Notre Dame Football begins prep for the Gator Bowl

 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind – Notre Dame football preparing for the Gator Bowl later this month.

This is the first time we’ve talked to head coach Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame Stadium since the loss to USC and as you can imagine the room was full of questions about the preparation for the Gator Bowl with the loss of former quarterback Drew Pyne going to the transfer portal and both Michael Mayer and Isaiah Foskey to the NFL draft.

Since the loss to the Trojans, there’s been some difficult but necessary conversations between players and coaches, starting with Drew Pyne.

“I love drew pyne. And but part of that love for him was to say, we're possibly looking into the transfer portal, take a quarterback and I could have not told him and lied. But that's not that's not what we're built on,” said Head Coach Marcus Freeman.

Instead, Freeman made the decision to be honest with his quarterback that led the Irish to an 8 and 4 record.

“You know, what drew made the best decision for drew. And I say it's the best because he made it,” Freeman added.

With the Gator Bowl 20 days away, the team will also operate without two star players who decided to declare for the NFL draft.

Michael Mayer, I love you. You want my opinion, I would love for you to come back to play in a bowl game.

Same thing with Isaiah Foskey.

When it comes to replacing their production, Freeman says that’s not the goal.

“You're not replacing Michael Mayer’s production and Holden and not Holden, but uh, Isaiah Foskey is production with one person. Those guys are, I mean, you're going to be future NFL draft picks,” Freeman mentioned.

As for the quarterback decision, I guess we’ll wait and see.

“We haven't defined what exactly the quarterback situation will be. Both guys have gotten reps with the ones with between Steve and Tyler,” Freeman said.