Marcus Freeman named Dick Corbett Head Football Coach

[Crazy Balki]

Almost a month. Ok.

You realize that coaches have to prepare for spring, right?

They don't just sit on their asses and wait for the calender to flip to March.

That's especially true with a new OC and new offensive coaches. They need to review everything and have the playbook ready for the players to review so they are ready to go for spring practice.

 

[Giddyup]

Ok. Live on that fantasy island.

 

[irishog77]

I don't recall Kelly being blocked from making his initial hire by the administration being incompetent cheapskates.

Freeman is promoting his "buddy" because he has to move on from his top guy and time is not on our side in terms of implementing everything for spring.

They matched A&M's offer to Elko (Elko then asked for another raise after A&M made another offer, and the said "good luck."). They hired Freeman, even after it was already being reported he would take the lsu job. They reportedly would match any offer Miami made to Rees last year, and Alabama this year.

Similarly, ND got rid of wastes of-space Longo and BVG ONLY after the administration made Burnt Ends.

Things got weird with Ludwig.

Other than that, they've not only been prepared (and demanded) to pay for good assistants, but have actually paid for good assistants.

 

[Crazy Balki]

They matched A&M's offer to Elko (Elko then asked for another raise after A&M made another offer, and the said "good luck."). They hired Freeman, even after it was already being reported he would take the lsu job. They reportedly would match any offer Miami made to Rees last year, and Alabama this year.

Similarly, ND got rid of wastes of-space Longo and BVG ONLY after the administration made Burnt Ends.

Things got weird with Ludwig.

Other than that, they've not only been prepared (and demanded) to pay for good assistants, but have actually paid for good assistants.

Funny you mention Elko. For one, they actually did hire him. So it's not the same. Elko turned it into a bidding war after ND gave him a new contract with a raise. One he agreed on. I can understand ND walking away from that situation.

But they also "settled" on Clark Lea, and we know how that turned out.

Just because the admin finally made Kelly make changes, doesn't absolve them from incompetence in this case or in the several cases over the past 3 decades.

As for Rees and the admin's "willingness" to match any offer, that reeked of a spin job. They knew he was going to leave for Bama and that money wasn't the issue, so they release that to provide the optics that they would pay for assistants. And in the matter of 1 week, they ruined any and all credibility that spin job provided.

All the information we have regarding this scenario paints the picture that ND's administration screwed this up royally. Either ND is cheap or ND is incompetent, or both. That is the perception we're working with now thanks to the admin.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Ok. Live on that fantasy island.

Gotcha dude.

Apparently the notion that coaches need weeks to prepare logistics and schematics for the players for upcoming spring practice is a fantasy.

Should've known that CFB isn't rocket science and implementing offenses and getting everything ready for an operation of this magnitude is an easy 3 day job.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Yeah, Elko played ND and TAMU against each other one too many times for ND's liking. I'm actually kind of fine with that. He did what he had to do to cash in. Then he ended up on that dumpster fire down there anyway and moved out to Duke as an HC.

Everyone got what they deserved.

 

[irishog77]

Funny you mention Elko. For one, they actually did hire him. So it's not the same. Elko turned it into a bidding war after ND gave him a new contract with a raise. One he agreed on. I can understand ND walking away from that situation.

But they also "settled" on Clark Lea, and we know how that turned out.

Just because the admin finally made Kelly make changes, doesn't absolve them from incompetence in this case or in the several cases over the past 3 decades.

As for Rees and the admin's "willingness" to match any offer, that reeked of a spin job. They knew he was going to leave for Bama and that money wasn't the issue, so they release that to provide the optics that they would pay for assistants. And in the matter of 1 week, they ruined any and all credibility that spin job provided.

All the information we have regarding this scenario paints the picture that ND's administration screwed this up royally. Either ND is cheap or ND is incompetent, or both. That is the perception we're working with now thanks to the admin.

Freeman was, presumably, Burnt Ends initial and number 1 want to be DC at ND. Not only did the administration not block him, they helped him win a bidding war.

They gave Rees a big raise to keep him at ND rather than lose him to lsu.

They poached Elko. Then offered him a raise to stay.

I wholeheartedly agree with you (and ND) about finally letting Elko walk.

I think the Elko situation is probably closer to the Ludwig situation. ND has shown that they will pay to get guys, keep guys, or make guys leave. Something was off on the Ludwig situation though, and we'll probably never know the real story. But ND, in recent years, seems to have more of a track record of ponying up rather than not paying. It just might be possible that they aren't "incompetent cheapskates." I'd venture to say there's more to the story.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Freeman was, presumably, Burnt Ends initial and number 1 want to be DC at ND. Not only did the administration not block him, they helped him win a bidding war.

They gave Rees a big raise to keep him at ND rather than lose him to lsu.

