Marcus Freeman is tired of hearing questions about his team’s defense.
No, Freeman said, he will not take over defensive play-calling for No. 22 Notre Dame (1-2) when it goes up against Arkansas (2-2) on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville, Ark.
Yes, Freeman said, he will look for his players to take responsibility for playing better.
The Fighting Irish have allowed 98 points in their first three games. That hasn’t happened since 2007, when Charlie Weis’ team gave up 102 in their first three on the way to an 0-5 start and a 3-9 season.
“During tough times, there’s two options: fight or flight,” Freeman said. “And the guys that (choose) flight blame other people. ‘It’s the call. It’s his fault. It’s this coach’s fault or it’s that player’s fault. We gave up a big play, that corner should’ve covered him.’ That’s flight mode.
“But the fight mode is, ‘Gosh. Call man again. I promise you my man’s not going to catch the ball. I’m going to play with the right technique and I’m going to refuse to let my man catch the ball.’ … That’s the fight mode.”
Notre Dame will go for back-to-back victories after posting a 56-30 win at home against Purdue last weekend. Now comes the second road game of the season for the Fighting Irish, who dropped their season opener 27-24 against then-No. 10 Miami.
Arkansas returns home after a brutal 32-31 loss last Saturday at Memphis. The Razorbacks led 31-20 late in the third quarter before the Tigers stormed back to win the game.
The setback marked the second straight loss for Arkansas and embattled coach Sam Pittman.
“We just have to get better,” Pittman said, “and we’ve got to have guys flying to the football. We’ve got to have the physicality. I don’t care what defense you run, if you don’t run to the football and you don’t tackle well, and you don’t have that aggressive ‘Let’s go get them (mentality),’ I don’t care what you’re running, it’s not going to work.”
Pittman embraces the rarity that is Saturday’s game. It marks the first time Notre Dame has played at Arkansas.
“We have an opportunity,” he said. “The only way we can win people that don’t believe in us, or win some more positive thoughts about our program, is to win games.”
To do so, Arkansas will have to stop a dynamic 1-2 punch in the backfield for Notre Dame. Jeremiyah Love leads the team with 284 rushing yards to go along with three touchdowns while Jadarian Price has 187 rushing yards with a team-high five rushing touchdowns.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr also continues to improve. The redshirt freshman has completed 66.2 percent of his passes for 737 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.
Arkansas’ top playmaker is fifth-year quarterback Taylen Green, who has passed for 1,191 yards, an SEC-best 12 touchdowns and four interceptions. He also owns a team-high 360 rushing yards with two touchdowns on the ground.
O’Mega Blake is Green’s top target in the passing game. Blake has 24 catches for 326 yards and three touchdowns.
Freeman said Notre Dame could not take anything for granted against Arkansas.
“There’s still areas we’ve got to improve at,” Freeman said. “It’s just going to take time. There is no perfect answer, or I promise you we would do it.”
