After a 70-7 thrashing of Syracuse in which Notre Dame thoroughly dominated the Orange in all three phases of the game, one would have thought that coach Marcus Freeman would have been satisfied with the victory.
Think again.
Freeman, while speaking to reporters after the game, acknowledged that the box score might show a "dominant victory,” but emphasized that he would find a way to drive the point home to his players that there was meat left on the bone.
"I gotta go in and evaluate it. Obviously the score shows a dominant victory," Freeman said. "But that doesn‘t always mean you played perfect or it doesn‘t always mean you played horribly if you win in a close game. They played really, really well. But I still think there‘s more. I‘ll find reasons to make sure our guys understand that there‘s more out there.
"It wasn‘t perfect. It wasn‘t perfect. And we need to make sure we attack those things and enhance the things we‘re doing well."
Dick Corbett Head Football Coach Marcus Freeman meets with the media at a November 22 press conference following Notre Dame's Senior Day matchup against Syracuse. https://t.co/h8jPOvHeAo
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But even the never-satisfied Freeman allowed himself a moment to savor his team‘s most complete performance of the season.
"But it was a pretty good performance," he said with a smile."It was."
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Notre Dame‘s defense and special teams set the tone, as the Fighting Irish raced out of the gate to a 21-0 lead, scoring three touchdowns—an interception return for touchdown, blocked punt for a touchdown and another pick six—before its offense even ran its first play from scrimmage.
"A unique game," Freeman said. "I haven‘t been a part of a game like that this—I don‘t know if I've ever seen a game like that. 21 points on the board and the offense hasn‘t been on the field."
But the offense would soon get involved after that. Led by Heisman Trophy candidate Jeremiyah Love, who scored three touchdowns and ran for 171 yards, the Fighting Irish offense accounted for the game‘s remaining points. The end result was a dominant victory in which Notre Dame scored the most points in a game since a 73-0 win over Haskell in 1932.
"This is what I tell our guys. I don‘t care what the score was, we‘ve got to celebrate this victory," Freeman said. "We‘ll get to work the next day. We‘re gonna dissect it, we‘re gonna find ways to improve. But if you don‘t celebrate—if it‘s 70-7 or 10-7—if you don‘t enjoy that, it‘s a miserable life. Because they put a lot of work into this. And it‘s never gonna be perfect.
"Even if you win 70-7. So I gotta continue to teach them and tell myself to enjoy every one of these, no matter if it‘s Pitt, no matter if it was last year in the Orange Bowl. You have to try to enjoy these because they‘re really hard to attain."
Notre Dame has won nine straight games.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Marcus Freeman Still Isn't Satisfied After Notre Dame‘s 63-Point Win Over Syracuse.
