Marcus Freeman named Dick Corbett Head Football Coach

[forkbeard3777]

This stuff is part of the job. Especially when you’re starting out in it. Maybe a few exceptions like the White House dinner, but most of this is work trips.

Hopefully he paid Justin Scott a visit after throwing out the first pitch at the White Sox game.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I dont know two pages of TLDR and crazy’s name always registers to me as Crazy Ball Licky. Oh shit here come the pop up adds with moaning and tight dick filled undies.

Leave my cousin out of this.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

This guy has max fit no matter what. He could be wearing rags and he'd still look like $1 million.

 

[PutuporShutup]

This guy has max fit no matter what. He could be wearing rags and he'd still look like $1 million.

Dudes embracing life and coaching to the fullest!! Just need to frichan kick butt this year on the field and get this program to explode!

 

[Irishdrunk]

Dudes embracing life and coaching to the fullest!! Just need to frichan kick butt this year on the field and get this program to explode!

It would be great if like a marriage: "Sometimes, it all works out..."

 

[IrishLax]

Branding is a solid 25% of the job. You need a brand that resonates with players/recruits (not optional if you want to have success attracting talent), fans (less mandatory but still preferred by your boss who cares about making money and having happy donors), and the media (least important but can have positive impacts for you in the long run).

The offseason is the only time to focus on the "off the field" and we should be thrilled that Freeman is so visible in a positive way. Most ND coaches of the past few decades would be vacationing or working on their short game.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

The man has charisma.

Now take us to the promised land and our boards will be flowing with milk and honey.

And I'm going to teabag a number of posters currently on my ignore list.

 

[Irish#1]

How can you not be a fan of this guy? I love this dude.

 

[Kingbish01]

I watch a lot of UGA games when they don't conflict with ND. Freeman and Smart have a ton in common. Kirby is 100% better on the sideline at getting his team jacked...but I take that as Freeman is still nervous about the big stage and the ND microscope. Let Freeman get fully comfortable and win some big games...and ND may be a juggernaut sooner than we all think. You put Hartman on NDs last 10 teams, and I think you have a Natty or 2. Can't get much closer, and MF has elevated recruiting.

 

[BoredIrish]

This guy has max fit no matter what. He could be wearing rags and he'd still look like $1 million.

MF... Nike swoosh... Jordan's #.

ND apparel deal = done deal.

 

[NDdomer2]

How can you not be a fan of this guy? I love this dude.

Well, excluding losses to Marshall and Stanford of course, he's great.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Well, excluding losses to Marshall and Stanford of course, he's great.

Yeah…. I want to really really like him, but on field performance is the most important in my liking formula. We are set up for to be darn good this year

 

[Irishdrunk]

So would you rather have an 8-4 MF or a 10-2 BK?

 

[NDQuebec]

Really?

Blaming the guy who recruited pretty much the entirety of the roster that comprised the 2022 team is a "reach to be polite".

Forgive me if I say that is complete and utter bullshit.

Like seriously, did you even read any of my prior comments?

I went into detail on this already. The reason ND didn't lose to Toledo or FSU or Virginia Tech is because ND had Jack Coan and Kyle Hamilton. Period. No debate.

Freeman didn't have an option to go after a Jack Coan in 2022. There wasn't one. Our inebriated friend may argue there was, but he's yet to provide a name. Coan bailed Kelly out of what appeared to be sure-fire losses to Toledo and Virginia Tech. Kyle Hamilton had several key plays that kept ND from collapsing on opening day against FSU. That was the different between 11-1 and 8-4, not Kelly's brilliant coaching. It was also a FAR easier schedule in 2021 than 2022. Again, no debate. ND's best wins that year were Wisconsin, Purdue and Toledo. So two middling Big Ten west teams and a middle of the pack MAC squad they should've lost to had Toledo just sat on the ball.

Why is it a reach to blame the guy who failed to adequately recruit the LB corp to the point where we had limited options given how horrible the LB play was early on in '22? Why is it a reach to blame him for how shoddy the safety group was? Why is it a reach to blame him for us having, what? 4 scholarship receivers to start the year in '22? Why is it a reach to blame him for us having no option other than Drew Pyne to start behind Buchner? He and Long could've gone after several other more talented and higher potential QB's, but chose to stick with Pyne. Not Freeman. Kelly.

