Marcus Freeman recaps week one win versus #20 Texas A&M

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Irish head into their home opener versus Northern Illinois 1-0 after a huge road win against the Aggies.

Notre Dame is back in town gearing up for week two starting the season 1-0, after beating the Aggies 23-13 in one of the toughest venues to play in at Kyle Field. Swarmed with 107,000+ fans waving white towels and yelling their traditional chants, Head Coach Marcus Freeman had a plan.

The third-year coach intentionally showed a side we've never seen before. Extremely animated pumping his guys up with confidence before running out of the tunnel before kickoff.

"My wife sent me that video. Yeah, I was probably a little bit out of control, but it was what was needed at the time," Freeman said.

In a hostile environment, Freeman wanted his young guys at the front of the pack to be ready. Freeman always runs out of the tunnel in front of his players and his offensive line, lined up behind him. Unlike previous years, the five staters behind him only combined for six starts and two of them are freshmen.

"I remember as we came out, you know, I'm looking I'm looking at Anthony Knapp and looking at Sam Pendleton, and, you know, it's their first time. They're freshmen, and they're playing in this big environment, and it's almost like you go into parent mode, and you want to take that pressure off of them, like, put it on me. Let's go, man. Like, let's go. This is what we talked about. And I remember in that moment saying, like, we were right here, this is what we showed you in the meeting. Like, this is what we just talked about, right?" Freeman added.

That plan worked to get his team worked from beginning to end. The offensive only had two pre-snap penalties and ultimately put the Irish in a good position to be aggressive late in the game with just over 4 minutes remaining, tied 13-13.

"To finish the fourth quarter with an eight play, 85 yards TD, drive was that was the difference, right? We knew it was going to be a battle the entire game. And that's really the moment where we were able to say, Okay, we have this. We got the game," Freeman mentioned.

But they couldn't do it without the defense. Coming into the season, the Irish defensive production was the talk of the town and they lived up to last season's production.

It started with sophomore Safety Adon Shuler earning the first interception of the season and high praise from Freeman.

"He's God given ability. I mean, he's a ball player. That's why we recruited him. You know, he showed in high school that he was a playmaker. What you're seeing now in year two for Adon, is now he's playing at that fast, high level that we evaluated him in high school and so, he's earned what he everything he's gotten," Freeman said.

He wasn't only in that takeaway category. Joining him is the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, Xavier Watts. After hauling in seven interceptions en route to winning the Bronko Nagurski award, Watts picked up where he left off with an interception in second quarter. Watts earned defensive player of the game but coaches believe it easily could've been another member of the defensive line.

"(Jordan) Botelho played, I mean, there was a debate, was he the player the game, or Xavier watts, Jordan played well, and he played hard, like consistently, he did his job. And that's what you want to see out of a senior," Freeman said.