Six things learned from Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman as camp begins

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman opened fall camp with a news conference Tuesday at Notre Dame Stadium, addressing a number of topics for a team that checks in at No. 5 in the preseason coaches poll.

Here are six things we heard from Freeman, safety Adon Shuler and linebacker Drayk Bowen as the Irish prepare to dive into practices this month.

1. “Leave No Doubt” continues to be a mantra the Irish follow.

Freeman instituted the motto in the winter when Notre Dame missed the College Football Playoff despite finishing with a 10-2 record. Bowen said the players understand that means they “can’t leave your future in the hands of others” — and that is driving how they work.

While “Leave No Doubt” links back to the CFP snub, Freeman said he tells his team to stop thinking and talking about the playoffs — to lock in on the moment instead.

“When your mind is thinking about something that isn’t right in front of you, you create bad habits,” Freeman said. “You create complacency, and it’s important that every time we think about last year, 2024, the future, it’s a trigger to remind us to take care of what we have right in front of us, and that’s this moment.”

With the longer offseason the Irish had while not playing in a bowl game, Freeman said the team is physically ahead of where they were in previous years — bigger, stronger and more explosive. Couple that with the Irish returning all three of their coordinators, starting quarterback CJ Carr and a ton of talent on defense, and Freeman said his team is starting camp in a good spot.

“The foundation is higher, but we’ve got a tremendous amount of work and not a lot of time to get that foundation to where we need it for Sept. 6,” he said.

2. Freeman said the Irish have made “enhancements” to try to avoid early-season missteps.

Freeman said he evaluated everything his program has done in the offseason as he tries to make sure his team is ready in the early season. The Irish have struggled early in seasons under Freeman, including starting 0-2 last year with losses to Miami and Texas A&M, and in 2024 losing a September game to Northern Illinois.

He called it “a January through August issue.”

“How do you evaluate everything you’re doing from the minute the last game ends to the minute the first game begins?” Freeman said. “And we’re not changing everything we’ve done, but we’re evaluating everything we’ve done, and we’re enhancing little things we’ve done in terms of how we practice, in terms of which days we practice, in terms of how much meeting time.”

He said he’s confident in the changes he has made as the Irish look toward their Sept. 6 opener against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.

“We have to challenge everything,” he said. “If you continue to just rent and recycle and repeat, I think you’ll get passed by. You have to continue to adapt to the changing times and to the different ideas that are out there.”

3. Freeman called quarterback CJ Carr “an X factor.”

Carr spent Notre Dame’s fall camp last year in a quarterback battle with Kenny Minchey, but he comes in this season with 12 starts under his belt from 2025. After throwing for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns last season, he enters as a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate.

Having that experience back at the most crucial position should be big for the Irish, who are confident to give him the keys to put the offense in good position, Freeman said.

“He’s almost like a version of a coordinator on the field,” Freeman said. “The coach-to-player communication cuts off at 15 seconds. And so, he’s able to see a defense and anticipate what the defense is going to be and put our offense in a position to not have a negative play.

“That’s more important, probably, than the explosive plays. Those explosive plays happen for plenty of different reasons, but to keep our offense out of negative plays and have a quarterback that can see it because he’s prepared, he’s intelligent, he has experience, that’s an X factor.”

4. Former Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry brings in new ideas to the defensive staff.

Henry joined Notre Dame in the offseason with the title of co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. Freeman said the defensive staff has spoken in depth about dividing up different areas of responsibility when it comes to expertise on opponents and that Henry will have a lot on his plate.

Freeman said he and defensive coordinator Chris Ash must take many ideas from an experienced and knowledgeable defensive staff and merge them.

“How do you take as many ideas from the experts as you can?” Freeman said. “But ultimately you have to filter it so that your players can comprehend and play fast.

“The ideas, there are plenty of them. We have so much knowledge, but Coach Ash is going to do a great job of making sure that our game plan is complicated, but concise enough to make sure our players can execute it.”

5. Freeman and the players raved about Notre Dame’s new football facilities.

Notre Dame just opened Shields Family Hall, a 150,000-square-foot football facility that the Irish said in a release includes “an advanced training room; a stand-alone sports medicine facility; an equipment facility with body scanning and fabrication technology; a new and expanded locker room; meeting rooms, including a two-level, all-team auditorium and an augmented reality walk-through room; media innovation spaces, including recording studios and photo studios; academic support spaces and a new player nutrition area.”

Freeman called the new facilities, which reportedly cost $100 million, “unbelievable.”

“I know at some point, it will get old, but every time I walk in there, I’m in awe,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. And credit to the people that invested money and time to get our players that place they deserve.”

Shuler called it “a huge upgrade” and said the investment is “humbling.”

“I keep joking around with (Drayk Bowen), like, we need a map,” Shuler said. “That’s how big the building is.”

Bowen said he is excited about the food but also thinks the recovery room will be beneficial.

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how much more wear and tear you get on the body throughout the long season,” Bowen said. “So for me, the biggest thing is probably going to be the recovery room of just all the things that they have now that we can use that can help you get back to 100% a lot sooner.”

6. Notre Dame gave injury updates for players.

The Irish listed six players as available for modified activity as of Aug. 4: wide receivers Elijah Burress (right hamstring strain), Quincy Porter (left knee patella surgery) and Brayden Robinson (right ACL surgery), offensive lineman Ashton Craig (left ACL surgery), linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (left ACL surgery), and safety Nick Reddish (right shoulder labrum surgery).

Five players are currently out: defensive linemen Christopher Burgess Jr. (left tibia stress fracture surgery) and Tiki Hola (right ACL surgery), offensive linemen Charles Jagusah (left humerus fracture surgery) and Peter Jones (right shoulder pectoral strain), and linebacker Ko’o Kia (left shoulder labrum surgery).