Under-the-radar Notre Dame DL gets deserved praise from Marcus Freeman

One of the benefits of the Notre Dame football team blowing out Arkansas was guys like Cole Mullins getting into the game.

Don't tell Marcus Freeman Mullins only got in because it was "garbage time." The Fighting Irish head coach believes that any player getting into any game is because they worked hard and deserve to get playing time, especially at this level.

Notre Dame football's Cole Mullins impressing coaches in limited action

"Every play's important, man. Every single play's important," the Notre Dame head coach said during his Monday press conference. "And Cole's a guy. Here's why I tell you that. Because if Cole or any of our guys had in their minds that this is garbage time then they don't understand they're being evaluated the exact same way as the new starters are."

"It's important that they have that mindset because we're going to hold you, our second group, to the standard that we hold the first group to. That's the only way to do it ... Our second group on offense played extremely better than it did the week before, and that was a huge challenge. It's not, hey, this is game reps, man. You are not guaranteed a lot of these. You'll make the most of them."

Mullins had his best statistical game of his young career against Arkansas. The redshirt-freshman defensive lineman played 18 snaps and had two quarterback hurries, as well as a batted pass. That followed up his game against Purdue, when he played 14 snaps, had one quarterback hurry, and one tackle.  

"When Cole got in the game versus Purdue, he produced. He did a good job," Freeman added. "He is a high-motor guy. He plays extremely hard. Him, Elijah, you know, those two guys, Elijah Hughes, play extremely hard. And they're getting better with some technique, their size, and stuff like that. But guys that play the game really, really hard usually are rewarded."

There's the added bonus that Freeman left out that when guys down the depth chart like Mullins and Hughes see action, the starters can rest, while gaining valuable experience for themselves. That could come in handy as the season progresses.

The Notre Dame football team will further test that theory against Boise State this Saturday.