Marcus Freeman New DC

[IrishLion]

One of my fav things to do in college was go to our wellness center the week they let the football players mix in with the regular students and play basketball. Some of those kids could ball out...but at the end of the day, there was a reason they weren't on the basketball team.

My school didn’t have a football team, but we used to play in the rec on campus with a bunch of Bengals players… a lot of them lived right across the river in NKY, so they’d come to my school during the off-season to play basketball and swim and stuff like that.

Jerome Simpson used to dunk on people like it was nothing, and I once took a charge from Domata Peko.

There are reasons most of those guys didn’t stick with basketball… but many of them would be elite at whatever they chose to do lol.

 

[Irish#1]

I know it's fun to think things like this but no he wasn't.

Don’t be a prude now.

 

[T-Boone]

Is this Sneed kid the biggest/best recruit that Marcus Freeman has landed in his career?
I am reckoning YES.
Or have I just talked myself out of that YES by remembering the Vernon commitment?

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

A heads up, for some
This week Pete Sampson (and Matt Fortuna) had Tommy Rees on the Shamrock Podcast. He said Freeman will (should) be on next week. (Sounded confident it'll happen, Pete usually says "special guest" if he's worried about someone backing out)

Really looking forward to this. Zorich did a good job, but Pete is a pro at this kind of stuff

 

[Irish#1]

Finally got a chance to listen. The dude sure is enthusiastic

 

[clashmore_mike]

Freeman joined Sampson and Fortuna for another podcast:
[TWEET]https://twitter.com/Matt_Fortuna/status/1417594513925705728?s=19[/TWEET]

 

[dublinirish]

Freeman joined Sampson and Fortuna for another podcast:
[TWEET]https://twitter.com/Matt_Fortuna/status/1417594513925705728?s=19[/TWEET]

Definitely run through brick walls stuff from Freeman on this, he's just so highly impressive. very interesting too to learn he had a sit down with MTA, Marist and Botelho are controlling their emotions on the field and crafting their own narratives

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Definitely run through brick walls stuff from Freeman on this, he's just so highly impressive. very interesting too to learn he had a sit down with MTA, Marist and Botelho are controlling their emotions on the field and crafting their own narratives

I love listening to his interviews, he just nails all of the right talking points and it's easy to see why recruiting has been so natural for him.

I really hope we can enjoy his coaching for a few years but I just don't see a scenario where he's here for more than a couple seasons at the most. If he is as good as we think he is going to be, he's going to be running his own P5 program in short order.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Definitely run through brick walls stuff from Freeman on this, he's just so highly impressive. very interesting too to learn he had a sit down with MTA, Marist and Botelho are controlling their emotions on the field and crafting their own narratives

Is he saying that Hawaiian players can't control their emotions?

 

[NorthDakota]

Definitely run through brick walls stuff from Freeman on this, he's just so highly impressive. very interesting too to learn he had a sit down with MTA, Marist and Botelho are controlling their emotions on the field and crafting their own narratives

I was looking forward to taking the over on 1.5 personal fouls weekly.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I love listening to his interviews, he just nails all of the right talking points and it's easy to see why recruiting has been so natural for him.

I really hope we can enjoy his coaching for a few years but I just don't see a scenario where he's here for more than a couple seasons at the most. If he is as good as we think he is going to be, he's going to be running his own P5 program in short order.

He helps us "close the gap", we win a title, Kelly retires, and then Freeman takes over as our new HC.

 

[BobbyMac]

He helps us "close the gap", we win a title, Kelly retires, and then Freeman takes over as our new HC.

They are going to have to make a never before matched arrangement with him to be coach in waiting

AND

Tyler Buchner's got to meet every pie in the sky prediction we've made for ND to make a run in '23 or '24.

NO way Freeman makes it to '23 unless he's given a futures deal that's never been thought of before.

 

[IrishLion]

They are going to have to make a never before matched arrangement with him to be coach in waiting

AND

Tyler Buchner's got to meet every pie in the sky prediction we've made for ND to make a run in '23 or '24.

NO way Freeman makes it to '23 unless he's given a futures deal that's never been thought of before.

Coach-in-waiting situations almost always seem to end up handcuffing the institutions and coaches more than helping stabilize things, minus Lincoln Riley. Could Freeman be the defensive counterpart to Riley?

