Marcus Freeman named Dick Corbett Head Football Coach

[Katzenboyer]

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...

Don't think he's a fit, and don't think he's all that great a coordinator. He basically had a couple good years at A&M when he had Manziel (who, despite being a giant douche, is one of the best college players of the last decade), and hasn't done anything since.

 

[Kingbish01]

MF was a lazy hire by JS, at the time I didn't think it was a bad hire at all. But this is ND, it's the big time. Name another company the size of ND that would bring on an inexperienced CEO and CFO? Jack was out, so he phoned it in. I'm not sure the new AD won't try to make a splash hire if MF keeps losing the way he is. ND should be 4-3 right now, things 100% are not going great. Clemson and USC both could really torpedo this Sam Hartman season, and if that happens they will have literally not beaten anyone except the teams they should have.

 

[Katzenboyer]

MF was a lazy hire by JS, at the time I didn't think it was a bad hire at all. But this is ND, it's the big time. Name another company the size of ND that would bring on an inexperienced CEO and CFO? Jack was out, so he phoned it in. I'm not sure the new AD won't try to make a splash hire if MF keeps losing the way he is. ND should be 4-3 right now, things 100% are not going great. Clemson and USC both could really torpedo this Sam Hartman season, and if that happens they will have literally not beaten anyone except the teams they should have.

Yeah, you're just wrong about this.

Which "company the size of ND" would make a similar hire? Ryan Day was promoted to HC from OC. Lincoln Riley the same. Kirby Smart had no head coaching experience before Georgia hired him. Happens all the time, with success.

It wasn't a lazy hire, and the hysterics on this board are getting to be a little much.

 

[IrishSpartan]

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"

Shaun Davis that you?

 

[NDMatt91]

MF was a lazy hire by JS, at the time I didn't think it was a bad hire at all. But this is ND, it's the big time. Name another company the size of ND that would bring on an inexperienced CEO and CFO? Jack was out, so he phoned it in. I'm not sure the new AD won't try to make a splash hire if MF keeps losing the way he is. ND should be 4-3 right now, things 100% are not going great. Clemson and USC both could really torpedo this Sam Hartman season, and if that happens they will have literally not beaten anyone except the teams they should have.

A lazy hire was Brian Kelly not having a serious nation-wide search for a OC and waddling his fat ass 10 feet down the hall to knock on Rees' door and promote him.

 

[Katzenboyer]

A lazy hire was Brian Kelly not having a serious nation-wide search for a OC and waddling his fat ass 10 feet down the hall to knock on Rees' door and promote him.

Jeff Quinn and BVG, as well.

 

[PutuporShutup]

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.

Spring, summer, fall is where you build the culture and coaching to not make moronic penalties. The same time you build your execution of your core plays, the same time you teach and become a great tackling team, etc. In season is not when you go from an undisciplined team to disciplined, that rarely happens in season. In season isn't where you go from a bad tackling team to a good one. In season isn't when you learn how to execute and run your core offensive plays.

It feels like they're struggling as a staff having to go back and re coach things that should have already been done vs install this weeks game plan. They need multiple practices to frichan sort out third/fourth and short. They need many many physical practices to teach how to tackle. The need constant repetition to not false start or jump offsides. There isn't the time to do this from game to game, unless individuals learn it or figure it out themselves.

This team can improve, and probably still can win the rest of their games (not likely now). But they will almost certainly NEVER be as good as they should have grown to be this year. Not even close, and that's disappointing.

 

[PutuporShutup]

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.

This paragraph substitute Franklin for Freeman and it's what every PSU fan has been saying for 13-14 years. Maybe in year 14 franklin has it figured out and they beat OSU and UM. Doubt it.

 

[PutuporShutup]

A lazy hire was Brian Kelly not having a serious nation-wide search for a OC and waddling his fat ass 10 feet down the hall to knock on Rees' door and promote him.

Kelly was an offensive coach, so he controlled the offense. Freeman is clueless on how to run an offense and needs a stud experienced OC.

BVG is the disaster that was kelly. Lazy hire, and stubborn not to fire.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Swarbrick and Jenkins are moving along. Notre Dame has a young, charismatic head coach that sings the praises of the university's values and opportunity that it provides people. Back this dude and help him carry the football program in the direction college football and American sports culture are going.

There is an opportunity for big change if they want to have it. The time is now. Go Irish, Beat Trojans. We Are ND.

 

[Giddyup]

MF was a lazy hire by JS, at the time I didn't think it was a bad hire at all. But this is ND, it's the big time. Name another company the size of ND that would bring on an inexperienced CEO and CFO? Jack was out, so he phoned it in. I'm not sure the new AD won't try to make a splash hire if MF keeps losing the way he is. ND should be 4-3 right now, things 100% are not going great. Clemson and USC both could really torpedo this Sam Hartman season, and if that happens they will have literally not beaten anyone except the teams they should have.

