6:30 AM
Every day, Marcus takes a moment to reflect on the opportunity he has to be Notre Dame's head coach.
Six weeks ago, his life completely changed. He was the Notre Dame's defensive coach. Brian Kelly, the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, would be leaving for LSU after 12 seasons. Kelly informed the team of his departure during a brief meeting the next morning.
Tommy Rees said that Notre Dame football was turned upside down for a few days.
The Notre Dame players cheered when the new head coach was introduced. The effect on players, colleagues and others he had on them could be felt immediately after he was officially with Notre Dame.
Human connections are harder to quantify than defensive statistics or star ratings of a recruiting class. During his first year on campus, he shaped both defense and recruiting. His ability to impact others helped him land one of college football's top jobs.
"What was different about Marcus was that his relationship with the players was not dependent on where you played, or what position you were in," said Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame athletic director. Even though they spend less time with him, offensive and defensive players had a close relationship.
It's a remarkable genuineness. The guy doesn't have any pretense.
His daily reflections include those skills.
"You're not changed as a person because you're the head coach of Notre Dame," he said. You have to be who you are, even though things might change. You have to be a person who works and grinds and does the things that got you here. Someone who puts other people first is a teammate.
"Don't let this job change you, that's what I remind myself every day."
It's not clear if Kelly was more successful than the man he replaced, but he brought stability to Notre Dame, which allowed the school to seek continuity with his replacement. The Fiesta Bowl became the first New Year's Six bowl to lose a 21-point second-quarter lead as the Irish fell to Oklahoma State 37-35. Notre Dame had lost a big lead against Tennessee in 1991.
The Irish will have a schedule that starts with Ohio State, where the former All-Big Ten linebacker is now.
Notre Dame can rely on the coach to prioritize relationship-building in every aspect of the program. On national signing day, he said that he would be the lead recruiter on every prospect, and that he would be extremely accessible to both current players and future recruits. His effect on Notre Dame assistants has been significant, as several, including Rees and Elston, chose to stay with the school. Sources in and around the program say that Kelly operated at a distance from players and others.
If Kelly were to operate as a CEO coach, he would be more like the head of human resources, someone who builds meaningful relationships throughout the organization.
"You can still do those things if you have the time, but it's only a certain amount of hours a day," he said. These tasks will never get done if you don't set intentional time. I'll continue to do that as a head coach, because I've done that as a defensive coordinator.
Jim TRESSEL didn't hesitate when he was given the chance to bring Freeman back to Ohio State.
He played for the Buckeyes. He was a part of a room that featured many draft picks. After being a fifth-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 2009, he spent time with three teams before retiring due to an enlarged heart condition.
"We hired him immediately, thinking that he would be a great influence on the team," he said. He did a great job for us, he was always enthusiastic and connected to the kids. He made the transition easy when you're a graduate assistant. I'm not surprised that he's progressed.
The approach to players that Freeman took was seen as a strength by Tressel.
"He wants to hear what others think," said Tressel. He has good awareness and good compassion. It's not something that's calculated. That's who he is.
Darrell Hazell was the head coach at Kent State after the 2010 season, and he brought in the linebackers coach. When Hazell moved on to Purdue, he joined him in becoming a co-defensive coordinators. In December, Cincinnati hired a former Ohio State assistant coach to lead its program after Hazell was fired by Purdue. Fickell brought in a defensive coach.
After working at Cincinnati as a defensive coach, he was hired by Notre Dame.
The comforts of the Ohio State/Tressel coaching tree were what made the rise in coaching so rapid. After the 2020 season, he generated head-coaching interest, but ultimately would choose between two high-profile jobs: LSU and Notre Dame. LSU was a year away from a national title, but Notre Dame was stable and close to home.
He had to forge his own path at Notre Dame.
When I first met him, he was clear about it. He said he was going to be who he was. He brought his real self to Notre Dame, even though he appreciated what it was. He didn't try to change who he was because he was at Notre Dame.
Notable people connected to the school and the program are helping him learn about Notre Dame. He operates in different circles than he did a few weeks ago, and in a little bit different clothes, he leaves up to his wife. He considers Tressel to be a huge asset during the transition.
The environment at Notre Dame is steeped in tradition, and Tressel thinks that the experience of the man at Ohio State will help him navigate it. Notre Dame has been accused of being too old, but that's not true.
"You embrace the history of this place, it's unique," he said. You use it as a sign that this is cutting edge. We have the people, we have the network, and we have all the necessary resources. It's a huge benefit for us.
Notre Dame's hope is that a young coach with fresh ideas can help the program rise from being a frequent contender to a serious national title threat. Kelly guided the Irish to two playoff appearances and the title game, but lost both of them by a combined score of 103-31.
Nine Notre Dame football players were drafted by the NFL in the spring, the highest total since 1994, but the group has been dominated by offensive and defensive linemen, tight ends and linebackers. The Irish have mostly solid quarterback play, but have lacked the pass-game prowess of many national champion. Wide receiver and defensive back are some of the positions that will be upgraded.