They poached Elko. Then offered him a raise to stay.

I wholeheartedly agree with you (and ND) about finally letting Elko walk.

I think the Elko situation is probably closer to the Ludwig situation. ND has shown that they will pay to get guys, keep guys, or make guys leave. Something was off on the Ludwig situation though, and we'll probably never know the real story. But ND, in recent years, seems to have more of a track record of ponying up rather than not paying. It just might be possible that they aren't "incompetent cheapskates." I'd venture to say there's more to the story.

What are you arguing?

In all of those situations, I have no issue with the logistics of how ND went about the process.

This is not one of those situations. By all accounts, somebody within ND's administration fucked up, and they ended up making themselves look ridiculously incompetent and cheap in the process.

It's not just about Ludwig's buyout and the unwillingness to pay it. It's the fact that they allowed it to get to the point where he was offered the job and they were simply working out the details. It was only then that they reached a snag with the buyout. How do you get to that point and let that happen? Somebody in the administration (who deals with the money and the contracts) should have seen that coming. The fact that they didn't is why this is such a horrible look for ND.

This is akin to the O'Leary debacle. The one they've gone out of their way for years to make the process as slow as possible for vetting to avoid. And yet, here were are.

So there's a lot to this story we don't know about, but at the end of the day, one of two things seems to be very much the case. ND's admin was either too incompetent to realize the buyout was significantly larger than they originally thought. Or they were too cheap to put up the money when the chips were down. There's also the added spin that Swarbrick is meddling with Freeman's staff and choosing not to pursue the buyout because he wasn't a fan of Ludwig.

Overall, it shows a clear disconnect between the administration and the coaching staff and that's wholly unacceptable. I'm not sure whether it's Jack, or people in the BoT or both, but that much is very clear.

 

[Giddyup]

These hires are pretty important. Fuck spring training

 

[irishog77]

What are you arguing?

In all of those situations, I have no issue with the logistics of how ND went about the process.

This is not one of those situations. By all accounts, somebody within ND's administration fucked up, and they ended up making themselves look ridiculously incompetent and cheap in the process.

It's not just about Ludwig's buyout and the unwillingness to pay it. It's the fact that they allowed it to get to the point where he was offered the job and they were simply working out the details. It was only then that they reached a snag with the buyout. How do you get to that point and let that happen? Somebody in the administration (who deals with the money and the contracts) should have seen that coming. The fact that they didn't is why this is such a horrible look for ND.

This is akin to the O'Leary debacle. The one they've gone out of their way for years to make the process as slow as possible for vetting to avoid. And yet, here were are.

So there's a lot to this story we don't know about, but at the end of the day, one of two things seems to be very much the case. ND's admin was either too incompetent to realize the buyout was significantly larger than they originally thought. Or they were too cheap to put up the money when the chips were down. There's also the added spin that Swarbrick is meddling with Freeman's staff and choosing not to pursue the buyout because he wasn't a fan of Ludwig.

Overall, it shows a clear disconnect between the administration and the coaching staff and that's wholly unacceptable. I'm not sure whether it's Jack, or people in the BoT or both, but that much is very clear.

That maybe the administration isn’t running amok with “incompetent cheapskates.” They have more of a track record of not being incompetent cheapskates rather than being incompetent cheapskates.

 

[Irish#1]

Gotcha dude.

Apparently the notion that coaches need weeks to prepare logistics and schematics for the players for upcoming spring practice is a fantasy.

Should've known that CFB isn't rocket science and implementing offenses and getting everything ready for an operation of this magnitude is an easy 3 day job.

That's why they had me on retainer. I was ready to make the quick drive with my PeeWee FB playbook and install that offense in one day.

 

[Irish#1]

Thinking this shit show through, I can see MF promoting Parker instead of looking outside more. Obviously timing is critical as is fit. I wonder if MF found his limitations working under JS, or said "Screw it, I can't wait any longer. Parker is already on staff so it would be hard for Jack to say no"?

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Thinking this shit show through, I can see MF promoting Parker instead of looking outside more. Obviously timing is critical as is fit. I wonder if MF found his limitations working under JS, or said "Screw it, I can't wait any longer. Parker is already on staff so it would be hard for Jack to say no"?

They had to do something quick once the Ludwig thing fell apart. The hire had to be made in a matter of days regardless who it was.

Hiring GG at QB Coach was a key component, though.

 

[irishff1014]

Mike Berardino ruffled Freeman’s feathers today. I haven’t seen Freeman get mad like that before.

Then he said to the tune of let’s interview a guy and we don’t want anyone to know. This was about the hockey game.

Well you are the one trying to keep everything highly classified information.

 

[bumpdaddy]

Mike Berardino ruffled Freeman’s feathers today. I haven’t seen Freeman get mad like that before.

