SOUTH BEND — Even now, six years into his Notre Dame football career, All-America defensive tackle Howard Cross III still needs to rehearse.

Before he can do great things on the field, Cross must be a dominant force in his mind.

“Visualization for me is just (picturing) myself doing great,” Cross said this week as the 12^th-ranked Irish prepared to face unranked Stanford. “Visualize what you want to do, and you’re going to do it.”

That could mean asking the scout team offensive linemen to simulate precise blocking techniques Cross expects to encounter after poring over reams of game tape. On his way to a team-leading nine quarterback pressures, Cross has banked dozens, if not hundreds, of positive repetitions in practice.

“I’ll ask the scout team guys: ‘Hey, throw this hip’ or ‘Do this specific thing,’ “ Cross said, “because he’s going to be doing this.”

“He” is the opposing center or guard Cross expects to butt heads with 50-plus times on a typical Saturday.

His namesake father, who starred at Alabama and became a Super Bowl champion as a New York Giants tight end, has trained his son in the power of visualization. As kickoff draws ever closer, the younger Cross will rehearse himself into a near trance of positive mental outcomes, even as he’s killing time in his apartment.

“My dad is like, ‘Walk around the house and practice your hands,’ “ Cross said.

They don’t call him “Fast-Hands Howard” for nothing.

The skull sessions continue, even after Notre Dame’s pregame prayer circle as a defense. While many Irish players bob to the beat of their favorite music, noise-canceling headphones soothing their pregame jitters, Cross can be seen Facetiming his family as he ambles slowly across the field.

“I call my dad all the time,” Cross said. “I try to call him when I’m on the field. He’ll hype me up before I go back in the locker room and start changing. It’s just nice to hear my dad trying to hype me up. It makes me happy.”

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Long walks and game-speed rehearsals for Al Golden

Notre Dame coaches need to put themselves in the right headspace as well.

Ask defensive coordinator Al Golden how much he uses visualization, and he will give a knowing smile.

“A lot,” he said, repeating the phrase for emphasis.

It’s a process Golden has honed over a three-decade coaching career, including a stint as defensive coordinator at Virginia, where renowned sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella, a devotee of visualization, was a key associate.

“I never close my door except for Thursday afternoon,” Golden said. “Right before the unit meetings, I try to go in and finish the call sheet. And then Friday, I watch as many TV copies as I can. It’s like game time, game speed. Are they going tempo? Are they in and out of the huddle? What are they? Get my mind right.”

Those laminated Waffle House menus modern football coaches carry on the sideline? They’re great for shielding in-game calls from enemy lipreaders, but no guru worth his buyout clause ever wants to get too attached.

“I always try to get to the point where I don’t need the call sheet,” Golden said. “The call sheet is there to kind of be like, ‘OK, is this right? Is this correct? Are we going down the right path? Did I call that?’ If I had a little mark on it, did I call that last time?

“But I really try to call the game in my head and without the assistance of that (call sheet). And then I try to walk Thursday and Friday. I try to go for a walk.”

Similar to Cross’ karate-chop pacing around his living quarters, Golden’s walk around campus is done in solitude and within the confines of his fertile imagination.

“I have my call sheet and go for a walk, and I just go through the different calls,” Golden said. “And then why and how we’re going to execute it.”

Game days, especially at home, are filled with pageantry and adrenaline.

From morning walk-throughs to pregame Mass at the Basilica to a quick pep rally on the supporter-lined path to Notre Dame Stadium, it would be easy to lose sight of the day’s primary purpose. Marcus Freeman and his Irish coaching staff don’t let that happen.

“Champion Walk, locker room, we do our quick prayer at midfield,” Golden said. “Come in. Say hello to some recruits. And then I just try to lie flat on my back and just look at the call sheet and go through it again, just in kind of silence.”

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Once the game begins, such stillness is at a premium in this era of sideline iPads and NFL-style helmet communication systems.

“I’m always going through it when the other guys are coaching their guys,” Golden said. “I’ll go through, ‘OK, how do I see the next third down and 3 to 6 (yards) going? How do I see the next (third and) 7 to 10 going? What’s my next 11-plus calls?’ … I do try to visualize and rehearse it as much as possible so that it’s clean.”

How Notre Dame specialists master their repetitive tasks

Veteran special-teams coordinator Marty Biagi, a former punter and placekicker at Marshall, believes in the concept of “seeing before doing” as well.

“I’ve always done visualization, especially with our specialists,” said Biagi, whose previous stops included Ole Miss, Purdue and North Texas. “Everywhere I’ve been before, I’ve always done it.”

Team sports psychologist Joey Ramaeker, who has taken on added influence this year, is a vital part of the process.

“We use Joey a lot,” Biagi said. “I’ve met with him multiple times. What’s great here is having Joey involved. He meets with them and takes them through a visualization and meditation process.”

Whether it’s placekicker Mitch Jeter, a South Carolina graduate transfer; Australian punter James Rendell, a college football rookie; or long snappers Rino Monteforte and Andrew Kros, both first-year starters, Notre Dame specialists are well-versed in mental preparation.

“When they take the field, they have a mindset and a phrase that they would go through and a routine, just to mentally prepare,” Biagi said. “They know when they literally cross the white (line) onto the field they’re into their phrase and their zone so they can try and perfect their technique and execute.”

Each specialist has a unique mantra of sorts that is tailored week to week.

“It’s something we talk about,” Biagi said. “The phrase is specific for that player in that game in that role. Each one kind of has its own.”

Biagi, who also assists with Notre Dame defensive backs, has his own mental process heading into game day.

It involves “trying to stay a step ahead and be really aware and use recognition from previous games, previous assessments, and trying to make sure that we’ve gathered all the information,” he said.

That way, when it comes time to call for an all-out punt block or a reverse kickoff return, the ideas are flowing naturally.

“At the end of the day, it’s still football,” Biagi said. “There’s still good and bad that happens, but it’s more of a good educated guess as opposed to just, ‘Oh, we’re going to try this and see.’ We really feel like in those big-play moments that we’ve taken a lot of the risk out, so then we feel confident in our players to execute and make those explosive plays.”

Biagi doesn’t carry a personal mantra into the game.

“I try to really bank off what we’ve done with Coach Freeman,” he said. “I try to work on my breathing and try to stay in the moment, just to make sure I’m not too high or too low. That way I’m not making an emotion-based decision on any play.”

Marcus Freeman and the home turnaround

As for Freeman, his pregame rituals can be difficult to maintain amid the many varied responsibilities of the Notre Dame head football coach.

Home games, especially, are prime opportunities for relationship-building with recruits and their families, whether that be in football or basketball or some other sport or department.

“There are certain things that you have to do as the head coach of this football program on home games that are different than what you have to do on away games,” Freeman said. “But you can’t cheat that. You can’t cheat meeting with recruits because that’s the future of your program. You can’t cheat going to Mass; that’s more important than anything.”

Then there are the procedural tasks, which include responsibilities to broadcast rightsholders and the like.

“You have to talk to the officials,” he said, “and (there are) some other things that you have to do.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that Freeman hasn’t learned to carve out just enough quiet time for himself to make sure those fourth-down decisions, and so many others he’s expected to make, are on point.

Since starting his head coaching career with losses in two of his first three home games, including a 2022 clunker against Stanford, Freeman has gone 10-2 at Notre Dame Stadium.

“I’m intentional about making sure that my mind is in the place that it needs to be before I take that field,” Freeman said. “Just like we need every person in this locker room to do. Before you take the field, you make sure you’re centered, make sure your focus is narrowed and you’re ready to go out and execute your job in your role, no matter what it is.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football coaches and players lean into visualization