Marcus Freeman & Riley Leonard talk NEW 12-team CFP, season goals & more! | Get Up

The new college football world next week will be for the Big 10 but today we Wake Up The Echoes the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are here we're delighted to have their head coach Marcus Freeman their new quarterback Riley Leonard and a young man by the name of Jordan Clark who you might recognize he may look a little bit like the fellow sitting next to him uh because he is RC's son and we are just thrilled to have all of you guys thank you very much for making it over here apprciate you especially getting through all of this so let's just go around a little bit here let let's start coach I've been asking this to all the coaches I've had on this week and that is but we really live in a new college football world for those who haven't paid a whole lot of attention they're going to wake up this season in a different Universe from the one that we've known for the last 150 years where certainly all the conferences have been realigned that doesn't impact you perhaps as much as it does some others but the 12 team college football playoff how if at all has that impacted the way you and your team have prepared for the season you know I think the mindset you have going into the season doesn't change right is that every week you want to prepare your team to win um but more than anything I think we've had to have a plan for week 12 to week 14 because obviously we won't play in a college a championship game because we're not in a conference but what is that plan from right after your last game of the regular season to the first round of playoffs and that has changed because you're now having practice when young your your players are having finals you're talking about okay what do we want to do physically to make sure you're ready for a playoff game and all those different legistics that go into that but um that's to me where the Forward Thinking has come Riley I got to see you play uh EA Sports sports college football 25 yesterday uh you're playing with you were playing with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish I think you very familiar you're very familiar with their new quarterback can you talk about the fact that he fumbles all the time on the game he's a little slow too golly yeah no JC me and JC played yesterday he absolutely toured me I don't have a console I don't really play video games too much but he that's the EXC you make you make the decision to go to norre Dame it's a step up from Duke in so many any ways what Drew you to the Fighting Irish and to play for Coach Freeman yeah so it's a couple things number one uh the players uh all my official visit we we took a we took a dinner downtown and uh that's kind of what ended up convincing me uh that I wanted to go there you know you walk into the locker room every day you want to be you want to be around guys and just have your back great people on and off the field um n Dame's got it as long as the coaching staff as well you know got got to throw that in there uh the coaching staff play a big part obviously you have a coordinator like Mike denro coming from LSU uh Jane D's obviously had a great year um so I'm excited to get into that offense he always says we got the keys to the car so to be able to off operate in an offense like that would be a lot of fun for me how about you Jordan obviously football is in the blood it's it's in the family business what made you decide here as you've moved along in your career that this was the right place for you yeah I think for me in my last year what I wanted to do was progress and grow and I think that there's no better place to do that than Notre Dame um you're talking about a place where you know it's listed as like a new Ivy Jordan Clark on Notre Dame school on the Forbes list you know what I'm saying and then uh you're in the locker room with guys like Riley Leonard you're in the locker room with guys like Benjamin Morrison so in the classroom you know what I'm saying on the field I'm with the best of the best and when you're with the best of the best you can do nothing but grow so I I'm I'm dying to hear maybe we'll try and set aside a little time and obviously I don't want to exclude it but you know I know your dad I mean I've known him for about 12 15 years in one way and and and the way he motivates everybody around here and all that kind of stuff like when when he's getting you ready like before a game is he in your face like like RC he's got such big energy we'll do explain your tweets a little bit later what what I know what RC is like when he's just our colleague what's it like when this guy is your dad uh he he's more like my best friend than he is my dad you know what I'm saying before games I he understands that I'm already locked in enough we don't do too much yelling or talking you slide me a note you know what I'm saying or remind me do some things remind me you know what I'm saying to compete and you know just have fun but besides that it's understood we don't have to do too much talking the G college football game day is the worst day of my week every single season I go to every game I talk to Riley about it I go to every single game and I'm a nervous wreck the entire time I don't like sitting by the other parents because they want to talk football with me and I ain't here to talk football here to be a dad and so like it's going to and I know now with the Step Up in competition they're starting off at Texas A&M I'm going be a nervous wreck every Saturday but I got so much confidence in this man and what he's building and also him and the things that he's done and I've got opportunity to be around some of his teammates you know recently man I'm just so excited for his opportunity to play ball with them so coach let's talk a little bit about that it is a new world of college football as we've talked about and and all these other coaches are figuring out how their schedule is going to look for example I mean that we were say the SEC no longer has divisions the Big 10 no longer has divisions how has all of this impacted Notre Dame with your unique scheduling situation you know I think for us we schedule teams in every conference and we know we're going to play Coast to Coast I think as we Making the CFP continue to move forward schedules are are really already made out through 2030 something but as we move forward we got to make sure that our schedule lines up with those of the SEC in the Big 10 that hey as long as we do what we're supposed to do we still have every opportunity to make the college football playoff and that's the biggest thing is that we have to make sure we have a schedule that that is similar to some of those other big 10 and SEC and and other conferences to make sure that again our path to the playoff is is similar right I'm sorry you went to a basketball school right it it was it's Coach K and it was about what the Duke basketball team is going to do as they moved on the sh for you now being at Notre Dame being the quarterback at the most historic University in football how has that pressure changed you if any yeah I mean this is what every kid dreams of you everybody wants to be the quarterback at Notre Dame