Vincent Frank
Mere days after the shocking departure of Brian Kelly, Notre Dame football is set to have a new head coach in that of Marcus Freeman.
According to Ralph Russo of the Associated Press, the Irish are in conversations with Freeman to promote the talented defensive coordinator to the head role in South Bend.
“Notre Dame is working on a deal to promote defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to head coach to replace Brian Kelly, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday night,” the report read.
A player-friendly coach, Marcus Freeman joined Kelly’s coaching staff with Notre Dame ahead of the 2021 season after seemingly accepting the same role with the LSU Tigers. That’s an interesting turn gien Kelly opted to leave Notre Dame for Baton Rouge. Talk about coming full circle.
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Marcus Freeman to be next Notre Dame head coach
Freeman, 35, becomes just the second African-American head coach in Notre Dame history — joining Tyrone Willingham on that exclusive list. Willingham coached the Irish to a 21-15 record in three seasons in that role from 2002-04.
As for Freeman, he’s been ascending the rankings of potential head-coach candidates around the college football world. A former all-conference linebacker for Ohio State, he served as a positional coach for Kent State and Purdue before becoming the Cincinnati Bearcats’ defensive coordinator from 2017-20.
In his first season with the Irish, Freeman leads a defense that ranks 29th in the nation in yards allowed and has yielded just 22 touchdowns in 11 games.
Notre Dame sits at 11-1 on the campaign and is ranked No. 6 in the most-recent College Football Playoff rankings. Depending on what happens during championship weekend, the Irish could be looking at a third playoff appearance in four seasons.
According to the aforementioned report, Kelly wanted to bring Freeman with him to LSU. However, the ascending coach opted to remain in South Bend.
“The person told AP that Kelly also had interest in bringing Freeman to LSU. Kelly left Notre Dame after 12 seasons and with the Fighting Irish still in contention for a spot in the College Football Playoff. He was introduced Wednesday as the Tigers’ coach,” the report read.
