the newly implemented coach-to-player helmet communication devices making their debut at the collegiate level this season.
“That’s gonna give them the best opportunity to have an idea of what’s going to be like on Saturday night,” Freeman said. “So, we’ve been intentional about doing that. We don’t do it every period, but there are periods in practice we’re very intentional about piping in crowd noise, piping in some of the music that they play — their fight song and some of the chants — and just showing our guys ‘Hey, this is what to expect on Saturday.'”
Releasing its two-deep for the season opener Monday, Notre Dame confirmed what many suspected — the offensive line will be historically young.
True-freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp will become one of the very few freshmen to ever start and Irish season opener. Next to him is sophomore left guard Sam Pendleton. Both Knapp and Pendleton beat out graduate returners in Tosh Baker and Rocco Spindler.
Freeman stated that he told the group that “Every day, you should be trying to take somebody’s job.” The Irish head coach added that they had about 10 practices since then that showed enough from Knapp to call him the starter.
“We have a lot of confidence in the two-deep of our offensive line,” Freeman said. “There’s guys with experience that are in the two-deep. But at the end of the day, you have to make a decision on who you want that first group to be, and Anthonie and Sam are two guys we felt will give us the best chance to have success.”
The offensive line has a combined six starts to its name but will be expected to stand tall against a vaunted Aggie defensive front.
Also in the two-deep is a hefty amount of receiving combinations.
“All six guys have played with the ones in fall camp, that’s why we decided to have ‘ORs,'” Freeman said about his receiving core of Beaux Collins, Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison, listed just above Jayden Thomas, Jayden Harrison and Kris Mitchell.
“Those six guys, I don’t care who goes out with the first group, all six guys are going to play. All six guys have the ability to make plays down the field, to do exactly what we ask them to do in our run and passing game and we have a lot of confidence in all six of them.”
The new offense, led by coordinator Mike Denbrock, is expected to speed up the offense in South Bend. That could help, given the Aggie defense that will likely be strengthen by its home crowd and a defensive-minded head coach in Mike Elko — a former defensive coordinator for the Irish and Leonard’s head coach last season at Duke.
Defensively, sophomore cornerback Christian Gray is slated to start over junior returner Jaden Mickey. The tightest battle of fall camp was between the two and who would play opposite of Benjamin Morrison.
Freeman admitted he understands how big an opportunity this season-opener is, especially considering the weakened schedule this season. He also explained a loss Week 1, won’t devastate the team with the playoff format now at 12 teams, using Florida State and head coach Mike Norvell as an example.
For the Irish, the loss could still place them on thin ice as its highest-ranked opponent on the schedule is No. 10 Florida State, which just lost its Week 0 matchup against Georgia Tech, who Notre Dame also plays.
COLLEGE GAMEDAY TO APPEAR
Notre Dame will be joined by ESPN’s College GameDay in College Station for the nightcap Saturday. The Aggies are the 20th different opponent Notre Dame has faced in ESPN’s pregame show. The Irish are 9-13 when on the road in such games hosted by GameDay but are 10-6 when the higher rank.
HEALTHY TO BEGIN
Freeman, entering his third season at Notre Dame, has often tweaked the spring and fall camps each season. This year, the staff decided on more practices before the season. The 38-year-old head coach likened that figure to 15% this fall. The result was the healthiest team Notre Dame has entered the season with in some time.
“This has been the healthiest fall camp, really, since I’ve been head coach,” Freeman said. “But as we’ve really taken data, probably from the last 12 to 15 years, we’ve had the fewest injuries in, I think, 15 years. We practiced 15% more this fall camp than we had previously. We only had one concussion, and we’re down 30% overall in concussions, strains and sprains.”
“The way we’ve structured practice, the results have shown and it’s been really good. We’ve practiced more and had less injuries and that’s a great statistic.”
Reach Matt Lucas at 574-533-2151, ext. 240325, or at matt.lucas@goshennews.com.
