The most significant ND spring postscripts to follow into the summer
In a question framed to elicit how Marcus Freeman planned to become a better head coach in the next 100 days on the job, his answer Saturday was decidedly on-brand.
“Recruiting never stops,” Freeman said shortly after presiding over the Blue-Gold Game/spring practice wrapup at Notre Dame Stadium.
“That’s the first thing. Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Today’s recruiting. Tomorrow’s recruiting. Every day we have to recruit. And every coach has to have that mindset. We have to get the best players in the country that fit this place.
“And so, that is an everyday responsibility, an everyday focus.”
And the No. 1 most significant postscript from Freeman’s first spring as Notre Dame’s head football coach.
None of that will help the Irish go into Ohio Stadium on Sept. 3 and take out an Ohio State team likely to be ranked at least in the top 5.
But it could affect the bottom line of the Buckeyes’ trip to South Bend, Ind., in game four of the 2023 season or ND’s trip to Clemson that November. Or a road game at Texas A&M to open the 2024 season, or a Shamrock Series date with Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay in 2026, when the class currently being assembled and sitting at No. 2 in the Rivals team recruiting rankings are seniors.
Ultimately how Freeman evolves Notre Dame’s recruiting, as it hasn’t been since the Lou Holtz Era, will define him more than anything else. And in a way the 2022 season opener can’t — or shouldn’t, win or lose.
He’s in it for the long run, not to make predecessor Brian Kelly look like he made a mistake.
Freeman’s answer to Saturday’s post-Blue-Gold Game question didn’t end at recruiting. He mentioned the urgency of not waiting until August training camp to answer questions that should be, in his mind, handled in June and July.
And that directly does address his and his team’s preparedness for the nation’s highest-scoring team in 2021.
So do the rest of the Inside ND Sports’ perspective of the most significant postscripts to follow the Irish football program into the summer months.
Leadership matters when nobody’s watching
One hallmark of Kelly’s post-2016 coaching makeover that Freeman held onto was ND director of football performance Matt Balis’ concept of building a strong football culture through strength and conditioning.
That means the SWAT teams that foster offseason accountability, competitiveness and teamwork remained in place, though Freeman put his own spin on them. Freeman himself showed up at the players’ early-morning lifts this past winter and — he worked out.
The assistant coaches were regular observers and interactors, another new wrinkle.
Now, though, comes the stretch when coaches’ interactions with players are much more limited by NCAA rules. And the player leaders who emerged during Freeman’s first five months on the job will profoundly shape the team’s destiny in the fall.
It was an emphasis of Freeman to develop the next wave of player leadership. How different this team looks, as in how evolved, in August than the final snaps of Saturday’s 13-10 Gold team victory will tell the backstory of what kind of leaders Freeman will carry into his first full season.
The impact of June arrivals
Notre Dame’s transfer portal pickups for June enrollment don’t figure to end with Harvard grad transfers, defensive lineman Chris Smith and walk-on punter Jon Sot.
Wide receiver remains the top positional priority, but others could emerge, especially if Notre Dame gets too thin at a position group with possible attrition of its own between now and the May 1 deadline to be in the portal and be granted 2022 eligibility.
Of the 10 June scholarship freshman arrivals, punter Bryce McFerson and wide receiver Tobias Merriweather have the least-impeded paths to early playing time in the fall. Long term, there’s a lot to like about offensive tackle Aamil Wagner.
But don’t rule out players joining an already-crowded position group. If tight ends Eli Raridon and Holden Staes, for instance, are camera-ready, they’ll get a chance to compete for playing time. Same with cornerback Benjamin Morrison.
The other June-arriving scholarship freshmen are running back Gi’Bran Payne, nose guard Donavan Hinish and offensive linemen Ashton Craig and Ty Chan.
“The misconception is that if you come in early, it’ll give you a better chance to play,” Freeman said. “You know what, if you’re a guy that’s going to be able to play early — whether you come in, in June or come in, in January — we’re going to know.”
The increasing hope would seem to be that freshman walk-on kicker Zac Yoakam might be one of those, given the late-spring accuracy issues of sixth-year veteran kicker Blake Grupe and sophomore Josh Bryan.
New special teams coordinator Brian Mason made building depth and competition among the specialists through preferred walk-ons and transfers a priority once he was hired in January. And that may pay off sooner than later.
Freeman can handle the LSU distraction
Kelly’s decision to recalibrate and rearticulate to the national media recently his reasons for being in Baton Rouge instead of South Bend this spring and beyond pretty much put Freeman and others at Notre Dame in the position to either confirm or defend what Kelly has said about aspects of the Irish program that he said he felt didn’t align with winning a nation title.
That, after building a “forever home” less than a mile from the Notre Dame campus and then never moving in.
Freeman’s response has been to let the former players and current players tell the story about ND’s viability — or lack thereof — to be a national contender. Their take so far has been consistently defiant and often unflattering toward Kelly.
Absent the rhetoric, it’d be much easier to accentuate the continuity between the two ND regimes rather than the differences. And maybe somewhere down the line, that might be possible. For now, Kelly’s narrative makes that implausible.
Especially when it comes to recruiting and recruits.
Yep, Notre Dame and LSU are shopping down the same aisle more than you might think these days. More than half of the players in Notre Dame’s nine-man, No. 2-ranked 2023 recruiting class hold LSU offers. And three of the four commits in LSU’s No. 17-ranked 2023 class have been offered scholarships by Notre Dame.
In terms of uncommitted recruits, they both want five-star quarterback Dante Moore. They both want five-star wide receiver Carnell Tate and five-star defensive end/outside linebacker Samuel M’Pemba.
Ironically, none of those three players attend high school within a 10-hour drive — or the kind of easy recruiting trip Kelly said that he hopes to make routinely in his new Tesla Model X Plaid.
The bottom line is Kelly in 12 years helped build Notre Dame into the kind of program that could roll the dice on a first-time head coach. Now, in a place that may or may not be a cultural fit, Kelly too is a gamble.
And the temptation to compare which sheds that notion first isn’t going away anytime soon.
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