ATLANTA — At the time, it was seen as a major downgrade.
Notre Dame was going from Brian Kelly, a proven head coach with an extensive résumé and the school’s all-time leader in wins, to Marcus Freeman, who had been a defensive coordinator for only a few years and had spent only one season in South Bend, Ind.
He was 35 years of age, and was being given the reins to one of the biggest brands in all of sports: Notre Dame football.
“To have your first head-coaching job at Notre Dame is like rolling out of bed one day, waking up and being Mayor of New York City,” Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua said. “I don’t think anybody’s prepared for that job until you do that job.”
Three years later, Freeman sure seems to be settling into the position.
He has Notre Dame within one win, Monday night against his alma mater, Ohio State, of its first national championship since 1998.
He’s a rising star in the industry.
Notre Dame recently locked him up through 2030 and the Bears have expressed interest in speaking to Freeman about their vacant head-coaching job.
“Never to be a head coach before, coach at Notre Dame with all that pressure and to get here, that’s a heckuva start,” ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said.
So much has changed for Freeman and the Irish in the last four-plus months, dating to that shocking home loss to Northern Illinois as a 28-point favorite.
There were significant doubts then — as to whether Freeman was the guy and they were a legitimate playoff contender.
Notre Dame hasn’t lost since, winning 13 straight games, including back-to-back top-10 wins in the playoff over Georgia and Penn State — the kind of games that Freeman’s predecessor, Kelly, never won while he was coaching in South Bend.
The Irish have dealt with a rash of injuries this year, losing key players like offensive linemen Ashton Craig and Jordan Botelho, cornerback Benjamin Morrison, defensive linemen Rylie Mills and Boubacar Traore and tight end Cooper Flanagan.
It hasn’t slowed them down.
In those wins over Georgia and Penn State, they started slowly, looking somewhat overwhelmed.
But Notre Dame responded with resolve, togetherness and toughness, characteristics of Freeman, according to those close to him.
It reminds James Laurinaitis of the Ohio State teams under Jim Tressel when he and Freeman were teammates or the Luke Fickell-coached Cincinnati teams from 2017-2020 when Freeman was the defensive coordinator. Max effort at all times.
“It’s a reflection of how his team plays. He’s put his own flair on it,” said Laurinaitis, Ohio State’s linebackers coach. “When you watch Notre Dame play on film, the effort jumps off the page. The toughness jumps off the page. You see the way [quarterback] Riley Leonard lowers his shoulder diving and jumping, and the way [running back] Jeremiyah Love runs, and their defense plays really hard, special [teams] play really hard.”
Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame athletic director at the time Kelly left for UCLA, could’ve gone with a bigger name and left himself less open to criticism.
He took a risk.
He also listened to several team leaders who believed in Freeman. A video of the entire team going wild when the news was shared with them went viral.
This resurgence obviously didn’t happen overnight. It took time.
After that loss to Northern Illinois, Freeman’s record was 20-9. He took ownership of the upset, blaming himself and his coaching staff first. He didn’t make excuses. Neither did his players — they just got better.
In the lead-up to this game, Freeman, 39, has been peppered with questions about facing his alma mater, about being the first black coach to reach the national championship game. He has made it all about his players.
“We know he’ll go to war for us and we’ll go to war for him,” Irish offensive lineman Pat Coogan said.
That Northern Illinois setback created enormous pressure on Freeman and Notre Dame. Without a top-flight opponent on the schedule, the Irish had to win out, and do so impressively.
They haven’t stopped. Now, Notre Dame and Freeman are one win away from a championship, from bringing the Irish all the way back to the top of the sport.
“They’ve been searching. This is not something that just happened over the last three years. You have to go back to the early-to-mid ’90s for the last time Notre Dame was really a giant in this sport,” Herbstreit said. “Not just getting here, but the culture that he’s been able to create is probably the most impressive thing. Whether they win this game or not, to go where they have been, to go where they are now, and where they are heading with Marcus Freeman, this is going to be a really exciting era.
“When they get on the field with Georgia, when they get on the field with Ohio State, it feels different than it has in the past.”
