Marcus Freeman named Dick Corbett Head Football Coach

[Irishdrunk]

What are we even talking about here?

Freeman’s not getting fired any time soon. Parker sure might (probably should if things don’t improve).

But unless Freeman throws himself in front of the train to save his third?-choice OC who turned out to not be ready for the job, he’ll effectively get a re-do at OC. Maybe with more money to spend.

And that’s fine.

Add Coach O or Urban to the OC and call it a day….

 

[Irish#1]

Get back to me when you’ve been through Faust, Davie & Willingham.

At least you didn’t experience Kuharich.

 

[MacIrish75]

I’ll be interested to see how an AD who played football at ND translates. Bevacqua isn’t likely going to be as acceptable of mediocrity as Jack has been at times.

 

[DillonHall]

Need coaching upgrades for safety, OL, and LBs. Or just someone to teach the defensive players how to tackle instead of aimlessly running right by the ball carrier. Looks like a Big 12 team out there at times

 

[Kingbish01]

If MF goes 9-4, 9-4, and 9-4....I'd bet he's fired...especially with a new AD coming in wanting to look for "his guy"

 

[DillonHall]

If MF goes 9-4, 9-4, and 9-4....I'd bet he's fired...especially with a new AD coming in wanting to look for "his guy"

He's gonna get at least 4 years unless something unexpected happens off the field

 

[Kingbish01]

He's gonna get at least 4 years unless something unexpected happens off the field

I kinda hope he gets 4...but I've lost a lot of confidence in him as I'm sure many have. His sideline demeanor and that stupid face (you all know what I'm talking about) he makes is wearing thin.

 

[Irish#1]

It's literally the point of message boards. When you stink you talk about players and coaches that need to be benched/fired/etc.

When you are really good, you're focusing on how you're going to crush the next opponent and how you'll fair against teams in the CFP that most likely will be in.

I don't get how you expect an ND football message board to not constantly be talking about what's happening right now with ND football, and that's clearly terrible coaching?

I may be off but IMO I think NDO’s point might be that the same points are being made over and over.

 

[DillonHall]

I kinda hope he gets 4...but I've lost a lot of confidence in him as I'm sure many have. His sideline demeanor and that stupid face (you all know what I'm talking about) he makes is wearing thin.

Yeah I'm right with you. But the University knows better than to fire another Black coach after only 3 years. It is what it is

 

[IrishLion]

BK already had a track record before that horrible season. What do we have thus far? Certainly nothing to write home about.

I don't recall any 10 men on the field incidents or 4 and 16 going for it with 10 minutes on the game or passing with the game in hand with 3 minutes left.

I’ll see your “10 men on the field” and raise you countless “Delay of Game to Start a Drive” or “Burning a Real Timeout Right After A Media Timeout” instances.

Going on 4th and 16 was bad. BK made plenty of bad game management decisions, like going for 2 against Northwestern, which directly cost ND a win.

Passing with the game in hand? TULSA.

Go outside, nerd

 

[Giddyup]

Yeah I'm right with you. But the University knows better than to fire another Black coach after only 3 years. It is what it is

Oh god. So lame. They hired him with no experience. Bet he feels glad you’re helping him out based on his skin color tho.

 

[T-Boone]

He should try to get Archie manning to transfer in and fix our QB situation. What ever happened to Archie manning?

 

[Giddyup]

Arch Manning is the backup at Texas

 

[DillonHall]

Oh god. So lame. They hired him with no experience. Bet he feels glad you’re helping him out based on his skin color tho.

Before you get your panties in a bunch, I'm a minority too and would LOVE to see Marcus succeed at ND. I'm just not so sure he will anymore

It's an uncomfortable truth, but they're not going to want to deal with Willingham-style controversy again. I don't think Freeman will be stupid like Ty and accuse ND of racism, but it's an ugly mark on the University that was highly publicized at the time. Fortunately, the University has worked hard to improve diversity within the student body the past 10 years.

 

[stlnd01]

Even aside from the racial optics, firing your head coach in three years - barring gross incompetence, which this season is not, really - is just a bad idea for program stability. Especially at a program that needs to be stable to thrive.

Unless we somehow go 3-9 against next year's (very soft) schedule Freeman will get at least four years. As he should.

 

[FOTY977]

If MF goes 9-4, 9-4, and 9-4....I'd bet he's fired...especially with a new AD coming in wanting to look for "his guy"

Curious what evidence you’ve seen at how ND/admin/BoT has handled football lately that makes you think they would actual fire him after 3x 9-4 seasons.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I don't think you can simply look at record when evaluating Freeman.

For him to stay past year 3, there doesn't just need to be tangible evidence that the program is moving forward, but that Freeman is becoming a better head coach. I felt he was making progress early in the year, but these last 3 weeks have given me major pause.

This isn't a well coached team. That's what is shocking to me. Freeman, for whatever reason, does not have these guys locked in, and it seems like it's a weekly occurrence. Yes, the playcalling has been abysmal lately, but it's more than just that. Execution, dumb penalties, guys not knowing where they need to be, it's all over the place.

It's not that this team is 5-2, it's that this team should be 7-0 right now, but poor coaching and poor discipline is the reason why they lost 2 very winnable games and came close to losing a third.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Even aside from the racial optics, firing your head coach in three years - barring gross incompetence, which this season is not, really - is just a bad idea for program stability. Especially at a program that needs to be stable to thrive.

Unless we somehow go 3-9 against next year's (very soft) schedule Freeman will get at least four years. As he should.

