What Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after Florida State

On Saturday, the No. 10 Notre Dame football program cruised to a 52-3 victory against Florida State. Afterwards, the Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media for about eight minutes. Here’s everything he said.

Opening statement:

“Man, proud of those guys. Proud of the way they prepared. When you watch film, you know you’re going against a talented group, but it could have been easy to overlook those guys in terms of preparation because of the record.

“But we have a mature group. We have a bunch of seniors that continue to lead this group the right way and I really believe that Saturday is a reflection of preparation and they are preparing the right way. They have the right mentality and they really go out and play well.

“I was really proud of the way they played in the second half, being up 21-3, and to come out and defensively, I think the interception, turnover on downs, three-and-out, three- and-out, interception, touchdown.

“Offensively, it was touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown. You know and it’s a pretty dominant half of football and so I’m really proud of the way they performed.

“We know we have one more chance, guaranteed opportunity in this stadium. So we celebrate tonight and come back tomorrow and start preparing for Virginia.”

If they saw on film that they could exploit Florida State’s offensive line:

“I don’t think we did anything out of the ordinary. I think our guys are playing with clarity. You know, some of the fast tracks, some of the different stunts that we do, they play with clarity, which equates to speed.

“That’s what we talk about all the time: clarity equals speed. And when guys really understand what to expect, which way the slide comes, ‘Hey, how am I going to attack this guy in protection?’ You see some good things happen.

“But two great teams and great coaches, you don’t want to just outplay them. We’ve got to make sure we give our guys a chance to play fast, and that’s what you saw today.”

On taking advantage of scoring situations:

“Yes, I think you say it all the time as a coach, but your players have to believe it; that you can’t look at the score.

“You know, it’s a privilege to play for this place, and I told them, ‘Go out in the second half and play like that. Play like it’s a privilege to play for this university, to play for this football program. And if you do that you will play like we played in the second half.’

“So we probably didn’t say that — we should probably say our crowd was really special. It’s a little different, night game in Notre Dame Stadium, no matter who the opponent is, no matter what the record was. It was electric out there tonight. Also a special praise to our audience.”

On the impact graduate student DL Rylie Mills and junior Donovan Hinish made on the Notre Dame defense:

“We said you’ve got to be strong up the middle, and it starts up front with the two seniors, the guys who are veterans. They’re playing really well. Rylie got some individual credit today. He got the sacks, but there’s a lot people that contributed to Rylie having the sacks You talk about coverage and you talk about some other guys up front.

“Individual glory is part of it, man. When you play well and some things go your way, you will be recognized, but the responsibility has been playing at a high level. (Graduate defensive lineman) Howard (Cross III) has played at a high level. It’s good to see him get some of that production today.”

What he takes away from the Notre Dame passing game:

“After the game you enjoy it, don’t you? You enjoy the feeling you have in the dressing room because it’s hard to achieve. I’ve been on the other side when you don’t achieve it. So after the game you enjoy it. We’ll go back and dissect each play. We’re not talking about the outcome of the game. It’s each play, what do we need to do to improve.

“You’ve got to enjoy this feeling tonight, but you’ve got to come back tomorrow with a clear mind and a conscience about trying to improve. You’ve got to try to improve and you can’t don’t let the feeling of winning a game like this cloud your vision when you’re really dissecting the film.

“So we’re going to dive into it, we’re going to find ways to improve and we’re going to attack it in practice.”

Whether he has an update on Cross’ injury:

“No one. Said it was a sprained ankle. I don’t know if he could have come back. Didn’t even tell me. Just said he’s out right now with a sprained ankle. I think since there was a possibility of , that he might have come back, then it was over.”

On the mentality at halftime and how the execution improved after some mistakes in the first half:

“The mark of a good team is consistency. We can all have good games and bad games, and good days and bad days, and good games and bad games. But the mark of good teams and good organizations is consistency.

“I kind of challenged them at halftime, ‘let’s be consistent. That’s who you really are, right? It’s not what you do in a day versus what you — who you are is who you consistently are , and it is in all walks of life.’

“So that’s what I challenged them with at halftime and they went out and they were pretty consistent in the second half.”

On how Notre Dame’s maturity gives him peace of mind because they prepare the way he wants:

“I think it starts with the captains. I meet with the captains once a week, sometimes twice a week, and this week we met on Monday and they said, ‘Hey coach, we want to say something to the team about how important this last four stretch is is – but this one, right?’ Yes, we know we have four, but this one.

“It’s one thing as a head coach when you say that, but when your captains are the ones driving that message, that’s a sign of maturity for your team and that’s what I’m really proud of.”

Whether the maturity gives them the ability to reach higher physically on the training ground because of their approach:

“Yes, I think it’s an understanding that you don’t get better by doing the same thing you’ve done before. This is what I drive home to our players, but also to our captains. We can’t go out and just retaliate next week for what we did this week, can we? Our national gravity will make you worse.

“So they’ve put in a lot of work this week and the first thing I’ll say to them in the meeting on Monday is we’ve got to lift. Sometimes it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for me as a coach when you feel like you’ve put everything into it, and you know that to get better, you need to do more.

“And that’s the challenge. That’s what they want because they want to be great and they want to reach their full potential and it’s my job to push them to do that.”

BOX SCORE: No. 10 NOTRE DAME 52, FLORIDA STATE 3