We could/should be 6-1 too

 

[Giddyup]

A lazy hire was Brian Kelly not having a serious nation-wide search for a OC and waddling his fat ass 10 feet down the hall to knock on Rees' door and promote him.

Ahh, Rees was one of his best hires

 

[Kingbish01]

Yeah, you're just wrong about this.

Which "company the size of ND" would make a similar hire? Ryan Day was promoted to HC from OC. Lincoln Riley the same. Kirby Smart had no head coaching experience before Georgia hired him. Happens all the time, with success.

It wasn't a lazy hire, and the hysterics on this board are getting to be a little much.

We can agree to disagree.

Ryan Day was a coach for 15 years and about to (or did can't remember) head to the NFL before he was hired at OSU. He was acting head coach and didn't lose and then went undefeated his first season. He has 6 losses in 6 years, 1 less than Freeman.

Riley was coming off of two great seasons as OU's OC. He then got the head job at OU and never lost more than 2 games. He's 72-13 has a HC

Kirby was going on 15 year as a coach before landing the HC job. He won championships during his 7 years as DC at Bama. EVERYONE here in GA was waiting and waiting for him to get the UGA job. He has 5 losses in his last 5 seasons

Freeman had 3 strong years as DC at Cincy and has a 14-7 head coaching record so far.

So in my opinion all three of those coaches mentioned were big time up and comers and not lazy hires as they ended up at blue bloods. Do you really think MF would have landed a top 20 college job last year if he never came to ND? Nope he wouldn't have, he'd be the head coach at a place like Ball St. Lazy hire!

If those 3 guys above didn't land their jobs, they all could have ended up HC's at LSU, TX, UF, USC, FLA St, Michigan, so on and so forth.

If Freeman didn't land the job, he'd be a DC at LSU or a DC somewhere else.

 

[dublinirish]

Kelly was an offensive coach, so he controlled the offense. Freeman is clueless on how to run an offense and needs a stud experienced OC.

BVG is the disaster that was kelly. Lazy hire, and stubborn not to fire.

arguably Longo was worse. He had future NFL OL guys who couldnt bench more than punters

 

[Kingbish01]

We could/should be 6-1 too

True but OSU having two plays to bang it in from the 1 was much more likely than Sam running 16 yards. So I'd say they had a 10% chance of being 6-1 instead of an 85% chance of being 4-3

 

[Katzenboyer]

We can agree to disagree.

Ryan Day was a coach for 15 years and about to (or did can't remember) head to the NFL before he was hired at OSU. He was acting head coach and didn't lose and then went undefeated his first season. He has 6 losses in 6 years, 1 less than Freeman.

Riley was coming off of two great seasons as OU's OC. He then got the head job at OU and never lost more than 2 games. He's 72-13 has a HC

Kirby was going on 15 year as a coach before landing the HC job. He won championships during his 7 years as DC at Bama. EVERYONE here in GA was waiting and waiting for him to get the UGA job. He has 5 losses in his last 5 seasons

Freeman had 3 strong years as DC at Cincy and has a 14-7 head coaching record so far.

So in my opinion all three of those coaches mentioned were big time up and comers and not lazy hires as they ended up at blue bloods. Do you really think MF would have landed a top 20 college job last year if he never came to ND? Nope he wouldn't have, he'd be the head coach at a place like Ball St. Lazy hire!

If those 3 guys above didn't land their jobs, they all could have ended up HC's at LSU, TX, UF, USC, FLA St, Michigan, so on and so forth.

If Freeman didn't land the job, he'd be a DC at LSU or a DC somewhere else.

Right, but you said that no organization does what ND did here. They do - including blue bloods OSU, Oklahoma, and Georgia.

And again, you're incorrect about Freeman going to be a DC if he didn't get the ND job. Duke was going to hire him if ND went elsewhere -- that's a known fact.

I get that people aren't happy about where things turned after last weekend, but let's see how things play out.

 

[Katzenboyer]

arguably Longo was worse. He had future NFL OL guys who couldnt bench more than punters

His problem wasn't bringing Longo with him from Cincy. It was that he kept Longo around far longer than the guy was capable of being the head strength coach.

 

[irishff1014]

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"

We all know this would not get him fired. This would get him the the full life of his contract.

So we shall see…..

 

[Kingbish01]

Right, but you said that no organization does what ND did here. They do - including blue bloods OSU, Oklahoma, and Georgia.

And again, you're incorrect about Freeman going to be a DC if he didn't get the ND job. Duke was going to hire him if ND went elsewhere -- that's a known fact.

I get that people aren't happy about where things turned after last weekend, but let's see how things play out.

I didn't know about Duke and I'm still going to ride for MF. But the Duke opportunity kinda proves my point. NO WAY any of the other three coaches ended up at Duke. Even though they didn't have CEO experience they were proven winners and worth a shot at the CEO job. Kirby, Day and Riley would have ended up at OSU, OU, UGA, TX, Fla St, Michigan, USC, UF, Ole Miss, A&M or any other big time program needing a HC

If we had Kirby, Day or Riley....We'd be playing for a natty this year.

