NEW ORLEANS - Marcus Freeman sounded a little bit like a younger version of Kirby Smart with some of his thoughts and phrases during Tuesday's coaches' press conference.

It started with a question about Notre Dame's two running back system on offense.

"We pride ourselves on being able to rotate running backs and sell it in a way in recruiting and to your current players of we're going to get you enough film to get you prepared for the next level, but we're also going to make sure you're healthy," Freeman said. "We don't want you to use every rep you have in your body in college. And so, they buy into that... It's very similar to what you see Georgia does. They have multiple running backs that can hurt you in different ways. And I think as you continue to progress in college football, that's what you're going to have to see."

There are other similarities as well.

Freeman likes to empower his assistant coaches to speak in front of the entire team every week, similar to Georgia. Freeman also went in-depth on his program's "Choose Hard" mantra that is similar to all the talk of the standard in Athens over the past few years.

Also like Smart, Freeman doesn't see championships as the end-all, be-all goal.

"My obsession is to get this program to reach our full potential, and if we reach our full potential, if the result of that is earning the national championship, great. But we don't walk into the office every day and say "Let's win a national championship,'" Freeman said. "We walk in the office and say, 'What do we got to do today to elevate and get better and reach our full potential?' Because at the end of the day, that's all we control. We control how close this program can get to reaching its full potential, and we'll see what the result of reaching our full potential truly is."

This isn't the first time Smart has crossed paths with Freeman.

Before taking the Notre Dame job, Freeman served as defensive coordinator for Cincinnati in the 2020 Peach Bowl against Georgia. The Bulldogs won that game 24-21.

"I think we both have history with defense, and that's what you pride yourself on is everybody playing as one," Smart said. "They certainly did that during his years at [University of] Cincinnati, and we talk about effort counts twice around our building, and they play with tremendous effort. So, you know, whether you're talented, five-star, size, speed, none of that matters if you don't play with effort. With that Cincinnati team and this Notre Dame team, particularly the defenses, play with tremendous effort, and effort overcomes a lot of things. So it starts and ends with effort and toughness in all of football, and they do a tremendous job doing that."

Smart also praised this Notre Dame team by saying "they play football the way that we like to play football."

... Freeman on the history of Georgia and Notre Dame's matchup in the 1981 Sugar Bowl: "Yeah, I was asked about that game in the press conference, and I wasn't aware of it at that time. Obviously, I was made aware that we lost to Georgia, and Herschel Walker was the running back. Listen, I grew up, you hold Herschel Walker on a pedestal that not many people are on. And I'm thankful that we don't have to play Herschel Walker tomorrow, but we've got some other challenging running backs that we've got to try to defend. And so, yeah, I have a lot of respect, obviously, for the past, the history, what this program has been about, in terms of the University of Georgia for many years, and the history of college football that Georgia has a piece in."

.... Smart on his earliest experiences with Notre Dame: "Notre Dame is the era that I grew up in. Notre Dame was and has been the most dominant team across the span of a lot of years. Watching them play Miami, watching Rocket Ismail, that was my childhood watching them play on TV. I can remember the uniqueness of that. And then, my first experience was strange because I was a GA at Florida State, and we went to Notre Dame and played. And to see Touchdown Jesus and see all that, it was really something that marked my young career. It was like, wow, I got to go coach and go against Notre Dame at Notre Dame."

... Freeman on losing the 2007 national championship game to LSU in New Orleans while playing for Ohio State: "Number one, what I remember most about that LSU game is it was the second year in a row that we lost the national championship, and that sticks with you a lot longer than however many tackles you made or the individual glory that people talk about. It's that we didn't achieve the team glory that we aspired to have. I remember I saw Jacob Hester yesterday, I remember him scoring a couple touchdowns on us, and I remember LSU had a heck of a defense, heck of a D-line."