(Notre Dame) — When he was a youngster, Marcus Freeman worked at a Texas Roadhouse where workers saw a sign that said “Keep it in the kitchen”.

Instead, Saturday night, Freeman got in the kitchen of running back Aneyas Williams for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  Monday, Freeman expressed regret for his sideline behavior.

“We talked about it this morning in our coaches’ Bible study,” a solemn Freeman told the media. “In leadership, your job is to be able to correct your players and be what they need. But as they reviewed it, I thought he probably didn’t receive the message in the way it was intended because of my animation, so I wanted to grab him and say ‘here’s why I was upset’. We spend a lot of time trying to learn from the mistakes of others, and for us to get penalized for that, I was disappointed.

“After the game, I watched the coach’s copy, and it doesn’t show the celebration, so I watched the TV copy, because I wanted to see what they got penalized for. I watched my reaction — I don’t normally watch the TV copy, but I did — and I didn’t like it. I reached out to him (Williams) and 1) I said ‘I love you’ and 2) I said more than just the team needs to learn from this play, myself included.

“I always tell our program, ‘we have to keep things in the kitchen’. It’s a reflection of when I used to work at Texas Roadhouse. The kitchen is dirty and messy, but people can’t see inside the kitchen. We’ve got to keep things in the kitchen, and coach, too. If that situation happened at practice, I have no problem with my animation and getting after him, because he trusts me. He knows that I care about him. I don’t want outsiders and people that don’t know the relationship I have with our players to see that, because then you can make your own narrative. I didn’t love that, so I apologized for it.”

Freeman and the Irish have to move on from that, as they prepare for their first true road game Saturday, visiting 1-2 Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium.

“I think they’re an ascending team and much-improved from last year,” notes Freeman. “Their offense is really good. They present some challenges that we haven’t seen this year, especially with the quarterback (Ryan Browne), the way he’s protecting the football, making good decisions. He’s finding a lot of targets.”

Indeed, Browne has completed 73 percent of his passes for 1024 yards, seven touchdowns and just one interception. He threw for 250 yards and a touchdown in last year’s 56-30 Irish win at Notre Dame Stadium.

“He is being really patient in the pocket,” admires Freeman. “He’s not taking sacks. He’s making good decisions. He’s improving over time. We would be insane to say we’re going to have the same game plan as we did last year.”

The Irish may be without the services of safety Luke Talich, who is listed as questionable on the injury report with a hand injury. As safety Brauntae Johnson is already out with an injury, freshman Joey O’Brien may get the nod at safety Saturday.

Saturday’s game is slated for a 2 p.m. kickoff, only on Peacock. Hear more about the Irish and Boilermakers Monday night at 7 on “Notre Dame Federal Credit Union’s Irish Football Fix.” The show airs on Pulse FM (92.1, 96.9, 103.1), as well as in podcast form on Apple and Spotify.