Marcus Freeman says this week’s game is ‘an important rivalry for our program’

Notre Dame’s Head Coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media this week about playing Stanford and what he sees in their offense.

Opening statement

“Just turning the page of Stanford, a rivalry game, playing for the Legends Trophy. It’s an important rivalry for our program. Obviously, two years ago, they came in here and they beat us, and last year, in the second quarter, we were down, I think, 14 to 13, at one point. So, we really have to prepare. It’s a team that has some injuries… That offensively is so multiple in what they’ve done, and what they’ve shown on film, and then defensively, really pride themselves on stopping the run, is going to force you to try to take some shots. So, another challenging opponent to prepare for and a rivalry game that we’re only looking forward to playing in Notre Dame Stadium.”

On Stanford head coach Troy Taylor’s offense

Marcus: I have a lot of respect for him as an offensive play caller. As you look back at last year when we played them, we knew they were a unique offense in terms of what they did. You’ll see a lot of stress put on a defense based off motions, shifts, formations and they did some unique things in last year’s game where they gave us some extra wide splits. I think he’s a creative offensive mind.

They utilize different personnel. They have some injuries, so we’re not 100 percent sure what we’ll see. They probably were a majority 11-personnel team as you go into the first couple games of the year, but they had some injuries. Will we see more 12? Will we see 13? Not 100 percent sure, but he’s a creative play caller that will put a lot of stress on our defense.

Watch the full press conference here: