Story by
Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind.
Marcus Freeman has a desire to "keep it in the kitchen"
- Story byPharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind.
- Marcus Freeman has a desire to "keep it in the kitchen"
Fun fact: Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was a busboy at Texas Roadhouse when he was in college.
"Before NIL," Freeman said with a laugh to reporters as he left his press conference on Monday.
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This little tidbit of Freeman's life was a main talking point during his Monday press conference, but not about the dishes he cleared. All these years later, while doing a much different job, he still calls back to Texas Roadhouse and something he learned there.
"There was a sign on the inside of the kitchen door: keep it in the kitchen," Freeman said. "It was a reminder that the customers can't see inside the kitchen. It can be messy, stuff all over the floor, plates, dirty stuff. It's a mess, but when you walk outside those doors, the customers, they can't know. It's got to be perfect. And I shared it with the team because there are a lot of things that as an individual, go on inside. And as a team, that go on, but you've got to keep it in the kitchen. An outsider sees it, the customers see it; they have to see a certain product and that's where it all originated from. So there's certain things as a coach, certain things as a team, certain things as a player that we got to keep it in the kitchen."
That story from Freeman stems from a moment on Saturday in the Fighting Irish 's 27-10 win against Michigan State , where the kitchen door may have been open a little too wide.
Running back Aneyas Williams scored a rushing touchdown from a yard out and got up to celebrate with his teammates, which is normal at any level of football. Except Williams and his offensive teammates started doing a dance that looked pretty choreographed.
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So what? Well in college football, celebrations are not allowed to be choreographed like they are in the NFL. As a result, Williams got an unsportsmanlike penalty that cost the team 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff.
Freeman has preached all season that Notre Dame can't beat Notre Dame, referring to self-inflicted mistakes and penalties like that. When Williams got back to the sideline, Freeman was irate.
The head coach screamed at Williams for a few seconds, right in the running back's ear, before Williams retreated to the bench. After more than 24 hours of reflection, Freeman realized he may have failed to keep it in the kitchen in that moment.
"If that situation happened in practice, I have no problem with my animation and getting out because he trusts me," Freeman said. "He knows that I care about him, but I don't want outsiders and people who don't know the relationship. I have a lot of players who see that, because then you can make your own narrative or opinion of our relationship and I didn't love that, so I apologized for it."
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It has been a difficult start to the season for Williams, who was expected to be the guy out of the backfield after Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price departed for the NFL. The junior is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry on 38 attempts and was out-carried by sophomore Nolan James Jr. on Saturday, 26-9.
Freeman gave Williams high praise on Monday as a leader and as a guy who is working incredibly hard to improve. He also remained adamant that penalty was unacceptable and Notre Dame can't afford to beat Notre Dame.
"He puts a lot of pressure on himself to be this great running back and he just works tremendously hard," Freeman said. "I'm really proud of who he is, the way he goes about his business and the leadership that he leads with. I think we all learn from that play, that moment. We can't hurt our team, but also I've got to be more aware of what environment I'm in."
INJURY UPDATES
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Safety Luke Talich suffered a left wrist injury against Michigan State and is questionable for this week against Purdue . The former walk-on has been impressive this season, with 11 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and an interception. The sack and interception both came against the Spartans on Saturday.
A path to more snaps for Talich was opened when Brauntae Johnson went down in week one with a left foot injury. Johnson is still a couple of weeks away from returning, but remains right on track, Freeman said. If Talich can't go, freshman Joey O'Brien would be in line to start.