Notre Dame's recruiting class is currently ranked 6th nationally by ESPN. He had an effect on the position of the Notre Dame's highest-rated prospects.
The class would be Notre Dame's highest rated in three years if it holds.
Notre Dame's new coach was introduced on December 6. He said on national signing day that he would be the lead recruiter.
Elston said that it was not fair to evaluate what Marcus Freeman did over the last two weeks and decide if he was the right recruiter for Notre Dame. "He's going to be phenomenal, and we're going to bridge the gap from what's challenging here and the location that we're in and how hard it is to do the classwork here."
Elston spoke bluntly about Notre Dame's obstacles in recruiting and the end of the cycle that he wished had been stronger. He spoke about the importance of the hands-on approach to recruiting and the areas that Notre Dame will grow in.
Elston has worked for Kelly at three different programs and is the most connected of Notre Dame's assistants. He's all-in on the new guy, like many other people he's encountered in the past year.
Elston said you don't want to let him down. You don't want to be overshadowed by the head coach, who has a lot of other things to do. If you want to impress the boss, you're going to work at that level, if not more. I think you will see that.
Notre Dame has eight commitments from junior college players, the most of any team in the country.
The example of how Notre Dame coaches should recruit should be set by the coach, not the assistants. He thinks head coaches who don't establish personal relationships with recruits put their programs at a disadvantage.
"He's as open a coach as I've ever been around in terms of sharing who he is and what he believes in," said Swarbrick. Young people have a completely different sense of sharing information. If the people they're working with aren't forthcoming about who they are, they don't trust them. They want to know who you are, how you relate to your family, and what your background is. They want to know you.
"Coaches that aren't willing to reveal themselves to that degree have trouble."
The Fiesta Bowl is over, and so is the hiring of a new defensive coordinator by the new coach, who will make some of his own hires. Sources say there are two possibilities, one of which is Iowa State defensive coach Jon Heacock and the other one is the defensive head coach at Kent State.
The goal is to blend a winning formula at Notre Dame with some nuances.
"As a leader, I'm always looking for a better way," he said. Bringing in people that don't just think like me, that have great ideas is what that means.
The support staff will be challenged to advocate for different approaches in recruiting. Notre Dame will fall behind if it isn't constantly in enhance mode.
He will be able to say that this is a new way of doing it once he chooses which direction to go in. "We're going to look outside the box a little bit and we're going to be able to affect guys in different ways." "That's as exciting as anything that's happening in the program right now."
After four seasons as a quarterback at Notre Dame, Reeds was hired as an assistant coach. The program has had turbulent times, but nothing like what happened in late November.
"I felt like Notre Dame was the Alamo, I said on the show," he said. It was being attacked. Everyone was going to die. I wanted to fight for Notre Dame.
At Notre Dame's signing day news conference, Rees talked about the "rallying of Notre Dame." He said people he hadn't heard from in years reached out during the time between Kelly's departure and the promotion of Freeman.
When Kelly took the LSU job, he was recruiting in California with other assistants. The 29-year-old said he was hit by a rare feeling that pulled him to stay at his alma mater. After Kelly's departure, Notre Dame spent the next two days trying to retain both of them, but on the night of December 1st, Rees told the team that he wasn't going anywhere.
"As a person who just got exposed to Notre Dame, he's had a change of fortune here, selling his own journey to Notre Dame and the impact it's had on him, is very powerful," he said. That's something that I can relate to.
To keep a healthy and stable program from splintering after Kelly's departure was the initial purpose of the promotion of Freeman. It will be a challenge for a first-time head coach.
Notre Dame's history with first-time head coaches isn't great, but there are plenty of success stories at other high-profile programs, including assistants who were promoted to lead roles.
You don't know until you make those timeout decisions and fourth-and-1 calls. There needs to be a learning curve. I don't think it's a bigger learning curve or a smaller one in Marcus' case, but there has to be one.
The Irish blew a 21-point second-quarter lead to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl and fell to 0-8 in New Year's Six bowls.
The learning curve was shown in the Fiesta Bowl, as Notre Dame struggled to keep up with Oklahoma State after they built a 28-7 lead. Oklahoma State scored 24 points on five drives in the third quarter. The Cowboys had 10 personnel on their offense, which was not seen from Mike Gundy's team during the season.
"They made some good second-half adjustments to stop what we were doing and to kind of exploit some things defensively," he said. "For me, as the leader of this program, it's a pit in your stomach that you want to bottle it up and you want to remember how this feels."
The honeymoon stage is over. The new head coach is a great story, it's about having a great product and having a great team. It's about getting this team ready for next year.
His Notre Dame tenure will be shaped by his game-day growth. He acknowledges that the program's only appropriate goal is national championships.
His ability to communicate and build the program's culture has provided a foundation. The role he has and his appreciation for others will continue to guide him.
"I'm almost shocked that I'm the head coach of Notre Dame, there's moments throughout the day that I'm not sure what to think," he said. It's a privilege to be in this position. I don't care if you've been doing this for a while or not.
I hope I'm like this for the rest of my career, until they tell me I have to leave.
