NIU head coach Thomas Hammock Gives Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame very high praise ahead of Saturday game
Notre Dame is hosting Northern Illinois on Saturday for the first Fighting Irish home game of 2024. Notre Dame fans need no reminder of how dangerous a game like this can be, a week after an emotional road opener.
It was just two years ago, fresh off a trip to Ohio State in a season-opening loss that Notre Dame came home and was handed one of its worst home losses in recent memory, when Marshall bested the Irish. Northern Illinois wants to do the same and head coach Thomas Hammock spoke about the challenges Notre Dame presents during his media availability on Tuesday."One thing as a head coach when I watch an opponent the first thing I look at is special teams. That gives you a feel for the type of feel and culture of the opponent, and one thing I can tell you is Notre Dame is exceptional on special teams.
“I have a ton of respect for coach Freeman. To be a head coach at Notre Dame with everything that comes with it, obviously he has to be an outstanding person. I don’t know him personally but I had the chance to watch him progress throughout his coaching from afar. But he has a physical football team. As a former linebacker, you would expect that. They play physical. They play downhill. They have tremendous athletes. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.
“For us it’s a tremendous challenge. We obviously know it’s going to be a hostile environment. We’ll work crowd noise this week. There are going to be a lot of things that go into the preparation standpoint. But for us, it’s about making it about us and how we prepare and how we go execute. We know it’s going to be physical. Notre Dame is going to stand in the middle of the ring, and we got to go to the middle of the ring and match their intensity.
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