Notre Dame Football: Marcus Freeman Updates Media Ahead of Boston College game

Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman met with journalists Thursday following the team’s rivalry win against the Navy Midshipmen. The coach talked injuries, senior celebration, and embracing frigid temperatures.

Preparing for the Cold Weather

On balancing indoor and outdoor practices ahead of the low temperatures at the Boston College game, Freeman said, “...The first thing I told them Tuesday is, ‘We’re practicing outside. Prepare your mind for it. We’re going outside.’ And so, we practiced all day Tuesday outside. Yesterday was just going to be a little bit too wet. I wanted to stay outside all week, but yesterday because of the snow, it was just too wet, so I wanted to get good work… It’s just understanding we’re going to practice outside. We’re going to play outside. Dress warm…. If you dress appropriately, it won’t be an issue. If you try to be a tough guy, there’s no such thing as cold tough guys, you know and that’s what I told them, and you better be a warm tough guy.”

Celebrating Senior Day

Expanding on Jayson Ademilola’s telling of his Notre Dame experience, Freeman said, “As far as Jayson, he’s a lot of fun to coach, he is so energetic…. Having a set of twins on your team, he plays on a high level… he’s a joy to coach…” Freeman went on to clarify the plans for Senior Day, amid confusion regarding fifth years, and said, “As far as Senior Day, at the beginning of the year, I wanted the guys that plan on this being their last year to just say hey this is my last year, I’m going to be a senior because we do some different things with our seniors throughout the season in terms of fall camp, in terms of recognizing them in different ways, and so, there’s one or two guys that have an option after the season after they get their NFL grade reports if they decided to come back or not. What I don’t want them to do is not participate in Senior Day and decide to go to the NFL, and so if there’s a possibility of this being your last year of playing football, I want you to be part of Senior Day and those will be the guys that will be recognized on Saturday.”

Injury Updates

The coach said safety Brandon Joseph is “doubtful for this game” following an ankle injury while linebacker Jack Kiser is “probable” after an ankle sprain. Freeman went on to say quarterback Tyler Buchner is “practicing and doing some individual stuff, not wearing pads and stuff like that, but he’s participating in parts of practice and other parts of practice and he’s doing some rehab still,” after an AC sprain. The coach said JD Bertrand is “100 percent a go” after a groin injury.

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