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Marcus Freeman joins growing list of first-time head coaches in major jobs

You can look at Notre Dame’s history and worry.

Bob Davie. Gerry Faust. Charlie Weis.

All three were first-time head coaches — just like newly tabbed boss Marcus Freeman — and were fired after five seasons.

You can also scan recent blue-blood programs’ hires and the top 15 of the College Football Playoff rankings and see examples of coaches thriving despite prior inexperience.

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The No. 1 team, Georgia, is led by first-time head coach Kirby Smart. Fellow first-timer Lincoln Riley piloted No. 14 Oklahoma to 55 wins in five seasons before heading to USC six days ago. Ryan Day is 30-4 in three full seasons at No. 7 Ohio State.

The latter two had a combined three years’ experience as their schools’ offensive coordinators before their elevations and, like Freeman, got the job before they turned 40. Smart came to Georgia, his alma mater, after spending eight seasons as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.

Those three coaches combined for a 112-19 record and six College Football Playoff appearances from 2017-2020 (Day started full-time in 2019). Each led his team to a 10-win season this year, with Georgia poised to make the CFP.

It doesn’t stop there. Mike Gundy, the 17-year Oklahoma State head coach with seven 10-win seasons to his name, was promoted from offensive coordinator. First-time head coach Dave Aranda led No. 8 Baylor to the Big 12 title in just his second season. Elsewhere, No. 12 BYU first-time head coach Kalani Sitake has delivered consecutive 10-win seasons.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football head coach Marcus Freeman
Freeman is the latest first-time head coach to land a blue-blood job. (Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports)

Then, of course, there’s two-time national champion Dabo Swinney, the former Clemson interim head coach who earned the full-time job and whose No. 20 Tigers are having a relative down year…at 9-3.

All told, what Notre Dame did by naming the 35-year-old Freeman its leader is neither unique among the sport’s most successful programs nor a move destined to fail based on recent trends.

Giving Freeman the job after just one season as the Irish’s defensive coordinator isn’t even rare, as Day and Riley illustrate. Like Freeman, both took over perennial top-10 teams and were tasked with keeping them at that level, if not pushing them higher. Freeman predecessor Brian Kelly’s standard — five straight 10-wins seasons and two CFP berths — will be his basis of judgement. Ideally, he’s there to take it a step or two further.

Yes, picking Freeman is a risk. Every coaching hire is a risk. There have been recent first-time head coaches who were flops. Jimmy Lake, himself a defensive coordinator promoted to head coach, didn’t last two years at Washington. Miami’s Manny Diaz is on shaky ground after three seasons. Both were considered smart hires at the time.

The list of sitting head coaches to disappoint in a new job, though, is lengthy itself. Every profile of coach represents a gamble, because the very practice of hiring a coach is exactly that.

There’s historical evidence to use as concern about Freeman’s inexperience and evidence to not worry.

On the former, Freeman isn’t Davie, Faust or Weis. Just as Weis wasn’t Davie or Faust. Every coach is different. Every unsuccessful coach of the same background doesn’t fail for the same reasons. Plus, it’s hard not to look at that trio’s post-Notre Dame ventures and wonder if they just wouldn’t have been successful head coaches no matter where they earned their first shot.

That’s not to say Freeman’s tenure is guaranteed to go differently than theirs. Nothing is ever a sure thing in coaching hires. We will surely see Freeman suffer missteps and make decisions he’d like to have back. He will grow in the job, just like fellow first-time coaches have. Even established coaches who take on big-time jobs have growth periods at first. It’s not like Kelly coached a flawless first season at Notre Dame. The Irish were 8-5 that year, after all.

Every great head coach starts as a first-time head coach somewhere. And many of the traits that make a great head coach great are usually on display before he gets that first shot. Freeman’s charisma, passion, ability to connect with players on a personal level and understanding of the place where he works are worthy of the mighty wager Notre Dame made on him.

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