{"id":81515,"date":"2025-01-23T08:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/notre-dame-footballs-marcus-freeman-named-bear-bryant-coach-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T08:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T14:29:08","slug":"notre-dame-footballs-marcus-freeman-named-bear-bryant-coach-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/notre-dame-footballs-marcus-freeman-named-bear-bryant-coach-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame football\u2019s Marcus Freeman named Bear Bryant Coach of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman<\/a><\/strong> was named the 2024 Paul \u201cBear\u201d Bryant Coach of the Year<\/a><\/strong> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

According to the Bryant Awards website, the\u00a0Paul \u201cBear\u201d Bryant Coach of the Year Award\u00a0annually recognizes the country\u2019s top college football coach for their contributions both on and off the field, as well as efforts to make the sport better for athletes and fans alike by demonstrating grit, integrity and a winning approach to coaching and life.<\/p>\n

One previous Notre Dame coach has won the Bear Bryant Award: Lou Holtz in 1988.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freeman was also the winner of the 2024 Dodd Trophy and the 2024 George Munger College Coach of the Year Award, and was selected as the honorary head coach for the 2024 AFCA Allstate Good Works Team<\/p>\n

Freeman accepted the award in Houston Jan. 22, just two days after his team fell in the national championship game 34-23 against Ohio State.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honored to award Coach Freeman\u00a0this year\u2019s Paul \u201cBear\u201d Bryant Coach of the Year Award, recognizing his exemplary efforts both on and off the field,\u201d said Nancy Brown<\/strong>, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association.\u00a0\u201cThis signature award honors the legacy of Coach Bryant, by acknowledging his same high standard of excellence in today\u2019s college football coaches. The collaboration between the Bryant family and the American Heart Association on both the annual awards and recruiting college football programs to join the Nation of Lifesavers advances our efforts for a world of longer, healthier lives. Congratulations to all of the finalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other finalists for the award were South Carolina\u2019s Shane Beamer, Indiana\u2019s Curt Cignetti, Boise State\u2019s Spencer Danielson, Arizona State\u2019s Kenny Dillingham, SMU\u2019s Rhett Lashlee, Army\u2019s Jeff Monken and Syracuse\u2019s Fran Brown.<\/p>\n

Freeman\u2019s squad saw quite the turnaround in the 2024-25 season after his team suffered the lowest of lows, dropping a contest to MAC school Northern Illinois Sept. 7. The Irish went in playoff mode after that and rattled off 13 straight victories, including a Sugar Bowl win against Georgia and an Orange Bowl triumph over Penn State.<\/p>\n

Fourteen wins set a new program record, and the Fighting Irish finished the season ranked No. 2 in both the AP and AFCA Top 25 polls. During his three-plus year tenure at Notre Dame, Freeman has posted a record of 33-10.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame finished out the regular season as one of the most balanced teams in the country, leading the nation in passing efficiency defense (94.10), turnovers gained (28) and in defensive touchdowns (6). The Irish also ranked among the top teams nationally in several other categories in the regular season, including: second in turnover margin (1.33), third in scoring defense (13.6), fourth in scoring offense (39.8) and 10th in total defense (296.8), among others.<\/p>\n

The post Notre Dame football\u2019s Marcus Freeman named Bear Bryant Coach of the Year<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was named the 2024 Paul \u201cBear\u201d Bryant Coach of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}