Comes down to expectations of the program. Do we want to be Penn State, to me that right now seems to be the best case scenario (not acceptable to me), or do we want to be a contender most years.

Franklins career started out with 2 blah seasons then since then its been a mixture of blah, solid, and good. Nothing Great. Feels like that's our path with freeman.

 

[Giddyup]

Before you get your panties in a bunch, I'm a minority too and would LOVE to see Marcus succeed at ND. I'm just not so sure he will anymore

It's an uncomfortable truth, but they're not going to want to deal with Willingham-style controversy again. I don't think Freeman will be stupid like Ty and accuse ND of racism, but it's an ugly mark on the University that was highly publicized at the time. Fortunately, the University has worked hard to improve diversity within the student body the past 10 years.

I appreciate your position. I get there’s racism of all forms, it’s an unfortunate fact. I’d like to get to that judging people on the content of their character dream eventually is all I’m saying but I know that’s not popular at this time. Someday. Anyway I’ve derailed this thread enough.

 

[Giddyup]

I think Freeman should get his five years too to figure it out barring just a complete disaster in yr 3, 4

 

[stlnd01]

Comes down to expectations of the program. Do we want to be Penn State, to me that right now seems to be the best case scenario (not acceptable to me), or do we want to be a contender most years.

Franklins career started out with 2 blah seasons then since then its been a mixture of blah, solid, and good. Nothing Great. Feels like that's our path with freeman.

I guess I don’t think Notre Dame can get from “good” to “great” with the sort of coach change/roster overhaul that USC and LSU (to name two examples) have tried recently. Not with our current stance towards transfers and NIL anyway. We need to build through recruiting and development. That means we need to give a coach time to do that. That means four years, to me anyway.

Freeman’s doing pretty well with the recruiting. Development is an open question. Game-day coaching is not good enough. Obviously we all want to see improvement on the latter two categories. But I don’t think we can really do the quick-fix route, and the costs/risks of a coaching change are not something to rush into.

 

[Kingbish01]

Curious what evidence you’ve seen at how ND/admin/BoT has handled football lately that makes you think they would actual fire him after 3x 9-4 seasons.

Balki basically took the words out of my mouth. My father always use to say "talk is cheap" and MF is great at talking the talk, but as of right now (even thinking back to Fiesta Bowl) he's not been a great coach. Yes it hurts that he got stuck with Parker. No brand new HC with zero experience should ever have a coordinator with less experience. I don't remember who said it, but it was a good line....its really starting to look like "MF got hired at ND a decade to early".

 

[Katzenboyer]

If MF goes 9-4, 9-4, and 9-4....I'd bet he's fired...especially with a new AD coming in wanting to look for "his guy"

There is absolutely ZERO chance that this will happen.

Not only would the optics be horrendous (and face it, ND cares about stuff like that), but it would be silly. ND would lack any ability to attract any top-tier coaching candidates if Freeman ever loses his job after three 9-win seasons.

Go ask Nebraska how it worked out after they canned Bo Pelini for not being "good enough."

 

[Huntr]

Yes it hurts that he got stuck with Parker.

He didn't get stuck with shit.

He chose Parker after he got screwed on Ludwig.

 

[Kingbish01]

He didn't get stuck with shit.

He chose Parker after he got screwed on Ludwig.

If you choose Pizza because you got screwed on a steak. Wouldn't you agree that you kinda got stuck with pizza?

 

[Katzenboyer]

Balki basically took the words out of my mouth. My father always use to say "talk is cheap" and MF is great at talking the talk, but as of right now (even thinking back to Fiesta Bowl) he's not been a great coach. Yes it hurts that he got stuck with Parker. No brand new HC with zero experience should ever have a coordinator with less experience. I don't remember who said it, but it was a good line....its really starting to look like "MF got hired at ND a decade to early".

The last three weeks have been rough, but we shouldn't rush to bury Freeman.

If his biggest mistake is hiring the wrong OC last offseason, and he fixes that mistake this year (while avoiding the wheels coming off the wagon for the remainder of this year), I think he'll do very well here. But this offseason will be huge for him.

 

[jpachuta33]

I know its a loooonnnnggggg shot, but what do you guys think Kliff Kingsbury will do after this season? Do you think he would be an OC again at the college level? I think he would be OC if he was the top / one of the top coordinators paid in college football.

Obviously money talks, but we all know Notre Dame is like the cheapskate Uncle from the movie Home Alone...

 

[Lberry]

There is absolutely ZERO chance that this will happen.

Not only would the optics be horrendous (and face it, ND cares about stuff like that), but it would be silly. ND would lack any ability to attract any top-tier coaching candidates if Freeman ever loses his job after three 9-win seasons.

Go ask Nebraska how it worked out after they canned Bo Pelini for not being "good enough."

Way to shoot for the middle. ND has to have more self respect for itself than 95% of its fans do for it.

 

[Huntr]

If you choose Pizza because you got screwed on a steak. Wouldn't you agree that you kinda got stuck with pizza?

Not if there are a bunch if other choices I could have made and pizza was the worst of them.

 

[Katzenboyer]

He didn't get stuck with shit.

He chose Parker after he got screwed on Ludwig.

Didn't he also try and get Klein, and Klein effectively told him no?

Who else was out there that could have been hired? I don't recall the timing of things, but it seems like most of the worthy candidates had been secured elsewhere at that time (and turning to Parker came about because, well, Freeman thought Ludwig was in the bag until the ND admin said no).