When Brian Kelly sprinted from South Bend down to Baton Rouge to become the LSU Tigers’ new head coach, a head coaching vacancy opened up at one of the most elite programs in college football history.
Immediately, names begin to swirl around the media rumor mill with coaches such as Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell and Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables rising to the top.
But one name quietly began to gain steam in South Bend and today that name was officially added to the nameplate on the head coach’s desk for the Irish.
Marcus Freeman.
Freeman, 35, has been Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator for basically one season after arriving from Cincinnati, but his impact is obvious as evidenced by the groundswell of support he received from the team. That included a public #FreemanEra hashtag campaign on Twitter.
On Monday, December 6th, Freeman will officially be introduced as the 30th head football coach and second Black head coach (behind Tyronne Willingham), in Notre Dame history.
βIt is an honor to be named the head coach of Notre Dame Football,β said Freeman in a release. βI am eternally grateful to both Father John Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick for giving me the opportunity to lead the exceptional men who make this program what it is. Notre Dame is a very special place and I look forward to pursuing a national championship with the most outstanding student-athletes, coaches and staff in college football.β
Marcus Freeman might be young, one of the youngest head coaches in Irish history, but his football resume makes him highly qualified.
In his first season at Notre Dame, he completely transformed the defense and forged it into a unit that ranked in the Top-20 nationally. They rank sixth in interceptions (15) and defensive TDs (4), seventh in total sacks (40) and 11th in turnovers gained (23). Their 40 sacks is one sack short of the program record set in 1996.
βMarcus Freeman has not only proven himself a superb football coach, he has shownβboth in his time at Notre Dame and in my conversations with him this weekβthat he is a person of highest integrity who cares deeply about our student-athletes and is committed to their success in the classroom as well as on the field,β said University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. βI am excited to welcome him as our new head football coach, and to have his wife, Joanna, and their six beautiful children in the Notre Dame family.β
Prior to South Bend, Freeman helped build the Cincinnati Bearcats into a national powerhouse that, as of now, could be the first G5 team to make the College Football Playoff.
Marcus Freeman played at Ohio State and was selected in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He returned to the Buckeyes to begin his coaching career a year later, with stops at Kent State and Purdue before landing at Cincinnati.
Now he will lead one of the most storied programs in college football history, one that’s still in the CFP hunt.
