My personal opinion - some may disagree - is that the news of our new head coach deserves its own topic. To illustrate why I feel that way, here's a link to an article in the Indy Star with the reactions of multiple players and recruits, and one past player, all showing a high level of enthusiasm for the choice. I can see why it was easy for the administration to make the decision. Note the Drue Tranquil tweet, in my opinion a clear indication to me of Coach Freeman's class, humility, and depth of character: These ND football players support Marcus Freeman as next head coach P.S Someone I'm close to has heard directly and indirectly from "dozens" of former players in the few days since the Kelly exit news broke. None of them - zero, nada - was sorry to see him go. To me, that speaks volumes.
Sid you and I remember Ara and Lou. We remember those times that the players came out of the locker room and played at a level above their skills. Like the Rock they were great motivators. I've heard a number of Kelly's locker room talks and none of them were moving. The teams never played above their talent level and that's why Kelly's record in "big" games was so poor. I sense that Freeman is a motivator. He gets to the kids on an emotional level. We know it helps in recruiting and I expect to see it help in team play. Kelly was never the "traditional" HC that ND fans are used to. He was however much more competent than Ty and Charlie. Now maybe it's a return to shaking down the thunder.
Hopefully Marcus Freeman will step up and have a great start to his career. Lincoln Riley was very young I think maybe 33 with no HC experience and had been at OU for only 2 years when Stoops left and they named him the HC. It turned out well for OU. Ryan Day had no previous HC experience before joining Urban's staff and if you look at his Bio he'd been at a lot of jobs college and NFL but never any place for a long time. He wasn't as young as Freeman or Riley but is an example of a guy who was ready when the job came open. I like that we are getting off to a great start with the players and former players excited about Marcus.
The fact that none of Kelly's former assistants chose to follow him to LSU speaks volumes to me. I wish him well.
Coach looks like he could suit up TODAY! As I said in the other topic, there's some risk going with a guy who's never been a head coach and only a coordinator for 5 or so years. BUT... there's risk in any hire, and it's clear Freeman has the "FIRE" to keep Notre Dame rising. Considering the circumstances, I think it's a great roll of the dice for the Irish.
None of Nick Saban's assistants followed him to LSU. I read a story that said he sent a plane to East Lansing to bring any assistants who wanted to come to LSU. The plane returned to Baton Rouge empty, not a single asst went with him even though he offered them.
My humble prediction is staying with Freeman will be a better career choice than made by the MSU assistants who stayed with Bobby Williams although Bobby later ended up reuniting with Saban after MSU canned him after losing 49-0 to Michigan.
Marcus seems to be honoring the old Catholic tradition of having a large family. Another checkbox checked….
I wondered if Freeman was Catholic, given the low % of Catholics that are black I thought probably not. But I 've not been able to find out for sure if he is, from this tweet it would seem that at least his wife might be Catholic and I know the Luke and Amy Fickell are Catholic. They are both Ohio State Alums meeting of course while Marcus was playing at Ohio State. There are a lot of pictures out there of her and I think maybe she might be Hispanic which raises the likelihood that she is Catholic. From everything I read they are a really loving couple and will be terrific representatives of Notre Dame whatever their religion.
I would say that the best thing about this hire is that there seems to be nearly 100% support for Freeman from the online Irish fans. That didn't happen when Kelly was hired, it was a split reaction. I do think the outpouring of support from players and former players as Sid posted above is part of the reason that fans are welcoming him with open arms and enthusiasm. We will get an early glimpse of him with either the NY6 Bowl or the highly unlikely CFP. A win and the team looking prepared and well coached will send us into the offseason on a really high note. A loss esp a bad loss will temper a lot of that of course.
Along with Sid's post above... I'm reminded of incidents involving Kelly early in his tenure at ND. When he got off to a rough start he segregated his own team by saying he had "his" players but also had some of the "other guy's" ( Weis ) players and that was the problem. Then there was the party incident when the SBPD showed up and Tommy Rees made a run for it but he was drunk and couldn't out run the cops. They cuffed Rees up and Carlo tried to stand up for Rees and made a stupid, drunken comment and ended up spending the night in the cooler. Kelly told Carlo that he would not travel to Ireland with the team but Rees was unpunished. Kelly had "his" players and it was a short list.
Some have wondered why when everybody seems to know that Freeman is the guy, hasn't there been an official announcement from Notre Dame or a press conference. Apparently Fr. John is in Rome and they don't want to do it till he returns. I have a source who has a transcript of the conversation between Fr. John and the Pope. "I apologize, Your Holiness, I really need to take this call. You see, our football coach left unexpectedly. ......... No, we call that soccer. ......... Well, another college needed to replace a serial fornicator. ............ Yes, I remember the Medicis. No, it's not that simple anymore. ......... Yes, we do have some fans who refer to our offensive coordinator as "Reesus." .......... Yes, I agree that's heresy and idolatry, but rest assured it's all in good fun. And nowhere near how other schools regard their coaches."
Well it's all rainbows and lollypops, everything is coming up roses, dogs and cats are friends. I've never seen the NDNation so united behind anything as they are right now with Marcus Freeman. It will be interesting to see how it survives the 1st loss. If somehow we make the CFP he'll get a mulligan if he doesn't beat Georgia (assuming they are #1 and we are #4). But a NY6 Bowl will be a different animal. He's pretty much going to have the entire staff at least through the Bowl so not sure if he'll get a mulligan if say we lose to Pitt or Michigan State.
The next step is what will he do staff wise. It's being assumed that Jeff Quinn (OL) will coach through the bowl game and then Freeman will replace him. Also it's thought that Del Alexander might be replaced. There are questions as to who will be the DCoord, will MF bring in a new guy or will he elevate Mike Elston? What about Mickens, will he be a Co_DCoord with Elston? Staff Marcus Freeman Head Coach Tommy Rees OCoord Lance Taylor RB Coach Del Alexander WR Coach ??? part of new staff after bowl? John McNulty TE Coach Jeff Quinn OL Coach ???? part of new staff after bowl? Mike Elston DL Coach ???? DCoord after the bowl? I assume he'll still coach DL like Freeman coached LB Chris O'Leary S Coach Well liked I'll bet he stays Mike Mickens DB Coach Well liked could be CoDCoord? Brian Polian ST Coach Reportably leaving to be the HC at Lafayette of the Patriot League. Who will coach ST and who will coach LB's? There is a guy on staff, Nick Lezynski, who some say is a young guy on the rise and ready to step up and might be a good LB coach. I think he was a Walk-on at ND. A lot of schools don't have a ST Coach, they have a regular position coach who is in charge or it or if you are Frank Beamer you coach ST your self. The OL coach will be his biggest move.
Irish Men's Basketball was embarrassed by Boston College tonight. Ohio State Hockey is killing the Irish tonight at Compton. Sunday the Women trek to Storrs for game with UCONN. Ladies got a really nice road win at East Lansing, freshman Sonia Citron had her best game of the year. The women are a legit top 25 team, will be tough to go to UCONN though who as it always seems has 5 1st team All Americans
Tim, I think Freeman was a very logical pick for the Irish. However, being a head coach without experience has its perils. I ceritanly wish him success.