 

[Katzenboyer]

I didn't know about Duke and I'm still going to ride for MF. But the Duke opportunity kinda proves my point. NO WAY any of the other three coaches ended up at Duke. Even though they didn't have CEO experience they were proven winners and worth a shot at the CEO job. Kirby, Day and Riley would have ended up at OSU, OU, UGA, TX, Fla St, Michigan, USC, UF, Ole Miss, A&M or any other big time program needing a job.

Fair enough. But your categorization of it being a lazy hire doesn't hold water. All I'm sayin'.

 

[Kingbish01]

Fair enough. But your categorization of it being a lazy hire doesn't hold water. All I'm sayin'.

I'm not being combative, I love your takes. So why do you think promoting MF wasn't a lazy hire? Who else interviewed? Do we know of ND reaching out to any other agents? How much work did they really put into this hire, or did they just say meh...he's here, he's good looking, he speaks well and the kids love him.....Let's go with MF!!

 

[Te'o4Heisman]

Right, but you said that no organization does what ND did here. They do - including blue bloods OSU, Oklahoma, and Georgia.

And again, you're incorrect about Freeman going to be a DC if he didn't get the ND job. Duke was going to hire him if ND went elsewhere -- that's a known fact.

I get that people aren't happy about where things turned after last weekend, but let's see how things play out.

Had ND not hired MF and he went to Duke, Duke would have stomached the growing pains and in 5-6 years he would have them punching way above their weight class or would have moved on to a bigger job and these same people would be bitching that ND had him and let him go.

He’s coached 20 freaking games as a head coach, with 2 different OC’s, two different OL coaches, 2 different ST coaches, limited by a horrendous QB situation last year. Anybody who is behaving like they didnt expect some growing pains is delusional. He has fixed some issues they dealt with last year, and new issues have surfaced that he will need to figure out. It may take him 3-4 years to put it all together, but if were still having these same issues in years 3-4 then I think its time to reevaluate. For now I am willing to see how things play out. Winning at ND is not the same as winning at UGA or OSU.

 

[Katzenboyer]

I'm not being combative, I love you takes. So why do you think promoting MF wasn't a lazy hire? Who else interviewed? Do we know of ND reaching out to any other agents? How much work did they really put into this hire, or did they just say meh...he's here, he's good looking, he speaks well and the kids love him.....Let's go with MF!!

I think that Swarbrick wanted Fickell. And when it got out to the team, they urged Swarbrick to keep Freeman.

I may be misremembering things but I'm pretty sure that was the course of events.

 

[Giddyup]

That would be gross negligence on the part of Swarbrick if true. I think Jack thought we had a great 1-2 punch in Freeman and Rees. I think he’d be right if it held.

 

[Kingbish01]

I think that Swarbrick wanted Fickell. And when it got out to the team, they urged Swarbrick to keep Freeman.

I may be misremembering things but I'm pretty sure that was the course of events.

Makes sense, hindsight is always 20/20 so we will see. Fickell would have been a solid hire.

 

[NDohio]

I think that Swarbrick wanted Fickell. And when it got out to the team, they urged Swarbrick to keep Freeman.

I may be misremembering things but I'm pretty sure that was the course of events.

The key ingredient to the Fickell situation is he refused to even have any conversations with other teams while he was prepping for the playoffs. ND was not in a position to wait for him. Them hiring him wasn't a slam dunk and it would have been after signing day.

Early signing day makes the end of season firing and hiring of coaches window too tight.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

The key ingredient to the Fickell situation is he refused to even have any conversations with other teams while he was prepping for the playoffs. ND was not in a position to wait for him. Them hiring him wasn't a slam dunk and it would have been after signing day.

Early signing day makes the end of season firing and hiring of coaches window too tight.

The $57 million man: What's in Luke Fickell's contract?

Wisconsin's new head football coach will earn considerably more than his predecessor, and an early divorce would be costly for both parties.

www.wkow.com

If Notre Dame wouldn't buy out Andy Ludwig, what makes anyone here think they could have structured a deal like this for Fickell? This completely insane.

In addition to the salary and incentives, Fickell will receive $125,000 each year for "travel and entertainment fringe benefits."

Chryst did not receive such a perk, although he did have two automobile allowances and membership for his family at a country club. Fickell will receive those benefits too, plus his own suite at Camp Randall Stadium.

 

[dublinirish]

Fickell was never gonna leave UC before their post season game like BK did

 

[stlnd01]

Fickell was never gonna leave UC before their post season game like BK did

And we weren’t gonna wait around for a month. For better or worse, that was kind of a deal-breaker for both sides.

 

[Irish#1]

A lazy hire was Brian Kelly not having a serious nation-wide search for a OC and waddling his fat ass 10 feet down the hall to knock on Rees' door and promote him.

This is BS! Rees' door was 25 feet down the hall.