The 2025 Notre Dame football season has gotten off to a slow start, but they have won two straight games, the most recent being a massive blowout win against Arkansas on the road. The Fighting Irish beat the Razorbacks easily, 56-13, and they were still trying to score despite being up early in this game. That aggressiveness led to Freeman calling a fake punt.
At his weekly press conference, the media asked head coach Marcus Freeman about how he faked a punt when the team was already in control, with a 29-point win. He said that the goal was to keep the team honest and send a message that they did not want to keep their foot off the gas, and it was not about rubbing it in Arkansas's face.
“Regarding the fake punt, I didn’t want to relax. We had to come out of that locker room with the same aggression as the first half. No lead’s comfortable. No lead’s comfortable. When we went three-and-out, I think, on that first drive, I felt like it was the right time to send a message to our team. This was about our team, and hey, this is something we’ve worked on. Let’s execute it,” Freeman elaborated.
“That also is something on film for the next opponents, right? I’m not even thinking about this opponent, but I’m thinking about making sure the next couple of opponents see that,” Freeman continued. “I could make them think deeply about how they want to attack our punt unit. That’s what went into that decision-making. We didn’t get any points from it, but it was a mindset that we must be aggressive. There is no taking your foot off the accelerator. This is what we’re doing, and they executed it well.”
It was a tone-setting message for the Fighting Irish. The fact that they stayed that aggressive against Arkansas with that big of a lead does put it in the scouting report for Notre Dame's next opponents. The loss also led Arkansas to make a change at head coach, firing Sam Pittman the next day.
