Marcus Freeman and the Irish prepare for undefeated North Carolina after their first win of the season.

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind – Notre Dame coming off a 24-17 win of Cal for Marcus Freeman’s first win as Head Coach.

“I think I've knocked out all the first right and first bowl game, but first loss in a bowl game, first loss on the road first loss at home. So knocked out all those first in the negative aspect. Got the first win. Let's talk about uh, an opponent, let's talk about, you know, preparing for a game and what it takes to have success.” Freeman said.

Next up on the schedule – the 3-0 North Carolina Tar Heels.

A team that’s averaging over 50 points per game, but also allowing 38 points per game to opponents.

Something that could benefit a team that’s finding their identity, after a rough start to the season.

“I love the adjustments and really how we're able to execute. So they'll know the expectations going on the road, a lot of these guys that are playing for us have been to chapel hill and played at north Carolina,” Freeman added.

The expectations were clear against Cal, resulting in the first win.

Both sides of the ball stepping up and setting a new standard for the team as they go on the road.

“Well, I think we got to offensively start faster. You know, in the end, we just didn't execute really those routine plays early in the game,” Freeman mentioned.

The Irish went scoreless in their first five drives of the game but the slow start transitioned into 297 yards of total offense.

Half of it coming from a productive run game, something freeman has emphasized from the jump.

“You know, to really look at how they got flipped in the second half, and we're able to, to establish a run game. But what does that do is, as I said before, it opens up areas in the past game. And that's what it did, you continue to run the ball with efficiency,” said Freeman.

The final piece of the puzzle was the defense, racking up six sacks on Cal, but still looking for their first takeaway of the season.

“Like I don't know how many we had this week, six, five or 6x this week. And so, listen, we got to continue to talk about ways to improve but we can have our six next week we're going to be okay,” Freeman added.