National Signing Day marks a successful start to the Marcus Freeman era
In many ways, the career of Marcus Freeman as Notre Dame’s new head coach didn’t begin on Dec. 6, the day he stood atop that elaborate stage inside the Irish indoor practice facility and was officially introduced as Brian Kelly’s successor.
Instead, the launch point to Freeman’s head coaching career came Wednesday during early National Signing Day when he introduced a 21-player, 2022 recruiting class that Rivals rates No. 7 in the country and is expected to hold a place in the final top-10 rankings when this cycle closes in February.
With two late decommitments from talented wide receivers CJ Williams and Amorion Walker, the class that Rivals rated fifth on Monday didn’t completely hold together. Questions still remain at the receiver position moving forward, though.
But given those were the only casualties following an unexpected and abrupt coaching change barely two weeks ago, the actual start to Freeman’s head coaching career has to be considered a success, and an opportunity to exhale.
“I was named head coach less than two weeks ago and my thought process was, ‘How do we keep this class together?’” said Freemen, who less than an hour after being introduced on Dec. 3, left campus and covered more than 8,000 miles on the recruiting trail to visit players from more than a dozen states. “When you have a change in leadership, you open up a door to uncertainty. And so my job was to try and get to as many places as I could to see as many of these guys, especially the offensive guys, to try and at least start a relationship with them.”
The fact that Freeman lost only two offensive recruits is impressive, and a testament to the relationships Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and the rest of the staff built with its recruits. Both of those recruits likely would have flipped if Kelly remained at Notre Dame anyways.
Freeman explained Wednesday how he felt a recruiting disconnect during his first cycle at Notre Dame, one where the defensive staff worried exclusively about defensive players, and vice versa with the offensive staff and its prospects.
And while most coaches become “closers” in the recruiting process once they land the top job — and let their staff members handle all the heavy lifting — Freeman outlined a much different “bridge” plan that will keep him involved with every recruit on the board, no matter which side of the football.
“I have to be the lead recruiter for every recruit, and I’ve made that very clearly known to the staff, have a personal relationship, [and] not this figure that is very unaccessible,” explained Freeman, who fittingly received a phone call during his Wednesday press conference from linebacker Jaylen Sneed — the No. 41 rated overall player and the top recruit in this Irish class. “I want these guys to be able to access me at all times, communicating directly with me on my phone and understanding that this is going to be a very personable relationship.”
While Coach Kelly’s trigger word during his 12 seasons as the Irish head man was always “process,” Freeman’s theme through his first two weeks on the job was “relationships,” always insisting that personal interaction and player attention are at the core of who he is as a person and a coach, and vowing that approach won’t change.
“I thought maybe I’d become the head coach, I’m going to feel different. No, it’s the same person, I wake up the same person every day,” Freeman celebrated. “And, so I go into these homes [on recruiting visits] with the same personality. I might be the head coach but it’s the same personality that it was when I was defensive coordinator, or when I was the linebackers coach at Purdue and Kent State. I am who I am, although my responsibility and my position has changed.
“I’m realizing, being in this position, is that the perception of you is different at times, the requirements, the responsibilities are different, who you are as a person is who you are.”
Unintentionally, Freeman provided an even deeper look Wednesday into his character and approach when he was asked about combatting the slimy recruiting tactics used by some programs during this cycle to skirt subjective NCAA rules and sell to prospective recruits the lucrative name, image and likeness (NIL) income opportunities their schools could provide.
“We do things the Notre Dame way,” Freeman responded. “We’re going to do everything we do with integrity, we’re going to do it the right way, and we’re going to win by outworking people, and that’s going to be our mindset. It’s going to be our mindset in football. It’s going to be our mindset in recruiting. We are going to outwork our opponents.”
Sounds like a plan and objective that Wednesday shows is already taking root.
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @MikeTSinger, @PatrickEngel_, @tbhorka, @GregLadky, and @ToddBurlage.
• Like us on Facebook.