the the support that we have all around the country is like no other um so I feel the expectations and the pressure but I embrace it like we all embrace it uh we understand what the expectations are and trust me we're putting more pressure on ourselves to win than than anybody so it's going to be a lot of fun this year we have lived in a world where one loss throughout the history of college football certainly in this playoff era and and and the BCS era that that came before it one loss sometimes was as good as taking you completely out of the picture the idea that now with 12 teams it seems almost inconceivable that we won't get several that get in with as many as two losses which is never happened before how if at all does that impact the way you prepare at the beginning of a season and each week I don't think it changes much right even if it was a four team playoff um you lose one game you lose two games and they say okay you're not going to make the playoff right you still prepare to win every single game you play and now the the difference being that hey at the end of the season some guys opt out of bowl games right but now it's it's still the same mindset in a regular season no matter if we have a chance to make playoffs or not we are going to prepare to win every game we play now the depth is going to be important right we have to make sure we are very strategic in terms of how we're preparing those scout team guys is that a guy that's just scout team or is he a scout team and and should do some some some reps to get ready for the game to make sure we're developing those guys but coach this is turning almost into the NFL obviously the N nil was the first step right to moving this game forward but also now having a 12 team playoff davo Sweeney mentioned CU dabo's kind of like always whining about something but davo Sweeney mentioned that you know teams are going to have to figure out how they play late in the season like if you are a team that solidified your spot in the top six or whatever it is do you play your Riley Leonard the last week are you working some of those scout team guys in because you might need some some depth to play inside the playoffs are you guys already talking about some of those things and how they will affect team building yeah I think for us you're going to want to win every game you play because it's going to affect your playoff seating okay right if you got a chance you know you're going to make the playoff going the week 11 and 12 you still want to make sure you you get the highest seaing you can get for us which would be five and so I don't see that being an issue um for our program especially right now but the future is always uncertain we'll see what happens that that is a unique U element of all of this you say the highest you can be is five the top four spots which will get buys will go to the the four highest ranked uh conference champions so there are some advantages and disadvantages to all of yeah I think as we look at it okay so those four highest Conference champions play week 13 we don't play week 13 we we we finish NIL landscape and opportunities after week 12 so we do get a buy it just happens to Beek 13 right an interesting way of looking at an important way of looking at it you know you you bring this up like I've been doing this a real I've been doing I can literally say I've been doing this since before you were born Jordan talking about this and and talking about what college athletes should and shouldn't get and nil and all the rest of that you've now been in college and playing during the time like literally real time watching this transition how has it changed how has the experience of being a Collegiate athlete changed from the time you first arrived at at Arizona State if I remember correctly to where we are now it's changed a bunch the landscape is entirely different um so much opportunity for us you know what I'm saying I think that it's something something great you know kids are being able to you know capitalize on on them themselves now in college you know what I'm saying the league isn't something that everybody has to shoot for immediately guys are going to stay longer develop themselves and also you know meet uh finan financial means as well um I think it's been great you know I think that the portal is something awesome it's allowed me the opportunity to be at Notre Dame be with these guys and I think that nil is awesome as well how about for you Ry because again you you were there at Duke you've been in the game for a while it has it has changed in so many ways I think fans are trying to process it what is it how is it different being a player now than it was when you started yeah it's a crazy world and I think JC hit it uh perfectly we wouldn't be able to be sitting here today with you guys talking and doing all these cool things if it weren't for nil and these opportunities I think there is some you know things we need to clean up and some misconception everybody thinks that us guys we're just transferring to Notre Dame for exer why reason but the real I mean it just opens Marcus Freeman on sustainability of the game up so many doors and so many windows for us to go through and uh you know really better ourselves on and off the field for sure as a final thought i' I'd like to get a coach's perspective on it as well you're still a young coach yourself but you now also straddle this time and you will be here as this thing evolves into where it goes do you feel where the game is right now is in a good and sustainable Place yeah I think I don't know if it's sustainable there's still going to be you know details ironed out as we move forward I think we'll look back back in 5 years and say hey look at that time period where college football changed and um but I I'm I'm a huge advocate for young people being able to maximize their opportunities to make money off of their true name image and likeness and off of the transfer portal if there's a better situation for them great right great but I think more than anything for us as coaches it's still a reminder to have success you got to double down on relationships I think it's that's the way to have success it has nothing to do with nil transfer report it's about relationships it's about getting gaining the trust of the people you coaching coaching them hard coach free how do you get guys like this who transfer to Notre Dame to understand the hate they're supposed to have for their Rivals like USC's and those teams they see every single year you know we'll get to that during that week um right now was about making sure they know about Notre Dame what makes this but as we get into those rivalry weeks I'll make sure they understand that well you need to be getting ready right now for Texas A&M that's your first game on ABC 7:30 eastern time on Saturday night August 31st against actually Mike Elco who was your former coach so a lot of connections there guys thank you very much good luck to all of you it's a pleasure to have you here I'm sorry thank you for bearing through uh bearing with us through the sort of complicated circumstances without computers which I know for people your age has got to be extremely [Music] difficult I can Brea [Music]