How Marcus Freeman’s recruiting role changes; ‘I better be the No. 1’
Marcus Freeman delivered the expectations for his involvement as a recruiter with conviction.
If Notre Dame is actively pursuing a recruit, Freeman will be at the front of those efforts. Full stop.
“I better be the No. 1 recruiter,” Freeman said Monday at his introduction as the Irish’s head coach. “I better be the lead recruiter on every kid that we recruit, and I plan on doing it.”
He acted on it right away.
Not 90 minutes later, he met offensive coordinator Tommy Rees at South Bend International Airport, boarded a jet and took off to join Notre Dame’s pursuit of its top remaining 2022 offensive target: Fond Du Lac (Wisc.) Saint Mary’s Springs guard Billy Schrauth, the nation’s No. 124 prospect.
Freeman had not previously been involved with Schrauth’s recruitment as the Fighting Irish’s defensive coordinator. Not only did he insert himself into it, but he made Schrauth his first stop on a busy week of visits in the final stretch before the early signing period Dec. 15-17. From there, he and Rees flew to the West Coast to see Vancouver (Wash.) Union four-star wide receiver commit Tobias Merriweather.
One of Freeman’s Tuesday ventures was another top offensive player, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei wide receiver C.J. Williams, Notre Dame’s top-ranked offensive commitment. Williams – the No. 45 overall recruit in the 2022 class – has been committed to the Irish since August, but USC has wiggled its way into the picture for him and is attempting a flip.
Landing a commitment from Schrauth and hanging onto Williams are among Freeman’s immediate recruiting tasks. If both sign with the Irish next week, it’d strengthen Notre Dame’s place in the top five of Rivals’ rankings, where the program hasn’t finished since 2013.
Freeman’s work in defensive recruiting over the prior 11 months has fueled that top-five status now. One reason he carried such appeal as a head-coaching candidate for any open job was his recruiting acumen and passion. Relating to 18-year-olds is a strength.
At Notre Dame, he delivered immediate recruiting results upon his January 2021 hire. He understood the university’s offerings just weeks after taking the job. He immediately saw the necessary steps to elevating the Irish’s recruiting operation.
Freeman not only targeted the blue-chip recruits who were obvious fits, but also ramped up efforts with those who were fits and needed to realize it from someone else. And he saw himself as that someone else.
“It’s the ability to communicate with the best players in the country that this place is special,” Freeman said. “People keep saying, ‘What's the difference? What do you understand about this place now that you're here?’ Maybe at 16 or 17, when I was a recruit, I was looking for, ‘Where can I go win a National Championship?’
"If that's all you're looking for, you can look right here at Notre Dame because we've been in the playoffs two of the last [four] years.
“But it's the ability to show these young people, get their minds to think past football, get their minds to think about whatever that point is when you're done playing. It could be after your senior year. It could be one year in the NFL. It could be ten years in the NFL. The minute you're done playing, that's to me where the value of Notre Dame really shows itself.”
As head coach, Freeman is making himself responsible for communicating that message as much as any assistant. That’s not to say he will be the only coach sending out offers or deciding who to pursue, but he is willing to insert himself in the middle of a recruitment from the jump.
All told, it sounds different than the prior approach to involving predecessor Brian Kelly, who was regarded as a good recruiter but often entered the picture with an individual prospect later in the process. As then-recruiting coordinator Brian Polian put it last winter: “We’re going to put our heads together and decide when it’s advantageous to get Coach Kelly involved in the process.”
Freeman, of course, will seek consult from his assistants too. No single coach, especially not a head coach, can cover the entire country by himself. Notre Dame had several layers to recruiting a player before roping Kelly in: identification by an assistant responsible for a region, vetting, position coach involvement and coordinator approval. Those don’t have to go away with Freeman around.
“We obviously have to depend on our staff, and I will depend on our staff to make sure we know who and what and why we're recruiting every individual,” Freeman said.
All for prepping him to go full speed ahead whenever he sees fit.
“If I'm not the lead recruiter,” he said, “then we're cheating.”
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