Marcus Freeman Press Conference Monday, 9/5/22

Coach Freeman opened his press conference by stating that there are “no moral victories,” but he was still proud of his team’s preparation and how well his players “battled” throughout the game. “We’ve established the floor as our foundation, and now we have to re-evaluate and prepare for our 1st home game against Marshall.”

Here are some of the many other points discussed during the presser:

· Coach Huff of Marshall is highly respected by Coach Freeman, and he expects a tough game from them.

· Jarrett Patterson participated in warm ups before the OSU game, but reported that he was not ready to play afterwards. Coach is hopeful that he can play on Saturday, but it will be a game time decision.

· Coach Freeman gave high praise to our defense who stopped their run game “until the last 16 minutes.”

· Specifically, #20, Ben Morrison and #21, Jaden Mickey made great contributions as freshmen in the secondary. #28, Ta’Riq Bracy impressed Coach Freeman with his talent and consistency. “He can play multiple positions” during the game.

· Our running game isn’t consistent yet. Our young OL battled mightily against OSU’s experienced and dominant DL and improved as the game went on.

· Tyler Buchner played well for his 1st official start. Even though he was “pretty beat up,” Tyler had no turnovers in the game.

· On Tobias Merriweather, Coach says he has great talent, but needs to work on execution in practice.

· One area that needs improvement on the sideline is communication between the coaches and players. Position coaches must be sure that individual players are ready to go in. Coach Freeman also stated that he wanted Buchner to take a shot downfield right before halftime, but that wasn’t communicated to Coach Rees in time. That has to change.

· As far as injuries are concerned, Bo Bauer and Ta’Riq Bracy were both experiencing cramping. Punter, Jon Sot was also cramping to which Coach said wryly, “How does a punter cramp?” Tyler Buchner had some ankle soreness, but when Coach saw him today, Tyler said, “I’m ready, Coach!” Finally, punter, Bryce McFerson suffered a groin pull this week, but was more than adequately replaced by 5th year transfer from Harvard, Jon Sot.

· Coach wanted to remind everyone that this offense is YOUNG even the offensive line, and they are working with all new position coaches. They are motivated and they will improve.

· Finally, Coach Freeman responded to the reasoning behind returning the tradition of attending Mass at the Basilica right before the game. He stressed that he wants to create “the calm before the storm.” He also informed us that they had a pre-game Mass in Columbus and every player chose to attend.

· Coach thanked the press for attending even though it was a holiday!