Then he said to the tune of let’s interview a guy and we don’t want anyone to know. This was about the hockey game.

Well you are the one trying to keep everything highly classified information.

I don't think he ruffled his feathers at all, or to the extent that he was a little fired up about the question, he wasn't fired up at Berandino. He was fired up about the perception surrounding everyone seeing Ludwig at the hockey game. I think Freeman was itching for an opportunity to address that particular "you don't bring an OC candidate on campus and publicly parade him around if you aren't sure that you will be landing him" talking point that has been prevalent. MF wanted to make it clear that he believes publicly parading a potential coach around is no different than taking recruits to a hockey game knowing that they might end up saying no to ND too. He thinks doing so with potential coaches is fine and if they don't end up at ND that should also be fine.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think a lot of what MF said today was positive spin and was to be expected. I don't think there was any way that MF would have done anything other than say that ND leadership handled the hiring process the right way and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, so ultimately, I think most of the things we thought before today's PC about what happened are still likely true. MF just wanted to do everything he could to say the entire process was handled properly and they ended up with the best guy possible, so addressing Bernadino's comment about the hockey game photo was a big part of doing that.

 

[Te'o4Heisman]

I don't think he ruffled his feathers at all, or to the extent that he was a little fired up about the question, he wasn't fired up at Berandino. He was fired up about the perception surrounding everyone seeing Ludwig at the hockey game. I think Freeman was itching for an opportunity to address that particular "you don't bring an OC candidate on campus and publicly parade him around if you aren't sure that you will be landing him" talking point that has been prevalent. MF wanted to make it clear that he believes publicly parading a potential coach around is no different than taking recruits to a hockey game knowing that they might end up saying no to ND too. He thinks doing so with potential coaches is fine and if they don't end up at ND that should also be fine.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think a lot of what MF said today was positive spin and was to be expected. I don't think there was any way that MF would have done anything other than say that ND leadership handled the hiring process the right way and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, so ultimately, I think most of the things we thought before today's PC about what happened are still likely true. MF just wanted to do everything he could to say the entire process was handled properly and they ended up with the best guy possible, so addressing Bernadino's comment about the hockey game photo was a big part of doing that.

Quite honestly Freemans response about the hockey game actually made a lot of sense. You shoot your shot knowing you wont win them all but not being afraid to fail more than you are afraid of not giving it your best effort.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Quite honestly Freemans response about the hockey game actually made a lot of sense. You shoot your shot knowing you wont win them all but not being afraid to fail more than you are afraid of not giving it your best effort.

If it made sense, you would see a lot of other head coaches doing it. There’s a reason that they don’t.

 

[bumpdaddy]

Quite honestly Freemans response about the hockey game actually made a lot of sense. You shoot your shot knowing you wont win them all but not being afraid to fail more than you are afraid of not giving it your best effort.

Yeah, I think it makes some sense but not totally. I mean, it's not like he paraded Klein around for photo ops when he was on campus. Also, I still think they thought they were going to land Ludwig and I think Ludwig had given them plenty of reason to think that by the time they all showed up at the hockey game. If MF had been any more unsure I don't think he takes him to the hockey game.

Ultimately, I don't think a 58-year-old veteran coach is going to be in awe of the atmosphere at ND or is in need of being awed like a recruit is.

 

[Te'o4Heisman]

If it made sense, you would see a lot of other head coaches doing it. There’s a reason that they don’t.

Really? How is it any different than having it be public knowledge you are interviewing a coach, which literally happens in almost every coach search that takes place. Everybody knows who you are courting. What difference does it make it you take them to a hockey game or not.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Really? How is it any different than having it be public knowledge you are interviewing a coach, which literally happens in almost every coach search that takes place. Everybody knows who you are courting. What difference does it make it you take them to a hockey game or not.

Again, then why don’t other coaches do it. Because of the fallout when things don’t work out. Maybe MF will be the Guinea pig and perceptions will change in the future. In the meantime MFhas to deal with the fallout.

 

[FWIrish4]

Again, then why don’t other coaches do it. Because of the fallout when things don’t work out. Maybe MF will be the Guinea pig and perceptions will change in the future. In the meantime MFhas to deal with the fallout.

Well Alabama, Georgia and Clemson don’t have D1 hockey teams so…

 

[PANDFAN]

If it made sense, you would see a lot of other head coaches doing it. There’s a reason that they don’t.

ND shopping down a different aisle

 

[Irishdrunk]

Quite honestly Freemans response about the hockey game actually made a lot of sense. You shoot your shot knowing you wont win them all but not being afraid to fail more than you are afraid of not giving it your best effort.

Except the facts already reported and Swarbrick email to the donors belies the real truth.

Still spin on this pathetic shot show.