So yeah. I'm gonna say it's NOT a reach.

Thanks for enlightening us. Now we all know that it's Kelly's fault that Notre Dame lost to Marshall and Stanford. That is surely due to Kelly's recruits having inferior talent to both teams. Can you enlighten us more by telling us when losing to inferior teams will no longer be Kelly's fault? This year? Next year? What a bunch of hogwash.

Freeman might become a great coach, nobody knows yet. But he made a few newbie errors so far, which is normal for a new head coach with zero head coaching experience. He will surely learn from them. But to place the blame for the losses to Marshall and Stanford solely on Kelly and absolving Freeman of all blame is just plain silly, or, as you say, complete and utter bullshit.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Hogwash. Bullshit.

Must be June.

 

[ulukinatme]

So would you rather have an 8-4 MF or a 10-2 BK?

I doubt BK would have gone 10-2 last year. He lost to Florida State last season with more talent than he had when we played them the previous year and won in overtime. He also lost to A&M, got crushed by Tennessee and Georgia. There's a reason he bailed last year, he saw the writing on the wall offensively when we had to get so many freshmen to play in 2021. He knew there would be struggles as more guys like Hamilton and Coan would be gone with lesser talent backing them up due to his poor recruiting with Long in '19 and '20.

 

[NDMatt91]

I doubt BK would have gone 10-2 last year. He lost to Florida State last season with more talent than he had when we played them the previous year and won in overtime. He also lost to A&M, got crushed by Tennessee and Georgia. There's a reason he bailed last year, he saw the writing on the wall offensively when we had to get so many freshmen to play in 2021. He knew there would be struggles as more guys like Hamilton and Coan would be gone with lesser talent backing them up due to his poor recruiting with Long in '19 and '20.

I think the only change BK would've made was bringing in another grad transfer QB, probably J.T. Daniels or Slovis. I believe Jayden Daniels was a grad transfer so it's possible he could've looked at ND as well.

 

[PutuporShutup]

I doubt BK would have gone 10-2 last year. He lost to Florida State last season with more talent than he had when we played them the previous year and won in overtime. He also lost to A&M, got crushed by Tennessee and Georgia. There's a reason he bailed last year, he saw the writing on the wall offensively when we had to get so many freshmen to play in 2021. He knew there would be struggles as more guys like Hamilton and Coan would be gone with lesser talent backing them up due to his poor recruiting with Long in '19 and '20.

We didn't play FSU last year and we beat them in 2021. FSU last year was significantly better than Stanford and Marshall.

ND was significantly more talented than Stanford and Marshall. I would have expected we win those games and have two tough tight games vs Clemson and USC winning one but not blowing one out. In the end we go 10-2. Typical Kelly season since 2017.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Winning is important. HOW you win is also important. At least to me it is.

Hearing this guy talk and listening to what he's all about, I want him to succeed because if he wins he's going to win with the "how" and do it right.

Hopefully Marshall and Stanford are long behind us.

 

[ulukinatme]

We didn't play FSU last year and we beat them in 2021. FSU last year was significantly better than Stanford and Marshall.

ND was significantly more talented than Stanford and Marshall. I would have expected we win those games and have two tough tight games vs Clemson and USC winning one but not blowing one out. In the end we go 10-2. Typical Kelly season since 2017.

I wouldn't say we had significantly more talent over Stanford, not at all positions. Tanner McKee threw for 1000 yards more than Pyne did last year. They also had a WR go over 300 yards, a few actually. They didn't have a strong running game, but they also didn't have any fumbles or turnovers in that game like we had. Pyne passed for 100 yards if you take away the one big play to Merriweather, it was an average of 5.6 yards a completion still. We made a lot of mistakes outside of the Estime fumble. We shouldn't have been giving the ball to Tyree between the tackles so many times, he was getting 3.1 yards a carry while Estime and Diggs were getting 7.1 and 6.3 respectively. We needed more production from our WRs. At the end of the day the two turnovers cost us quite a bit, and that's on our guys. I'm not sure how Kelly would have mitigated that.

The Marshall game was a fluke. A lot of Buckeyes from what I saw claimed that victory, and maybe some of that is true. Our boys came out flat after the big game, and Marshall came out prepared. We again lost the turnover battle by -3, one of which was a pick 6 and would have changed the outcome of the game. Again, the players made those mistakes, and I'm not sure what Kelly would have done differently to prevent those 3 INTs.

