The signature concept Marcus Freeman continues to build with as his core philosophy in recruiting remains: “Choose Hard”.
Choosing wisely goes hand in hand with that, as the second-year Notre Dame head football coach continues to demonstrate in his recent internal staff hirings, the latest of which appears to be, imminently, Matt Jansen as his new director of scouting.
John Brice of Football Scoop was first with the news on Tuesday.
The 2011 Texas Tech grad is in line to succeed Bill Rees, who left ND when son Tommy Rees took the offensive coordinator’s job at Alabama in February.
While choosing hard is about selling the Notre Dame difference, and finding prospects in the high school ranks and the transfer portal who are willing to buy in, choosing wisely ups the ante when it comes to evaluating the talent to go along with that buy-in.
Current ND director of recruiting Chad Bowden’s arrival at Notre Dame at the insistence of Freeman while still defensive coordinator in 2021 under Brian Kelly, was the first key hire. More recently there have been Butler Bennett as assistant athletic director for player personnel in April and former Irish running back Amir Carlisle as a key development piece, replacing in March, promoted Hunter Bivin as director of player development.
Jansen comes from a four-year run at West Virginia, where he was promoted twice, most recently to director of player personnel and scouting. He has an NFL background in scouting/personnel as well with the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens and was a student assistant coach while at Texas Tech under the late Mike Leach and later for Tommy Tuberville.
With the advent of largely no-sitting-out transferring two summers ago, greater roster churn has created a heightened premium on player evaluations. The Irish added 33 newcomers this offseason, 23 freshmen — 11 of whom enrolled for the first time early this month — and a record 10 transfers, including three recruiting walk-on transfers.
As far as recruiting for 2024, Notre Dame sits at 19 commitments on Tuesday, hoping to nudge that to 20 on Wednesday when Liberty Township (Ohio) West Lakota High three-star safety Taebron Bennie-Powell makes his college decision.
Another ND safety recruiting target — Brauntae Johnson or Fort Wayne, Ind. — is set to announce his college choice on Saturday. The Irish stand at third in the Rivals 2024 team recruiting rankings, behind Georgia and Michigan.
Freeman’s Choose Hard mantra he says has resonated with recruits since he was elevated to replace Kelly as head coach in December of 2021.
“It’s part of being honest with the young people you’re trying to attract to be part of your program,” Freeman told Inside ND Sports last week during a one-on-one interview. “Instead of them being surprised about the difficulties of being here, you want to tell them on the front end. But it’s a challenge.
“Most of them you recruit are competitors. You say, ‘Hey, anything worthwhile in life is difficult. It’s really hard. You’re going to struggle. And that’s what Notre Dame will do for you. Embrace the struggle, embrace the challenge. Embrace choosing hard every single day here at Notre Dame, because the reward from that is going to be … I can’t even describe it. It's going to be invaluable.’”
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