Notre Dame has hired Cincinnati defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Marcus Freeman to the same position in South Bend to replace Clark Lea, who now serves as Vanderbilt’s head coach.
Here are thoughts on how Freeman will impact Notre Dame on the recruiting front.
STRONG RECRUITER
The feeling during the hiring process was that Freeman preferred to stay in the Midwest, although he strongly considered LSU and interviewed there this week. However, Freeman is from Ohio and has coached his entire career in the Midwest. Freeman may not coach several years at Notre Dame because he’ll surely be a hot commodity for future head coach openings.
He is regarded as a strong recruiter, and as an Ohio native and former Buckeye linebacker, look for Notre Dame to make moves in his home state. Freeman attended Huber Heights (Ohio) Wayne High School, which is the same school cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens attended. In fact, Freeman and Mickens both attended Wayne at the same time and are close friends. Of course, Mickens coached at Cincinnati with Freeman before taking the Notre Dame job last March.
Mickens recently offered two class of 2022 prospect from their former school in offensive tackle Aamil Wagner and defensive end Elijah Brown.
During Freeman's time at Cincinnati (2017-2021), the Bearcats signed five defensive prospects ranked as Rivals four-star recruits, which is a solid number for a Group of Five school. Freeman also had two four-star prospects already committed in the 2022 class, who we will touch on quickly.