You forget that Kelly had his own problems in 2021, especially the first 6 games of the season. He nearly lost that Toledo game, and that was with Coan, Kyren, Hamilton. You talk about significantly more talent, what about Cincinnati? They weren't good enough for the playoffs, but they got there because of a win over the Irish. That was a winnable game, Cincinnati had no business coming into South Bend and walking away with a win.

Point is Kelly knew he had some problems after 2021, and he wouldn't have a Coan to bail him out. It was going to be a young offense that was going to make mistakes and have some deficiencies. It's one of the reasons he bailed, he knew his stock was not going to improve after 2022. You can't say with certainty that Kelly pulls that team to 10-2 when he was the one that dropped the ball to begin with in recruiting that offense with Long. He's a big reason lots of Rees' first class had to start in '21 and '22 instead of upperclassmen.

 

[ulukinatme]

I think the only change BK would've made was bringing in another grad transfer QB, probably J.T. Daniels or Slovis. I believe Jayden Daniels was a grad transfer so it's possible he could've looked at ND as well.

Neither Daniels nor Slovis played better than Pyne, both were more turnover prone and produced less scores. I'm not sure how bringing either in would have changed much even if their play improved with better talent around them.
Jayden Daniels would have been an upgrade to Pyne or Buchner, but lets be real...between LSU and ND which school was he always going to pick?

 

[Irishdrunk]

I doubt BK would have gone 10-2 last year. He lost to Florida State last season with more talent than he had when we played them the previous year and won in overtime. He also lost to A&M, got crushed by Tennessee and Georgia. There's a reason he bailed last year, he saw the writing on the wall offensively when we had to get so many freshmen to play in 2021. He knew there would be struggles as more guys like Hamilton and Coan would be gone with lesser talent backing them up due to his poor recruiting with Long in '19 and '20.

Um he left for $100MM at a program whose admin is serious about winning. MF took over a Pre Season #5 team. There was no writing on the wall other than a less than supportive BOT and Admin.

 

[ulukinatme]

Um he left for $100MM at a program whose admin is serious about winning. MF took over a Pre Season #5 team. There was no writing on the wall other than a less than supportive BOT and Admin.

We were in no way a #5 team last year, that much is sure. We were lucky to finish 18th honestly. Three of our wins came by a single score, Cal, Navy, and BYU. You could probably put North Carolina down there too, as Pyne had one of his best games against an awful defense which allowed us to pull away from a team that had a lot more weapons on offense. I won't argue about LSU being more serious about winning, but if you're the head coach at ND in 2021, you can easily see how your team limped through the first half of 2021. Knowing you're going to be starting even more underclassmen in 2022, and you know there will be more growing pains...your stock will be dropping. If BK wants out, waiting another year hurts his value.

 

[Katzenboyer]

We were in no way a #5 team last year, that much is sure. We were lucky to finish 18th honestly. Three of our wins came by a single score, Cal, Navy, and BYU. You could probably put North Carolina down there too, as Pyne had one of his best games against an awful defense which allowed us to pull away from a team that had a lot more weapons on offense. I won't argue about LSU being more serious about winning, but if you're the head coach at ND in 2021, you can easily see how your team limped through the first half of 2021. Knowing you're going to be starting even more underclassmen in 2022, and you know there will be more growing pains...your stock will be dropping. If BK wants out, waiting another year hurts his value.

I hate wading into this debate because I view it as pointless, but LSU beat a bad Auburn team by 4, a bad Arkansas team by 3, and a bad Florida team by 10 - and also got handed their ass by a bad A&M team.

These things cut both ways is all I'm sayin'.

 

[ulukinatme]

I hate wading into this debate because I view it as pointless, but LSU beat a bad Auburn team by 4, a bad Arkansas team by 3, and a bad Florida team by 10 - and also got handed their ass by a bad A&M team.

These things cut both ways is all I'm sayin'.

Exactly. BK had a great run from 2017-2021, but things were trending toward a season of rebuilding. This is especially true how we struggled in his last season and had some favorable matchups against some poor defenses to close out that regular season. That said, given his own coaching struggles at LSU, there's no guarantee he would have salvaged the Marshall and Stanford games given the talent we had available. Maybe some playcalling changes could have changed those outcomes, but the turnovers still happened and put us in a hole in both games.

