Friday Five: Marcus Freeman’s ceiling and appeal outweighs the risk
Marcus Freeman is a gamble because nearly every coaching hire is one.
Take recent hot commodities Tom Herman and Scott Frost as examples. Each was universally called a home-run hire when Texas and Nebraska scooped them from Houston and UCF, respectively, and for good reason.
Then Herman lasted just three years at Texas. Frost has labored through four sub-.500 seasons and will reach Year 5 in part because Nebraska can’t yet bring itself to give up on a native son.
All that’s to say there are few, if any, sure things when making a hire. Just like there’s risk in hiring Freeman, there’s risk in hiring Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati or filching Matt Campbell from Iowa State.
To put the focus on Freeman’s risk or see it as unique to him would be a mistake. His ceiling, fit and work over the last 12 months are more powerful reasons to promote him than his youth and head coaching inexperience are reasons not to.
The ceiling stands out the most. Freeman’s role in assembling an impressive 2022 defensive recruiting class and the start of a potentially elite 2023 one is a nod to it. Notre Dame might not ever equal Alabama’s or Ohio State’s five-star or top-50 prospect inflows, but Freeman feels like a strong bet to get it as close as possible.
It’s not just the accomplishment of recruiting at a high level, but how and why Freeman does it. Listen to any Freeman interview about recruiting, and it’s clear he believes what he’s selling about Notre Dame. There’s only passionate mention about what Notre Dame brings and nothing about its restrictions or how it can only shop in the gourmet aisle.
Here’s a snippet of his first comments on the job, way back in February:
“We have such a unique brand and program to sell,” Freeman said. “The things I have been telling recruits is anything you want in a program, it’s here. You can achieve it here. You have a chance to win a national championship.
“To be developed into an NFL Draft pick — every kid we talk to has these goals. You can be developed here as well as anyone in the country. Now the difference is you have a chance to say you’re a graduate of Notre Dame.
“I find that extremely enticing.”
Here’s what he told BlueandGold.com over the summer:
“The expectation of just knowing Notre Dame is so unique and we’re going to go to Notre Dame because it’s Notre Dame, that doesn’t happen much anymore,” he said. “That’s the challenge for us as coaches, to get these young people to really visualize what it’s like to be a graduate of Notre Dame.”
Recruiting is only part of the job, of course. Freeman has to handle all the other aspects, too. How he approaches recruiting, though, is an encouraging sign for his ability to handle the rest. So is the internal support for him.
2. A fast process
If director of athletics Jack Swarbrick was convinced Fickell was the top choice and best fit, waiting a couple extra days or even a few extra weeks if Cincinnati makes the College Football Playoff would be worth it. A coaching hire is made with the next several years in mind, not three weeks in December.
Freeman, similarly, didn’t get the job because he’d provide stability in that span. Notre Dame picked him because it feels he’s the best choice to lead the program for the next several years.
At the same time, that stability isn’t nothing.
With its coach in place and assistant continuity, Notre Dame can enter the post-Brian Kelly era needing barely any resets and avoiding the typical coaching changes potholes. It won’t risk losing its top-five 2022 class. It won’t have to start over with an imported leader. A mass transfer portal exodus of key players feels unlikely.
That’s all notable, because even if you think Kelly couldn’t push Notre Dame any higher, he left it in prime position for his successor to get there. Waiting too long — and therein risking staff, player and recruit defections — risks dealing a blow to that setup and setting the program back. Oklahoma, which also lost its coach in a surprising move, looks like it’s in a state of chaos.
Even without Kelly, the floor for 2022 feels high. An elongated search for his replacement could’ve lowered it. If Fickell was Swarbrick’s preference, it was safe to assume Swarbrick thought he can heighten the ceiling. But keeping the high expectations and potential for a 2022 playoff run intact is a byproduct of Freeman’s hire worth highlighting.
3. Brian Kelly at LSU
I’m of the belief geography can be overplayed in coaching searches. A good coach will win no matter where he’s working if he makes the right hires and moves.
Kelly is a good coach who has won everywhere he has been, though he has never worked outside the Midwest. I’d bet on him doing well at LSU because he’s a proven winner who has an overall strong track record of hiring assistants. LSU will also pay top dollar for them.
If nothing else, the silver lining/positive spin of whiffing on taking key Notre Dame staffers with him is it ensures he hires assistants who have ties in the South and SEC experience. Hiring a staff with a local flavor was essential to Matt Rhule’s success at Baylor. Rhule had never coached anywhere near Texas, but made a point to add assistants with in-state roots and connections.
Kelly’s biggest shift in his new job might be his mindset, at least right away. He hadn’t needed to reboot a culture at Notre Dame in several years. The program was, in many ways, running itself and not prone to vacillations. LSU isn’t that way.
4. The early signing period’s unintended consequence
In 2005, Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis and let him stay with the New England Patriots through the Super Bowl.
In 2021, Kelly left Notre Dame before the team even knew its playoff fate.
First, let’s acknowledge the latter is a poor and shameful exit.
Why, though, would a school even feel the need to get a hire done this quickly? What has changed since that Weis hire (or even five years ago)?
The early signing period.
Signing day is Dec. 15 this year. Not having a coach in place then all but crushes a team’s recruiting class, or at least that’s the concern. It might not be the reason for these megadeals, wild carousel or coaches taking jobs behind the scenes before the year ends. But fear of not having time to salvage a class before December signing day is a motivating factor.
This isn’t to advocate for early signing day’s abolishment. It’s a well-intentioned rule that saved coaches two months of worry, travel and hassle to ensure their recruits didn’t flip while trying to flip others. It also birthed a significant unintended consequence.
5. A plea to the CFP committee
CFP committee chairman Gary Barta’s Tuesday comments indicated Kelly’s departure could factor into Notre Dame’s final ranking. The committee has a protocol that allows it to weigh a coach or player absence that it “deems” could affect a postseason game outcome.
It has discussed how to handle an injury before. Never has it had to deliberate the effect of a coach ditching a team that still has a shot at the playoff.
Here’s a suggestion: don’t factor it in. For two reasons.
• It feels unfair to hold a coach’s odd and poorly timed move against players. Injuries are unfortunate, but they’re also part of the sport. A coach leaving his team before the playoff field is decided is not. Those are not apples-to-apples occurrences.
• Notre Dame doesn’t have a game to play without Kelly first. Deeming how his absence would affect the Irish is complete projection and guesswork. Sure, it seems easy to say losing the winningest coach in program history is a negative, but the point of these rankings isn’t to make assumptions.
The reasonable assumption that Notre Dame’s defense was going to take a massive hit without junior safety Kyle Hamilton never materialized, after all. Furthermore, with the easily detectable energy in the program since Wednesday night, who’s to say the team isn’t galvanized by this week’s events in a postseason game?
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