Marcus Freeman isn’t treating Notre Dame’s trip to Miami like a one-game sprint. He’s treating it like the latest test of a team that still has room to sharpen, even with the No.
5 Irish sitting at 7-1 and the No. 1 Hurricanes coming to South Bend on Saturday night.
With the matchup finally here after being circled for months, Freeman spent Tuesday talking through what Notre Dame has to clean up, how the Irish handled their 35-13 win over Navy, and what it will take to deal with one of the few unbeaten teams left in college football. The game has been building since 11:30 PM on August 31, 2025, and now it lands on a stage that feels as big as advertised.
For Freeman, the message starts with accountability, but it has to end with confidence intact.
"You find areas that you have to improve, and then you've got to figure out why," Freeman explained. "Why we didn't perform the way we want to in that area.
And then you own it, and you go to work, and you fix it, but they don't ever lose confidence. My job is to instill it if they do.
They understand how talented they are, but they want to be the best, right? And so they accept it.
They want to be coached. They want to be told how to improve.
They don't want to be patted on the back. That doesn't make them better, but they know we care about them."
That balance between correction and belief has been part of the Irish approach all season, and Freeman said it has to stay that way with Miami ahead.
He also pointed to Leonard Moore as a perfect example of a player whose versatility can tilt a game. Against smaller, quicker receivers, Moore was asked to do more than his usual work at corner, and Freeman said that kind of flexibility is what separates him.
"It's hard to do what Leonard [ Moore ] did versus USC," Freeman explained. "To be a boundary corner and all of a sudden at times go play nickel.
But he has that skill set. He is as gifted in his toolboxes, I've been around, right?
His toolbox is extremely large, and he has a skill set to be able to play corner and play nickel, and I truly believe he could play safety. That's the type of player he is.
Mentally, he can handle it and physically, and that's why he's considered, if not the top, one of the top players in the country."
Freeman also laid out the broader football truth Notre Dame has leaned on all year: every opponent forces adjustments, and the staff’s job is to find answers without losing the identity of the offense or defense.
"You adjust," Freeman said simply. "You see what they're doing and within your scheme, you say, okay, what can we do schematically or call-wise to give us a better opportunity to have success against what an offense is doing?
That's every game you have to adjust to. things people do differently that you haven't seen on film. Same thing with our offense.
Our offense is going to do things that you can watch every game and find a way to do it a little bit differently and that's the beauty of this.
"The art of the game of football is that you don't create new plays and sit there and draw up things," Freeman continued. "How can we hide and mask or do something a little bit differently that it presents a challenge for a defense because they haven't seen it done that way. But it still fits within who we are offensively, and that's what Navy did, and that's what every team before we played Navy has done."
Now Notre Dame turns all of that toward Miami, with Freeman’s focus squarely on development, adjustments, and keeping the Irish steady for Saturday night inside Notre Dame Stadium.
In Other News...
Notre Dames Rome Opener Put One Irish Freshman Under The Spotlight
Notre Dames season opened in memorable fashion in Rome, where the Irish edged Villanova 74-72 and got an early look at how their new pieces might fit together. Shrewsberry led the way with 15 points, Koehler added 16 points and made key defensive plays, and the game had the feel of a showcase from the start, with the Irish already drawing attention for how they handled a high-level opponent on a stage far from South Bend.
The biggest spotlight, though, landed on freshman Luigi Suigo, whose college debut came with plenty of eyes on him because of his NBA draft potential. He finished with seven points, a modest start by the box score but still a meaningful first step for a player viewed as a possible first-round pick. Villanovas Perkins scored 18 points in the loss, but for Notre Dame, the opener was as much about seeing how Suigo settles in as it was about starting the year with a win. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Gets A Real Opening Against No. 1 Miami
Miamis defense is under the microscope heading into a trip to South Bend, and Mario Cristobal made it clear the Hurricanes know why. After a shaky showing against North Carolina, he pointed to tackling and finishing plays as issues that have to be cleaned up fast, especially with Notre Dame waiting and a quarterback in CJ Carr who can make defenses pay when they lose contain.
For the Irish, that kind of self-scout from the No. 1 team is exactly the opening this matchup seemed to promise. South Bend will get a heavyweight game with real stakes, and Notre Dames offense now has a chance to test a Miami defense that is being asked to sharpen its execution and communication in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Defense Is Running Thin At The Worst Possible Time
Notre Dames defense took another hit in the Navy game, and the timing could hardly be worse with Miami looming. Linebacker Drayk Bowen and defensive tackles Jason Onye and Francis Brewu were among the players injured, adding to a unit that has already been stretched by earlier setbacks this season.
The Irish have not offered specific recovery timelines, leaving their status for the Miami matchup uncertain and the depth chart in a familiar state of flux. For a defense already trying to patch together answers, every new injury narrows the margin for error and makes the next week feel even more important. [Read more 🡒]