Marcus Freeman Puts Himself To Work In First Month As Defensive Coordinator
In his takeover of Notre Dame’s defense, Marcus Freeman is making himself do the heavy lifting to ease the load for others.
Instead of plopping down a playbook with new schemes and different vocabulary in front of Notre Dame’s players and holdover assistants, the new defensive coordinator plans to observe what they know and force himself to learn it. He will gather what his roster does best and form his defensive structure around that.
If his four years at Cincinnati are any indication, it’s best not to write anything in Sharpie. The last one and a half seasons were primarily a 3-3-5 front. The 2017 and 2018 seasons featured a lot of 4-3 and 4-2-5.
“It’s going to be our scheme,” Freeman said in his first media availability. “I’m big on, ‘Let’s get the best players we can find.’ I’ve never said, ‘You have to fit this position.’ What are his positive traits, what does he do well? Let’s make sure we tailor our defense around those.”
The initial base defense Freeman will employ isn’t yet known, but he has already said he will keep some of predecessor Clark Lea’s nomenclature.
The “rover” linebacker position manned by Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah the last two seasons is keeping the same name. The “vyper” defensive end spot is retaining its title as well. The “Buck” outside linebacker spot is changing to “Will.” Whether their duties change much remains to be seen, but one gathers the title retention means any tweaks won’t be too major.
“Our alignments might change, the exact technique might change, but there are some similarities in where you’re aligned and what you’re asked to do,” Freeman said. “The Notre Dame defense has been really good for many years. You have to be a crazy person to come in and say we’re going to change what you’ve done to have success to be in the College Football Playoff two of the past three years.
“I want to make sure we give our guys the ability to get lined up, play relentless, play with the effort we demand … I have a chance to coach some of the best players in the country because of how Notre Dame has recruited in the last few years. My job is don’t confuse them.”
Freeman won’t see Notre Dame’s defensive players in pads until sometime this spring, leaving him to form his initial impressions of their skills off film sessions.
Until then, he will remain busy identifying and chasing players to form his future best 11. Freeman’s recruiting acumen at Cincinnati stood out in his consistency securing players with Power Five offers and even a few four-star recruits. He had already landed a pair of Rivals250 players in 2022 before leaving Cincinnati for Notre Dame on Jan. 8.
His activity a month in is already obvious. He slid into the recruitment of four-star defensive end Tyson Ford and helped defensive line coach Mike Elston pilfer him from Oklahoma, where he had been leaning. Ford, Rivals’ No. 64 overall player nationally in the 2022 cycle out of St. Louis’ John Burroughs High School, became the highest-ranked edge player to pick the Irish since Daelin Hayes in 2016 when he committed Jan. 18.
Elsewhere, Notre Dame has offered six linebackers in the 2022 class from four different states. Plenty of them are mighty swings, like top-100 player Niuafe Tuihalamaka. The Mission Hills (Calif.) Bishop Alemany product was a USC commit when offered, but backed out of his pledge a couple days later. Tuihalamaka is one of four 2022 Rivals100 linebackers to add an Irish offer since Freeman’s arrival.
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In shifting up from Cincinnati to Notre Dame, Freeman has quite literally taken his recruiting responsibilities from coast to coast. The Bearcats’ focus was on their home state and the Midwest, with a few exceptions. Notre Dame, though, has no home base. Freeman is chasing linebackers from Southern California to Myrtle Beach, S.C., the home of top-100 recruit Jaylen Sneed.
“When you’re recruiting at Notre Dame, it’s unique in that you can get every player in the country to answer your phone call or return your call because they respect the brand,” Freeman said.
With it comes the expectation to sign recruits coveted by college football’s ruling class. It’s easier to beat Alabama, Clemson or Ohio State with a roster featuring players whom members of that trio once wanted. And often, recruiting coups are tied to effort as much if not more than on-field results.
“Recruiting is developing relationships and it’s about work,” Freeman said. “It’s a part of our profession where you can outwork your opponent. That’s something I believe in — relentless work to get better and get the outcomes you want. That’s something we preach to our players and hope they see those same traits in the guy who’s saying we have to be relentless in what we do. I want to be like the players. I want to work to have success.”
In the big picture, that’ll be measured in his ability to keep Notre Dame’s defense at the high watermarks Lea delivered. The Irish were among the top 15 nationally in yards per play in 2018 and 2019, among the top 15 in scoring each of the last three years and one of the nation’s best havoc-creating defenses in 2020. Freeman’s Cincinnati units produced similar levels of disruption the last two years.
On an individual level, though, Freeman measures his success in his impact on his players. His goal is for all of them to graduate from his tutelage in a better place than their first meeting. What that looks like varies from player to player. If there’s a failure to do so, he will look at himself first to find out why.
“I told so many seniors I met with that if I’m with you for one year, I hope you’re better because of the time we spent together over the next six months,” Freeman said. “That’s my job is ultimately to serve. Serve not being a passive word, but a word in terms of, ‘You are better because of the time we spent together and are closer to those goals you have.’”
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