Some aspects of Marcus Freeman's first two practices as Notre Dame's head coach didn't change from his days as the Irish's defensive coordinator.
For instance, he still went up and down the stretching lines in the opening minutes of practice to make sure he greeted each and every player. He's done that before all of the Notre Dame practices he's been a part of in the last 11 months.
"Nothing changes with who I am because of this position," Freeman said. "This has always been about those guys and will continue to be about those guys."
Some logistical things, though? Yeah, those change. And change is hard to master.
"I'm adjusting every day," Freeman said. "Trying to get used to where to go, where to run to. I'm a man without a home right now."
Freeman's home has always been on the defensive side of the ball. He played linebacker at Ohio State. He was a graduate assistant there in 2010. He became Kent State's linebackers coach in 2011 and has been a primary defensive assistant at every stop thereafter.
His role is much different now. The head coach can't fixate on one side of the ball. It doesn't matter where his roots are. He's in charge of the entire operation. Even someone as young as Freeman, 35, doesn't get accustomed to heightened responsibilities of that magnitude overnight.
"I find myself running to the defensive side sometimes and I'm like, I can't go back there," Freeman said. "We were doing field goal today and I was going behind the defense, that's where I always go, and I said, 'no, I gotta go behind the offense.' I think for me, now you can't cheer for the defense. You can't want the defense to win every rep. No, I want the offensive guys to have some great reps."
And those are just on-field differences.
Notre Dame's first practice since the end of the regular season was Saturday. In the week before then, Freeman did countless media hits from ESPN College GameDay to the Dan Patrick Show to the Colin Cowherd Show and many others. He never had those obligations as the defensive coordinator.
He didn't have to focus much on offensive recruits as the defensive coordinator either. Last week, though, Freeman spent multiple days on the road with offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. The early singing period opens this Wednesday. Freeman didn't want to go into it without having spoken to players he didn't focus on when he was just the DC.
"I wanted to make it a point of emphasis to see as many of our offensive commitments that we had and I have not had the opportunity to really develop a relationship with those guys and their families," Freeman said.
Relationship building comes easily to Freeman, though — much more easily than going from defensive coordinator to head coach. Freeman had a conversation with director of athletics Jack Swarbrick recently. Freeman said at some point, the newness factor is going to have to wear off. Channeling his inner Lee Corso, Swarbrick said not so fast my friend. He told Freeman there is going to be something new that pops up all the time.
"You can try to prepare as much as you want, but you don't know what to expect," Freeman said. "You get out there and say, 'okay, I guess I gotta blow the whistle. I'm going to bring them up and they're on me, okay, what period is it? Who blows the horn? There's a lot of little things that for my entire coaching career, somebody else was doing it," Freeman said.
"In terms of how we're dressing, what time we are on the field, how we're transitioning from station to station, drill to drill, those are the things that it's going to take some adjusting and obviously [Sunday] was a little bit better than [Saturday] for me and hopefully Wednesday's gonna be a little bit better than [Sunday]."
Coaching has always been about getting the most out of players. Striving for constant improvement. Freeman demands that of those he teaches. He's finding out that now more than ever he needs to demand it of himself, too.
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