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| NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman will try to climb back above the .500 mark Saturday afternoon when they host UNLV. It will be the first meeting between the two programs, but thats Gabe Vincent Jersey not whats important for the Irish. Whether its Tyler Buchner or Drew Pyne at quarterback, the Fighting Irish have had a difficult time getting the offense going this season. Theyve scored points on two opening drives this season, with field goals against Ohio State and BYU. But those six points on two field goals are the only points theyve scored in the first quarter through six games this season. Freeman said this week that his team has to have the right mindset and mentality coming out of the locker room to start the game on the right foot. "We've got to give our offense some confidence, play some easy drive starters, some plays where there (arent) multiple decisions, right, Freeman stated. "There's going to be one thing we want you to do and we have to try look for easy completions, be able to run the ball and establish the run play and really have no self-inflicted wounds. You see how we started last game with a penalty to start the game and then the second down we had some miscommunication. We can't start the game that way. Weve got to start the game effectively. Weve got to practice those plays often and make sure our guys know exactly what we plan to see and what we're going to do as an offense. Freeman discu sed at length the idea of keeping things a little simpler for the offense to make things easier for them. But he also doesnt want to make things so simple that its easy for defenses to know whats coming. You can't put your offense at a disadvantage because of how much you want to simplify, Freeman explained. We're going to simplify in terms of maybe Shaquille O'Neal Jersey not as many options for the quarterback, you know, hey, youve got two reads here. We want to hand the ball off here, we're not going to use it as RPO. But what we're not going to do is put our offense at a disadvantage and that's what I want to make sure that we don't do. What I've challenged our coaching staff and what I've seen them really do this week is work to eliminate or minimize any of those mental errors that we've had and they've been doing a lot of different things in terms of, one was to as I said, consolidate the game plan so that our players don't have to know as much."But, two is, I see him in practice, and (offensive coordinator) Coach (Tommy) Rees is really doing a good job of changing the way we do a little bit of our team periods in practice and he's almost calling it like a game and that our players don't have a script to say okay, here's the script let's memorize it," Freeman continued. "He's doing a good job of saying okay, they have to look to the sidelines, get the signal they don't know exactly what the call is going to be. See sometimes you script practice where I'm going into the game, I know these are the three plays Ive got. We're going to challenge them a little bit to get the calls from the sideline, not know exactly what they're going to do and be able to react and they're doing a good job of watching. I saw them in there the other day, they're watching parts of practices. They're watching seven on seven periods to make sure there's one voice, everybody's on the same page and you're being held accountable to your teammates. And if you make a mental mistake, well, you know what, you're going to have some older guys that aren't making mental mistakes. Want to know why? You're held accountable, not only to your coach, but to your teammates. "So it's been good to see the enhancement I think as an offensive staff and in terms of not just saying, hey, continue to trust the proce s we'll be better, we're going to be better we're going to execute better, but let's find ways to enhance our proce s, Freeman continued. Let's find ways to fix it. I know I saw Coach Miami Heat Hoodie Rees on the field the other day early in practice, instead of in the meeting room, he's going through the script tape or through the practice script with the quarterbacks and kind of walking through it and going through, hey, this guy wasn't open, this guy's not open. What would you do here, go to the check down. Those are all different ways to enhance the execution part of what we want to see. It's not just going to be say, okay, run these three plays, you're not giving your offense a chance to have succe s by running very limited plays and giving them limited options. But options are going to be executed at, hopefully, a higher a higher rate because of the way we're prepared. After three starts that saw him complete 73%, 70% and Glen Rice Jersey 78% of his pa ses, Drew Pyne had the first real clunker of his career last week against Stanford. The junior completed just 13 of his 27 attempts for a tepid 48% clip. He was locked in on tight end Michael Mayer all night, especially on third downs, and never came close to the kind of groove he was in that began in the second half against Cal and lasted through the win over BYU. Freeman saw a good response from his quarterback this week. Early in the week, it's a confidence blow, Freeman began. I met with Drew one on one for a while and, you know, I could tell early in the meeting he felt like he let the team down and that's what makes Drew Pyne Drew Pyne. We need more individuals that look at themselves and say, hey, I didn't do my job. That's from the head coach, on down to the starting quarterback, on down to the scout team guys. Drew continues to be rea sured of the confidence we have in him, the confidence that his team has in him. I believe he's an extremely talented quarterback that was playing really, really well and didn't have the game that he wanted to. But, what we can't do is let that have any impact on his mentality or his mindset going into this game versus UNLV, Freeman continued. Drew's had an extremely good week of practice. The biggest focus with Drew has been be confident. You're never going to be perfect, move on to the next play and Drew...he's, he's tough on himself. He's his toughest critic. Sometimes when you're tough on yourself, it's hard to move on to the next play. My biggest thing with Jae Crowder Jersey Drew has been move on. The Stanford lo s was far from just on Pynes shoulders. There was plenty of culpability, from the head coach on down. Freeman hopes he, his staff and his team can put last week behind them, but he also used the setback as a learning experience. As the leader youve got to get up here and say we've got to turn this negative situation into a positive one, he explained. This has to somehow, some way help our program move forward. Then part of it is me getting in front of the room and saying this had to happen. Right, this had to happen for us to get better. The only way we're going to ge
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