Five things we learned from Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman in extensive summer interview
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was an open book Friday. Not just in the 30-minute off-the-record conversation he had with a dozen local reporters in South Bend over sandwiches. He treated the 45-minute on-the-record exchange was a tell-all, too.
Here are five things we learned from Freeman in the extensive interview.
He’s in favor of paying players via revenue sharing
Whether it be former athletics director Jack Swarbrick, current AD Pete Bevacqua or Freeman, Notre Dame’s top-of-the-food-chain brass has always been in favor of paying players. Swarbrick established that South Bend standard when name, image and likeness appeared on the scene three years ago. What they’ve also agreed upon, though, is that the avenues of payment have always been obscure. They need refining.
That’s a trio of realists. They all know the House v. NCAA settlement is promising for players in theory, but they also know the ins and outs of what the settlement means are far from ironed out.
“I’m a believer in it, and that’s the general idea, right? Should players be able to make money based off their name, image and likeness? Yeah. Yes,” Freeman said. “And there’s still so many open-ended avenues into how this is gonna happen, and that’s been my constant communication with Pete, with everyone I’ve talked to about this, is that we can’t start making decisions based off things that aren’t even — the decision hasn’t been made from the Supreme Court. The courts haven’t said, ‘This is the final ruling.’”
He’s all-in on building Notre Dame football through high school recruiting
Don’t be fooled by Notre Dame’s program-record eight scholarship transfer additions in one offseason cycle. The portal is not the go-to place for program building, Freeman said.
“We have a philosophy now: We’re going to double down on high school recruiting. I believe in that. We have to build our foundation on high school recruiting. There’s a lot of different reasons for that. But we will supplement in the transfer portal at specific positions of need, and that can change every year. But Notre Dame football is going to be built based off high school recruiting, and I feel more strongly about that now than I ever have.”
Notre Dame did more than supplement through the portal; the Irish found a starting quarterback in Duke’s Riley Leonard, a starting strong-side defensive end in Duke’s R.J. Oben, a starting nickel corner in Arizona State’s Jordan Clark, a starting kicker in South Carolina’s Mitch Jeter and a starting wide receiver in Florida International’s Kris Mitchell. Maybe a starting safety in Northwestern’s Rod Heard II. Wideouts Beaux Collins of Clemson and Jayden Harrison of Marshall will play often, too.
But even with all of those contributing additions, Freeman is not fabricating his stance on program building. He’s always been billed as a strong recruiter and that won’t change in the transfer portal era. With CJ Carr, Deuce Knight and Noah Grubbs, the idea is Notre Dame won’t need to go to the portal for a quarterback for the foreseeable future. Not every position will be that stable, but that’s where portal supplementation comes in. Get core pieces from the high school ranks and fill holes via the portal. That’s Freeman’s plan.
He still makes time to be a coach, not just a CEO
Freeman said just before he walked into a room to sit down with a dozen reporters he was watching film. As the head coach of a prominent program on a Friday morning in late May.
You don’t get that out of every college football head coach in 2024.
Freeman has not lost sight of why he does what he does.
“My passion is being around the players,” he said. “My passion is coaching football. But my responsibilities do include some of those CEO things that you talked about. When you have people around you that you trust to do their job and to help you navigate some of these changes that happen, it frees me up to be an actual football coach which is what I enjoy the most.”
He’s not blaming Sam Hartman for Notre Dame’s 2023 shortcomings
Freeman said the Irish unexpectedly changing offensive coordinators from Tommy Rees to Gerad Parker hurt Sam Hartman‘s early development at Notre Dame more than anyone let on last year.
“He’s got to wait to learn what the new offense will be,” Freeman said. “There’s a new quarterbacks coach. There’s a progression for him to learn. Our offense has to be put together first. Then we got to teach him. It’s just, the time was cut short.”
And once the fall came around, Freeman said Notre Dame didn’t do much to get the most out of Hartman.
“I don’t think we put him in always the best situations to be successful,” Freeman said. “We didn’t always put him in a situation for him to be as successful as he could be. He gave us everything he had. There was a lot of good. It’s not what he wanted, not what I wanted.”
Freeman followed up on what exactly it meant not putting Hartman in advantageous situations.
“I don’t know if we executed,” he said. “We didn’t protect him well enough at times. We didn’t beat man coverage like we should’ve at times. Did we always — I’m always going to put the blame on us as coaches. That’s something that I’ll never — I’ll never point the finger at a player. If the play didn’t work, we got to figure out a better way to do it. That’s why I say that. If it didn’t work, we better come up with a better scheme and put our players in a better position to have success. Maybe we should recruit better, I don’t know. I’m not blaming Sam Hartman for any of our lack of success.”
He’s on solid standing with the Notre Dame administration
Fr. Bob Dowd took over as University of Notre Dame President for Fr. John I. Jenkins this past Saturday. Freeman corrected the reporter who said that date was in July. He knew instantly it was June 1.
Dowd and Freeman have already hit the ground running.
“Oh, he’s been great,” Freeman said. “He’s been a huge supporter. We’ve met multiple times. He’s a huge supporter of obviously our football program, but Notre Dame Athletics. He has a strong conviction that we need Notre Dame football to be successful, and I want to help you in it whichever way I can. And he believes in the division of our athletics program. So, it’s been great getting to know him. He’s an extremely intelligent person. I can’t imagine trying to run an entire university. That’s the thing that I learned, spending time with Fr. Bob and Fr. John [Jenkins]. It’s just like, whew, they got a lot on their plate. I thought I got a lot on my plate? They got a lot on their plate.
“But they’re extremely intelligent people. I enjoy spending time with them. The things that Fr. John has been through are different than what Father Bob has been through, but he’s gonna go through them. He’s gonna have to make some tough decisions, but I feel a lot of support. I feel a lot of support for him, and I’m excited about the future of our athletics program.”
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