Maybe, but it would have to take some long, thoughtful conversations between BK and JS, and then BK and Freeman, and then Freeman and JS, to get everyone in line.

 

[BobbyMac]

Coach-in-waiting situations almost always seem to end up handcuffing the institutions and coaches more than helping stabilize things, minus Lincoln Riley. Could Freeman be the defensive counterpart to Riley?

Maybe, but it would have to take some long, thoughtful conversations between BK and JS, and then BK and Freeman, and then Freeman and JS, to get everyone in line.

Agreed.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Coach-in-waiting situations almost always seem to end up handcuffing the institutions and coaches more than helping stabilize things, minus Lincoln Riley. Could Freeman be the defensive counterpart to Riley?

Maybe, but it would have to take some long, thoughtful conversations between BK and JS, and then BK and Freeman, and then Freeman and JS, to get everyone in line.

I don't recall at all that Lincoln Riley was announced as the Coach in waiting.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

He helps us "close the gap", we win a title, Kelly retires, and then Freeman takes over as our new HC.

Haha, here's to hoping.

 

[Irish#1]

Coach-in-waiting situations almost always seem to end up handcuffing the institutions and coaches more than helping stabilize things, minus Lincoln Riley. Could Freeman be the defensive counterpart to Riley?

Maybe, but it would have to take some long, thoughtful conversations between BK and JS, and then BK and Freeman, and then Freeman and JS, to get everyone in line.

Keady / Painter - Boilers, Heathcote / Izzo - Sparty, Cowher / Tomlin - Steelers, Devaney / Osborne - Cornhuskers. There's probably a lot more that failed, but those were pretty successful transitions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited as the next guy when it comes to Freeman, but we haven't seen him coach a game yet. There were a couple of ND assistants that generated the same excitement but fizzled when they got the opportunity to take a HC position.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

I don't recall at all that Lincoln Riley was announced as the Coach in waiting.

Does anybody around here know anything about the circumstances surrounding Stoops' retirement?

He did it over the summer rather than at the end of football season and Riley had only been there two (and a half) years when he was elevated to the head coach position.

 

[mango4]

Keady / Painter - Boilers, Heathcote / Izzo - Sparty, Cowher / Tomlin - Steelers, Devaney / Osborne - Cornhuskers. There's probably a lot more that failed, but those were pretty successful transitions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited as the next guy when it comes to Freeman, but we haven't seen him coach a game yet. There were a couple of ND assistants that generated the same excitement but fizzled when they got the opportunity to take a HC position.

Tomlin wasn't head coach in waiting for the Steelers, he wasn't even on the staff when Cowher retired.

 

[Irish#1]

Tomlin wasn't head coach in waiting for the Steelers, he wasn't even on the staff when Cowher retired.

I could have sworn he was. I’m getting old.

 

[BobbyMac]

I could have sworn he was. I’m getting old.

 

[NorthDakota]

I could have sworn he was. I’m getting old.

Came over from the Vikings pretty quick after Cowher retired.

 

[WilliamWallace]

Mr. Freeman has a lot to work with. This is going to be an exciting, yet crazy year for CFB. I’m super excited to see what he can do. C Lea brought in some good to great talent, I’m just excited to see where things go. I’m curious how he felt about the players he’s inherited. There’s dudes at every level. He has to think he’s inherited a gold mine.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Mr. Freeman has a lot to work with. This is going to be an exciting, yet crazy year for CFB. I’m super excited to see what he can do. C Lea brought in some good to great talent, I’m just excited to see where things go. I’m curious how he felt about the players he’s inherited. There’s dudes at every level. He has to think he’s inherited a gold mine.

He touches on it a bit in his various podcasts. I highly recommend you give the one he did with Zorich a listen.

He says he believes we are a legitimate three deep up front at every position, he likes the LB unit and is confident that they have some dudes on the back end to support Hamilton.

Certainly helps to break in some young CBs when you have a stout pass rush, which should be the case. I'm interested to see who he goes with at the LB positions but he has a lot of experience there to work with.

 

[BrownerandFry]

What people miss about Freeman is a "soft skill."

He is an incredibly abundant spirit, so confident in himself that his abundance overflows as he is not threatened by excellence and greatness around him.

