Notebook: What Freeman saw in Notre Dame quarterback Leonard to keep the faith

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Marcus Freeman heard the boos coming from the Notre Dame Stadium crowd toward quarterback Riley Leonard.

And that was in a 25-point win against Miami (Ohio) – two weeks after the Irish lost 16:14 at home to Northern Illinois. The implication was that junior backup Steve Angeli had to be part of a restructuring of the quarterback depth chart that included a demotion of Duke graduate Leonard.

Heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale at USC (6-5) — a team that actually made a QB change this season — Leonard not only still stands as the No. 1 fifth-ranked Notre Dame option at QB, he has also dramatically improved the area that drew the boos.

Even if the stunted narrative still festers in some corners of cyberspace.

The TV start time for the 95th meeting of the cross country rivals is 3:30 p.m. EST on CBS.

The Irish (10-1) still rank a modest 48th in team passing efficiency, but that’s an increase of 71 spots from where they stood on Sept. 7, when the country’s second-longest winning streak began. At this point, only four teams were below the Irish.

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“We don’t make decisions based on the mood in the stadium,” Freeman said in response to a question about the Sept. 28 game in Miami, Ohio. “I didn’t ask him what he thought about people being booed.” him. People boo me. We can’t perform to make sure everyone is cheering for us. That’s part of the game.

“If you don’t do your job, people will boo you. If you allow that to affect the way you execute the next play, then you are not the right person for this job or our quarterback at Notre Dame.

“I hope he handled it exactly how I would expect him to. Do you hear it? Great. Understood. What do you need to do to refocus on the next piece and get your work done?”

Leonard’s realigned individual cumulative pass efficiency rating (139.4) is ahead of 1-9 USC starter junior Miller Moss (135.7) in both games this week and sophomore and UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava, who led Moss in wins about Nebraska and UCLA replaced the last two weekends.

Leonard’s 223.3 pass efficiency rating in an abbreviated performance in a 49-14 win over previously undefeated Army Saturday at Yankee Stadium is considered the best single-game mark of his career.

And Leonard is still producing big rushing numbers, too.

Only Brandon Wimbush (14) scored more rushing TDs in a season by an Irish QB in 2017 than Leonard 13. And only Wimbush (803 in 2017) and Tony Rice (884 in 1989, 700 in the 1988 title season) accumulated more QB rushing yards in a season at ND than Leonard’s 671.

“You tell a lot about a person’s character when they’re down,” Freeman said Monday during his weekly news conference. “Riley is a competitor. He is a fighter. He didn’t feel guilty. He didn’t want any pity. He wanted to work. This is what I learned about Riley Leonard.

“I learned most about him after the second week when we were down. Anyone can stand up if you succeed. But he kept working and now he understands that he decides how good he can be. So he keeps working on it. He plays at a high level and doesn’t change a bit as a person. He’s a great person.”

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Since South Carolina graduate transfer kicker Mitch Jeter suffered a hip injury against Stanford on Oct. 12, the Irish are at 3 of 10 field goals due to a number of walk-ons Zac Yoakam And Marcello Diomede and Jeter himself on the way to a comeback.

Before the injury, the Irish were 5 of 7, with both missed shots coming on blocked field goals in the Sept. 7 loss to Northern Illinois.

Jeter attempted a 48-yarder against Army on Saturday that sailed wide right, and then a 30-yarder was blocked on a play where his tackle on Army’s Casey Larkin – who returned the block – may have saved a touchdown.

And now?

“Mitch Jeter was always our best option,” Freeman said Monday. “This week he hit the ball better than he has in a long time – the one he missed. I had a lot, maybe even more, confidence after he hit the ball – and it ended up going well.

“But he hit the ball really well and from a yard line that we couldn’t do before. So far we haven’t felt comfortable with his injury. But seeing him hit the ball was a big encouragement to me. I know he missed it, but I felt very encouraged after seeing him hit the ball and how competent he was.”

Freeman said the blocked field goal wasn’t Jeter’s fault.

“This was a failure in field goal protection that we need to address immediately and urgently, and we are addressing it.” But the second case wasn’t about Mitch Jeter at all. And I have every confidence in Mitch Jeter every single opportunity we have to kick a field goal. It’s just this line. Where is the line that we’re asking them to go out there and criticize?”

Jeter made 23 of 25 field goals during his South Carolina career.

Notre Dame has sometimes traveled to USC or Stanford on Thanksgiving itself in late November over the years, but this time it will be Friday.

“The schedule for the week was created months ago because we knew we wouldn’t have school on Wednesday,” Freeman said, “so we need to maximize the opportunities we have that day to make the most of it. ” of that.

“And on Thursday, since it’s Thanksgiving, we have to work and be prepared, but we also want to give the players and some of the coaches and staff the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving. “So we train in the morning and eat Thanksgiving together, and in the afternoon and evening The players and coaches then have the opportunity to get away.”

The TV start time of 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 PT, a departure from a typical prime-time ET start, only slightly impacted the schedule, Freeman said.

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Marcus Freeman In his own pregame sermon to his players before the ND-Army game, he mimicked the pregame instructions he had shared with the NBC crew about the way his Irish team should play Saturday night.

Violent was the decisive term in both cases.

“You could leave out the word ‘violence’ and say ‘physicality,'” Freeman explained. “You could say ‘speed’. You could say “speed”. I chose the word “violence.” But that’s the attitude I wanted to convey to this group.

“The reason I said that is because playing against a triple-option team can lead to playing cautiously – especially on defense. “We have to be perfect, stop the dive, stop the quarterback, stop the pitch.” That’s not what this offense was trying to do. This offense is all about beating you up vertically. They wanted to attack you. And we had to have that offensive mindset.”

The same mentality applied to the ND offense.

“I know they had the best (third-best) run defense in the country,” Freeman said. “I wanted to attack her. I wanted to have the mindset that we have to go after them and not worry about our athleticism, not worry about the talent that we have. I wanted to physically attack her.

“And that’s the mindset that I had and that’s what I think we need to be successful in this game. And our guys did a great job playing with speed, quickness, physicality and violence.”

Freeman described the USC game as Notre Dame’s biggest challenge to date – even in advance of meetings with the currently ranked away teams that are already in the rearview mirror, Texas A&M and Army.

A big part of that assessment? The noise. As with all the hubbub surrounding the program surrounding a possible College Football Playoff home game in December.

“All I continue to do is remind myself and them that it’s human nature,” Freeman said. “Every person in this room, every person who sees this, we all tend to drift into the future. We all tend to dream about an uncertain future.

“So I always challenge them, it’s one thought at a time. When you start thinking about things other than right now, remind yourself to come back to the moment and attend to what you are guaranteed to be right in front of you, right now.

“Is the noise louder? If you let it. We control the volume of noise depending on what we read, what we listen to, who we talk to. We control that. We control what comes into our minds. It’s a choice we all have to make, which is to turn down the noise. The noise is certainly loud. I mean, shoot, I’m sure I’ll get on social media and it’ll be a lot louder. But we, I, control the volume of the noise that goes into my head.”

Per Freeman, as is his habit on Mondays: running back on offense Jeremiyah love. Another sophomore, security Adon Schulerreceived defensive honors as a freshman Bryce Young – who blocked a punt – was mentioned for playing on special teams.

The Scout Team Players of the Week were: Scout Team QB Tyler Buchner (Attack), freshman linebacker Bodie Kahoun (defense) and walk-on Jerry Rullo (Special teams).

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