 

[Irishdrunk]

ND shopping down a different aisle

🤣🤣🤣

 

[irishff1014]

Really? How is it any different than having it be public knowledge you are interviewing a coach, which literally happens in almost every coach search that takes place. Everybody knows who you are courting. What difference does it make it you take them to a hockey game or not.

I do understand Freeman’s point to a degree. But why is everything a secret to the Irish media when you know you are gonna be out and about with coaches showing them how great this place is?

I know what I saw and it’s beyond beautiful. But I would imagine being in all the buildings is icing on the cake.

 

[irishog77]

Was there even a men’s hockey game, at home, when Klein was in town? Maybe MF doesn’t take all the candidates out to hockey games for the simple fact that there aren’t hockey games every night.
Maybe Klein didn’t go to a hockey game because he hates hockey. Or because he could only make in town for one night?
Some of y’all are acting like you’ve never interviewed somebody for a job, or been interviewed yourselves.
Most job interviews, attended by people with actual jobs, usually require a give and take on scheduling and logistics by both parties.

I’ve been very critical of MF in this entire process. But his response to the hockey game totally made sense to me. Why not take him? Because he’s scared “something” may be perceived as bad about it by a bunch of fat ass reporters? MF has been very vocal on selling ND and highlighting its uniqueness. The hockey game is a selling point. It’s not like there’s a ton to parade around about South Bend, Indiana. It’s not like taking Ludwig to dinner at Barnaby’s would have sold him on the job, what with all their sophisticated menu options and stellar beer choices.

Knock MF and criticize MF for several things in this process. Don’t knock him for taking a dude to the hockey game though.

 

[Irishdrunk]

I just watched the presser and it looks like Marcus has gained about 10 pounds. Probably stress weight.

He didn’t look comfortable up there, and he was clearly helping swore back out. He got agitated with Michael Bernardino‘s question his answer really didn’t make any sense.

Everyone knows that Swarbrick balked at the buyout, which contributed to the Utah coach backing out.

As Podcaster John Kennedy said on Akways Irish podcast today. What the hell was Marcus Freeman going to do if he wasn’t gonna quit? Of course, Marcus was not going to quit, but he obviously has to cover up for the athletic Director which he tried to do.

In my opinion, Marcus did not look great today, but with obvious good reason.

Also, Marcus really doesn’t want to comment on the offense in any specificity at all which underscores a lack of confidence in discussing his offensive vision. One question asked how the office can improve over last years in office and he didn’t want to discuss that question or that answer which is very concerning.

 

[Irishdrunk]

Was there even a men’s hockey game, at home, when Klein was in town? Maybe MF doesn’t take all the candidates out to hockey games for the simple fact that there aren’t hockey games every night.
Maybe Klein didn’t go to a hockey game because he hates hockey. Or because he could only make in town for one night?
Some of y’all are acting like you’ve never interviewed somebody for a job, or been interviewed yourselves.
Most job interviews, attended by people with actual jobs, usually require a give and take on scheduling and logistics by both parties.

I’ve been very critical of MF in this entire process. But his response to the hockey game totally made sense to me. Why not take him? Because he’s scared “something” may be perceived as bad about it by a bunch of fat ass reporters? MF has been very vocal on selling ND and highlighting its uniqueness. The hockey game is a selling point. It’s not like there’s a ton to parade around about South Bend, Indiana. It’s not like taking Ludwig to dinner at Barnaby’s would have sold him on the job, what with all their sophisticated menu options and stellar beer choices.

Knock MF and criticize MF for several things in this process. Don’t knock him for taking a dude to the hockey game though.

IrishHog

They saw flies in the facts that we already know. Even Swarbrick’s letter discussed how there was some balking at paying the buyout in the beginning.

Marcus was not being completely candid in the press conference and that’s what coaches have to do to protect their athletic Director who hires them and pays their salary. This is Swarbrick’s program not Marcus’s.

 

[irishog77]

IrishHog

They saw flies in the facts that we already know. Even Swarbrick’s letter discussed how there was some balking at paying the buyout in the beginning.

Marcus was not being completely candid in the press conference and that’s what coaches have to do to protect their athletic Director who hires them and pays their salary. This is Swarbrick’s program not Marcus’s.

So was there a home men’s hockey game when Klein was in town?

 

[Irishdrunk]

I think you will hear less off hand remarks form Marcus about OSU in the future. I bet the possibility of being at OSU or some other major program's Head Coach just got a wee bit more attractive in the last week. He looked awful in that presser - and for good reason.

If Freeman gets 3 or less losses this year he will get some serious interview opportunities. I gotta think TAMU, OSU, FSU, FL, PSU and Michigan are all possible within the next 1- 3 years. All of these programs are vastly more committed to Nattys than we are.