 

[PutuporShutup]

I wouldn't say we had significantly more talent over Stanford, not at all positions. Tanner McKee threw for 1000 yards more than Pyne did last year. They also had a WR go over 300 yards, a few actually. They didn't have a strong running game, but they also didn't have any fumbles or turnovers in that game like we had. Pyne passed for 100 yards if you take away the one big play to Merriweather, it was an average of 5.6 yards a completion still. We made a lot of mistakes outside of the Estime fumble. We shouldn't have been giving the ball to Tyree between the tackles so many times, he was getting 3.1 yards a carry while Estime and Diggs were getting 7.1 and 6.3 respectively. We needed more production from our WRs. At the end of the day the two turnovers cost us quite a bit, and that's on our guys. I'm not sure how Kelly would have mitigated that.

The Marshall game was a fluke. A lot of Buckeyes from what I saw claimed that victory, and maybe some of that is true. Our boys came out flat after the big game, and Marshall came out prepared. We again lost the turnover battle by -3, one of which was a pick 6 and would have changed the outcome of the game. Again, the players made those mistakes, and I'm not sure what Kelly would have done differently to prevent those 3 INTs.

You forget that Kelly had his own problems in 2021, especially the first 6 games of the season. He nearly lost that Toledo game, and that was with Coan, Kyren, Hamilton. You talk about significantly more talent, what about Cincinnati? They weren't good enough for the playoffs, but they got there because of a win over the Irish. That was a winnable game, Cincinnati had no business coming into South Bend and walking away with a win.

Point is Kelly knew he had some problems after 2021, and he wouldn't have a Coan to bail him out. It was going to be a young offense that was going to make mistakes and have some deficiencies. It's one of the reasons he bailed, he knew his stock was not going to improve after 2022. You can't say with certainty that Kelly pulls that team to 10-2 when he was the one that dropped the ball to begin with in recruiting that offense with Long. He's a big reason lots of Rees' first class had to start in '21 and '22 instead of upperclassmen.

21 Cincy was a very talented team, a number of players doing well in the nfl from that team already

 

[ulukinatme]

21 Cincy was a very talented team, a number of players doing well in the nfl from that team already

They were a good team, but certainly not a playoff caliber team. As a broken team we hung with them for most the game despite giving them some easy turnovers. They were good, but if we weren't such a mess in the beginning of 2021 Cincinnati would have had no business beating us at home.

 

[NDQuebec]

I hate wading into this debate because I view it as pointless, but LSU beat a bad Auburn team by 4, a bad Arkansas team by 3, and a bad Florida team by 10 - and also got handed their ass by a bad A&M team.

These things cut both ways is all I'm sayin'.

I also view it as pointless, but don't accept the statement that ND lost to Stanford and Marshall because of Kelly. That is what irks me the most. Ask any reporter on this site or any coach in the NCAA if it was Kelly's fault. And a few posts above, someone had the gall to imply that our talent was not significantly better than Stanford's. That is pure folly.

All that to say that I agree that things cut both ways. What I strongly disagree with is blaming Kelly for the losses to Marshall and Stanford.

As to what Kelly did at LSU, I really can't be bothered. But since you waded into the debate, I should mention that you omitted to mention that they beat Alabama and that they at least beat the other three teams you mentioned. I am quite sure that those teams are better than Stanford and Marshall. I really like Freeman, but it's ok to say that he screwed the pooch a few times last year because of growing pains. I am sure that he would be the first to admit it. No matter who the team is, 99% of first year head coaches will have a few whoopsies.

 

[ulukinatme]

I also view it as pointless, but don't accept the statement that ND lost to Stanford and Marshall because of Kelly. That is what irks me the most. Ask any reporters on this site or any coach in the NCAA if it was Kelly's fault. And a few posts above, someone had the gall to imply that our talent was not significantly better than Stanford's. That is pure folly.

All that to say that I agree that things cut both ways. What I strongly disagree with is blaming Kelly for the losses to Marshall and Stanford.

He doesn't take sole blame by any means, but he shares in some of the blame. When you're only scoring 14 points offensively at home and over half your starters are Sophomores and Freshmen...that's a recruiting gap. It was a ball being dropped by Long and BK in those '19 and '20 classes. Experienced, talented upperclassmen don't lose that game.