Freeman says Notre Dame star RB is ‘good to go’ despite injury
MIAMI (WISH) — Notre Dame is preparing to face off against Penn State in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl.
WISH-TV sports reporter Andrew Chernoff is in South Florida with the Fighting Irish providing coverage of Notre Dame’s first College Football Playoff semifinal appearance since the 2020 season.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said he is looking forward to the great opportunity to play against an extremely good football team in Penn State.
“We got to use these next 24 hours to finish our preparation in anticipation of this great opportunity that lies ahead,” Freeman said. “So we’ll do that, but again, we understand that we’ll do that being grateful for this opportunity that we have ahead of us.”
The Fighting Irish have leaned on their run game throughout the season, averaging over 200 yards per game on the ground. They have rushed for more yards than they have passed for by almost 30 yards per game.
“It’s what we do well and what we have to do to have success with this current team,” Freeman said.
The Notre Dame rushing attack is 11th in the country in yards per game, and a big reason for that has been Jeremiyah Love, their leading rusher. Love has been dealing with a knee injury and missed most of the second half against Georgia in the quarterfinal round.
Freeman said that nobody feels 100% at this point of the season, but Love is “good to go.”
The Orange Bowl on Thursday will be the 15th game of the season for Notre Dame, the most games they have played in program history.
Freeman was asked about how they prepared this season for a longer season with the new format of the College Football Playoff.
“You got to be adaptable,” Freeman said. “You got to be willing to adapt based off the unpredictable things that can happen and that’s what we’ve been able to do and I feel like our guys will be physically ready to roll.”
Penn State played their quarterfinal game two days before Notre Dame did, but Freeman does not think that they are behind from a preparation standpoint.
“The mental preparation time has been the same,” Freeman said. “For us, it was just a normal week. It was a Saturday to a Saturday as we look at it in terms of game week.”
Notre Dame played Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday, January 2, and the Orange Bowl is on Thursday, January 9, so it is the same amount of preparation as a usual game week.
Freeman also noted that both teams learned what the matchup was at the same time.
Kickoff for Notre Dame and Penn State is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
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Notre Dame prepares for College Football Playoff semifinal vs. Penn State