He embraces the Offensive players, and delivers accurate, incisive and profound praise of everyong from Kelly to Mickens, to Oleary to his players.

Great skilled people never flock to or work LONG for meager, stingy souls.

Game recognizes game, and in terms of personal skills, freeman has game.

Leadership is a different skill set from Management.

Freeman leads.

 

[Dale]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/isdupdate/status/1425214368602595332?s=21[/TWEET]

Was gonna post one of these quotes earlier but the article version is better at this point anyways. Somewhat surprised given Lea’s defense has been described as very complex. Sounds like a lot more pre-snap stuff with Freeman whereas Lea tended to have a lot of post snap reads for the players to make IIRC

 

[BabyIrish]

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Freeman today:

”We're definitely going to rotate,” Freeman said. “We have a philosophy, I know you've got 1s and 2s in your room, we say it's 1As and 1Bs. In a perfect world, you have 22 guys that 1As and 1Bs.

“So what does that mean? You're going to have a significant role. IF you're a 1A, you're going to be the first one to go out there (at each position). If you're a 1B, you're going to have a significant role in our defense.”

Significant does not equate to an automatic even split; rather it implies a role within the defense and trust from the coaches.

“Now, that doesn't mean you're going to play 50-50. That means it might be 70/30, 60/40,” Freeman said. “Now, I hope to have 1As and 1Bs. If you're a 2 in our mind, you're probably not going in unless somebody is hurt. That's kind of our philosophy in terms of I want to rotate at every position.

 

[Luckylucci]

I’m a little skeptical that this looks much different that what we’ve seen before. I like the phrasing of it being 1a and 1b but Lea was pretty good at playing the two deep. We had 3 CB’s that played 200 plus snap, 4 S’s, 5 LB’s, 4 DE’s, and 3 DT’s. So, that’s pretty darn close to having a full 2 deep playing about 1/3 of the game.

And that bar is fairly high. It’s 30% of the snaps JOK played who lead the defense in snaps. And, in putting it at 200 doesn’t include players like Kiser, Lacey, Cross, and Mills who most would consider as active players last year.

Freeman mentioned that some of these splits could be 70/30 or 60/40. So, is it really going to be that much different?

 

[Ndaccountant]

I’m a little skeptical that this looks much different that what we’ve seen before. I like the phrasing of it being 1a and 1b but Lea was pretty good at playing the two deep. We had 3 CB’s that played 200 plus snap, 4 S’s, 5 LB’s, 4 DE’s, and 3 DT’s. So, that’s pretty darn close to having a full 2 deep playing about 1/3 of the game.

And that bar is fairly high. It’s 30% of the snaps JOK played who lead the defense in snaps. And, in putting it at 200 doesn’t include players like Kiser, Lacey, Cross, and Mills who most would consider as active players last year.

Freeman mentioned that some of these splits could be 70/30 or 60/40. So, is it really going to be that much different?

I agree. People can call it what they want, but I think what this says is that flexibility is going to be exceedingly important (both PT and recruiting). For example, they used JOK last year in so many different ways, the defense could have been labeled a 3-3-5, a 4-2-5, etc. Having guys that can cover, play in space, be physical at the LOS and blitz effectively will be a necessity. That is why a guy like Sneed is some important. He can play the role of a LB, Big S, or small DE. Prince K is looking like he could play multiple positions. Those are the profiles that will excel in the back 7/8.

 

[NorthDakota]

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Freeman today:

”We're definitely going to rotate,” Freeman said. “We have a philosophy, I know you've got 1s and 2s in your room, we say it's 1As and 1Bs. In a perfect world, you have 22 guys that 1As and 1Bs.

“So what does that mean? You're going to have a significant role. IF you're a 1A, you're going to be the first one to go out there (at each position). If you're a 1B, you're going to have a significant role in our defense.”

Significant does not equate to an automatic even split; rather it implies a role within the defense and trust from the coaches.

“Now, that doesn't mean you're going to play 50-50. That means it might be 70/30, 60/40,” Freeman said. “Now, I hope to have 1As and 1Bs. If you're a 2 in our mind, you're probably not going in unless somebody is hurt. That's kind of our philosophy in terms of I want to rotate at every position.

We did a lot of that in high school. Granted, we sucked... but a lot of our 1's weren't much better than our 2's, so both played a lot.