Marcus Freeman is expected to accept the defensive coordinator position job at the University of Notre Dame. Guess they found the money! I like it, I like it a lot!!!
Not to mention that he played for Ohio State and started his coaching career with the Buckeyes. He is a good one Tim!
Great hire, I hope! He was certainly the hot DCoord out there at the moment. As Don pointed out he was a Buckeye and he played 4 years. Don will have to fill us in on his career as a Buckeye. Most of his experience coaching is at Purdue and Cincinnati. He was the 1st choice of Brian Kelly and Eddie O at LSU, not sure what was the key for him. I'm sure LSU offered a lot of money and certainly LSU recruiting on the defense is out standing. Maybe growing up in Ohio he felt more comfortable staying in the Midwest.
He played weak side linebacker 2004-20008 and than began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Buckeyes, prior to moving on to Kent State.
I remember him from the bowl game. I also remember the camera shots of his wife and Mrs. Fickell. Beautiful ladies.
Brian speaks English. Marcus probably could not understand a word Ed was saying when they had their Zoom meeting.
I saw that he was an Academic All American while at Ohio State. That makes him a great fit at ND. Also everyone says he is a really good recruiter, another plus!
Terry Joseph has left the Irish staff and will be on the staff at Texas. Mickens is thought to be likely the only holdover from Lea's staff. Mike Elston who has been with Kelly a long time, and has been repeatedly passed over for DCoord is supposedly in the mix to be the DCoord at Purdue. Here's what former ND Coach and current Cincinnati OCoord said about Marcus Freeman. “From the first time I ever met Marcus, I thought, ‘What a great fit he would be for Notre Dame.’” said current UC offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, who was head coach Tyrone Willingham’s lead recruiter for ND in pursuit of Freeman back in 2003-04. “From the type of person that he was to his work ethic to how competitive he was as a player and now as a coach. Maybe it was something that was meant to be from the very beginning. “It just took a few more years to make it happen.” Freeman’s fit from a scheme/philosophy context doesn’t mirror the Mike Elko/Lea system, but it marries with it from a recruiting standpoint. And it would have been a deal breaker had Freeman run and insisted on staying with a base 3-4. As it is, the most noticeable difference in how Freeman called and set up his defense in 2020 and how Lea ran things at ND this past season is that Freeman had his team play a lot more man defense than the Irish did, and he was more aggressive in his calls within the scheme. “Marcus’ philosophy starts with the fact that he’s a believer in contesting everything,” Denbrock said. “Nothing’s going to come easy. You’re going to have to earn every yard.” Denbrock will have to deal with that firsthand Oct. 2, when the Bearcats visit Notre Dame Stadium, perhaps as a Top 10 team.
Great hire! Loved Freeman....not the most talented guy on the field, but very smart, disciplined and competitive with strong work ethic. Great character guy, leader and from all accounts a great recruiter. I think you've got a good one. I was holding out hope for him to Columbus as DC after Coombs steps down. Congrats, I think he'll do well.
If Elston leaves it will be a big recruiting loss. Seems like he was in on signing most of the top recruits.
This might end up being the worst Irish Men's basketball team of the Mike Brey era. The good news is that one of top Ivy League big men, Paul Atkinson of Yale, will be a Grad Transfer next year. I have hope for the Women's team, they are young but they have talent. New coach, trying to put her stamp on the team will have some ups and downs but I think in the end they make the tourney.
The score of the NC game provides to me consolation that our performance vs. Alabama was not as bad as it seemed. I still believe OSU is the 2nd best team in the country based on how they destroyed Clemson, and that they just had a bad game at the worst possible time. However, the 31 points we gave up to AL was the lowest offensive output by AL since the 2018 NC game. Our offense didn't come through, but, as I said after our game, we fought as hard as we could.
I do think the ND/Bama game and the OSU/Bama games were just two different games. Even though the stats seem to imply that ND was as good as OSU I don't think that is true. I think the QB/WR play from OSU would have the Buckeyes beating ND by a couple of TD's.
Terry, I agree. I was careful in how I worded my post so that I wouldn't be mistaken for thinking that.
Irish keeping an eye on the Portal. Definitely need a CB and a Safety... 3 players that some feel would be good transfers. North Carolina CB Patrice Rene: Patrice Rene - Football - University of North Carolina Athletics Oklahoma WR Charleston Rambo: Charleston Rambo - 2020 - Football - University of Oklahoma Illinois DE Owen Carney: Owen Carney Jr. - 2020 - Football - University of Illinois Athletics
Another loss for the Irish men yesterday at Virginia, now UVA is a very good team as usual...but the natives are getting restless with the tenure of Mike Brey. I hope this doesn't go down like Digger who had an acrimonious departure, should have resigned gracefully but made them fire him. Mike Brey has done a lot of good things, I'd like to see him go gracefully.
More negative comments on Mike Brey, this from Tim Prister... • When I think of…Notre Dame men’s basketball, the Irish have now lost eight of 11 games this season with an 0-5 ACC record. They are losers of an astonishing 27 straight versus ranked teams with its 80-68 setback at No. 18 Virginia Wednesday. What we are seeing is a broken program despite individual parts that should add up to more than the mess this program has become. With its loss to the Cavaliers – don’t let the score deceive you, the deficit reached 24 points in the second half – the Irish have now lost 40 of their last 58 games in conference play (22-42 including the ACC tournament).