Marcus Freeman was hired as defensive coordinator by former head coach Brian Kelly in January 2021. At the conclusion of the 2021 college football season, Brian Kelly transferred to LSU after failing to win a national championship title for Notre Dame during his time there. Brian Kelly reached the BCS National Championship in 2013, but finished second, being soundly defeated by a Nick Saban-led Alabama team, 42-14. Feeling that Notre Dame was more difficult to recruit due to the academic requirements and regional exposure, Brian Kelly moved to the Southeastern Conference and a recruiting hotbed in the state of Louisiana to finally try to win an elusive national championship title and cement Brian Kelly’s reputation as college football’s elite head coach.
FOR MORE CONTENT ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL, CLICK HERE TO FIND THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
–Top 5 QB/WR duos in college football for the 2024 season
–The five best secondary teams in college football as of 2024
–Three college football coaches to be fired in 2024
Take Marcus Freeman, a former Ohio State University Buckeyes linebacker who took over as head coach in 2021 to replace Brian Kelly. Marcus Freeman is now in his third year at Notre Dame. This is when your previous two recruiting classes become older players replacing Brian Kelly’s players and Marcus Freeman’s footprint should start to show and the program’s trajectory either gets better than Brian Kelly’s last regime or hits rock bottom. Notre Dame’s history shows why the third year is so critical to the direction of the Notre Dame program, with former coaches like former head coach Brain Kelly going 16-10 in his first two seasons in South Bend, Indiana and 12-1 in his third season, reaching the national championship. Tyrone Willingham went 10-2 in his first season, 5-7 in his second year, then 6-5 in his third year and was fired after the season ended. This shows why the third year can determine Marcus Freeman’s tenure at Notre Dame.
Marcus Freeman has a 19-8 overall record after two seasons, 2-1 in bowls and a .667 winning percentage after winning the Fiesta Bowl. Notre Dame has hired 16 full-time head coaches and only six of those coaches have achieved a .700 winning percentage. Marcus Freeman, at the young age of 38, is a player-coach that young men gravitate to and want to play for. He has an enthusiastic personality. Marcus Freeman has expanded his recruiting staff from 6 to 10 and makes it a point to get the message across the country to kids that they are a Notre Dame man and don’t just have to be from the Midwest to play for Notre Dame.
From recruiting on a national level to building relationships with high school head coaches from previous coaching stops at the University of Cincinnati, Purdue University, Kent State University and Ohio State University. The contrast one high school coach expressed under Brian Kelly is one you might one day hear told by the Notre Dame coaching staff. Under Marcus Freeman and his staff, players are contacted on a daily basis. All of this must translate into victories on the football field with the restructuring of the program in terms of recruiting and coaching staff, and with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams, a successful season for Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is a playoff berth and the next step in becoming a perennial contender for the College Football National Championship.
