Thursday night’s Sugar Bowl began on a somber note as fans mourned the horrific events that took place the night before in the city, but the game ended on a high note in college football history.
Notre Dame’s victory over Georgia, coupled with Penn State’s win over Boise State, means that for the first time in FBS college football history, a Black head coach will be in the National Championship game.
Notre Dame, coached by Marcus Freeman, will take on James Franklin and Penn State on Thursday, January 9th, marking an occasion so many have waited decades for.
It was a moment not overlooked by Freeman after the Irish’s win.
“Very grateful,” said Freeman. “It’s a reminder that you are a representation for many others and many of our players that look the same way I do. Your color shouldn’t matter, right, the evidence of your work should. But it takes everybody.”
Regardless of how you feel, representation does matter.
For many who aspire to be in the position that Freeman and Franklin are in, it’s important and inspirational to finally see that a Black man will be leading a team in the national championship game.
And their appearance in the game is even more significant when you look at the programs they lead.
Franklin is a Pennsylvania-born, bred and educated man who arrived at Penn State in 2014 with over 20 years of coaching experience, including three as the head coach at Vanderbilt (2011-13). Since that time, he has led the program to winning seasons every year except the Pandemic-impacted season where the team went 4-5.
Including this season, he’s won two Big Ten titles and has a 5-5 Bowl record. He’s also led the Nittany Lions to 11 total wins four times, and this season he guided the team to its first 11 regular season win year (12).
But the biggest criticism of Franklin was that he couldn’t win the biggest games, including games against traditional powerhouses like Michigan and Ohio State.
This year, even with a loss to the Buckeyes, he’s been able to silence critics and is two wins away from Penn State’s first national title since 1986.
Freeman had more of a playing career than Franklin, earning four letters as a linebacker at Ohio State and playing one season in the NFL before returning to the Buckeyes to begin his college coaching career in 2010.
He arrived at Notre Dame in 2021 as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and was elevated to head coach after Brian Kelly left for the LSU job, a move the team enthusiastically supported when it was announced.
Over his three seasons as the Irish’s full-time head coach, the team has improved each season, going 9-4, 10-3 and 13-1 this year. More impressively, after a stunning week 2 upset by Northern Illinois, the Irish have won 12 straight games, including the first two games of the CFP.
Franklin was the first Black head coach in Penn State history. Freeman is Notre Dame’s second behind Tyrone Willingham.
But after next Friday, one of them will make history as the first Black head coach in FBS history to lead a team in the National Championship.
