Marcus Freeman focused more on Notre Dame’s preparation than on any motivation or recruiting

By the time No. 5 Notre Dame takes the field at No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday (7:30 ET; ABC), Marcus Freeman’s primary job will be done. Even in the locker room beforehand, the Irish head coach will no longer be pressing his team.

A rah-rah speech during the pregame before running onto the brand-new artificial turf will not be what catapults Notre Dame to an upset or a defeat.

“It’s all in the preparation,” the 36-year-old, first-year head coach said. “If you’re not motivated Saturday night at 7:30 to play at the No. 2 team in the country, then we have bigger issues.

“You have to continue to motivate your guys and understand preparation is the most important key. As I’ve told them all the time, I have to find ways to create this type of environment where the practices are hard, where the practices are tough, there’s a lot of pressure, because when you get out there in the game in front of 105,000 fans, that’s pressure.”

The Irish will visit Ohio Stadium, more commonly known as The Horseshoe, on Friday simply so the players do not need to navigate a new locker room for the first time on Saturday. “Getting a feel for it” is another piece of Freeman’s preparation, again not a motivational ploy.

Not even Notre Dame remaining a 17-point underdog — as of Thursday afternoon, +17.0 is the consensus number — will also not be a piece of Freeman’s pregame, though he mentioned it to the Irish on Monday after a reporter brought it up at Freeman’s early week press conference.

“I’m not hugely into gambling, as I told the team. I just said, ‘We’re underdogs, it’s okay,” Freeman said Thursday. “It all comes back to the motivation to prepare. That’s what our job as coaches is to do. Make sure we have the most-prepared team we can.

“I’m not