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Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman says he doesn’t see himself ‘coaching anywhere else’ as NFL looks on

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7461812/2026/07/21/marcus-freeman-notre-dame-nfl-futur...

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if ND wins a NC in the next couple of years, which is quite possible. Will he be like Saban and stick around and continue to drive the truck or will he hear the siren call of the NFL? Saban, of course, had gotten a taste of the NFL and found it not to his liking. Freeman has only been there as a player.

The other question is what will college football in particular, and college athletics in general, look like five or six years from now? The current NIL structure was beyond imagination a decade ago. For all of the SEC's huffing and puffing about leaving, they no longer have cornered the market on high-level, quasi-professional football.

NIL and the general de-amateurization (if that's a word) took away the SEC's advantage of paying players and requiring only a nominal affiliation between the athletes and academics. ND has competed like gangbusters on the money side of things, which isn't a surprise given the wealth of the alumni base. ND has maintained reasonable academic standards but it is considerably easier for athletes to get their degrees than it was in earlier years given the proliferation of summer courses and alternative modes of educational delivery.

I hope that the kinds of things that make Freeman special will continue to make him special. I don't mean that I think he'll change in any fundamental way; he's too authentic for that. It's more a question of whether the world around him will change.

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"Somewhere in Middle America"

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Good point about the conditions around Marcus. That's an underrated influence on his departure. It's what drove Saban, and other long-time coaches, out of football.

I've thought for a while that the odds of Marcus leaving are much lower than the press reports. Everything we know about the man would suggest college is a better fit. He's a great recruiter. He actively enjoys the mentoring of young men. He values family and stability for his own family. And his strengths are less Xs and Os and more Jimmies and Joes. None of that matters in the NFL. What does he bring to the NFL? Motivation, and some developing skills in building an organization. In the NFL a GM does the latter, and the former is a lot different with paid professionals in a constrained transfer system.

One of the podcasts I listen to had a good insight as well: there are NFL jobs, and NFL jobs. Sure, Freeman could probably get a second-tier job like the Jets or Browns or Raiders. But the NFL organizations that are worth leaving ND for are precisely the ones who don't have a lot of coaching vacancies and don't need to take a chance on a college coach. Seattle or Green Bay or LA aren't calling anytime soon. Even the Steelers, whose management might be sliding a bit, expressed "interest" but that's far from a sure thing. There's also the Rooney rule to consider, and I doubt Marcus wants any part of that mess - the NFL needs to reconsider its approach on how to build much-needed diversity in the workforce; what they're doing isn't working and is demeaning to minority candidates. (ESPN just did a long investigation piece on it; it's worth reading).

Consider Freeman's mentor pool as well. I'm sure Tressel has hooked Freeman up with Meyer. I'm sure Freeman's talked with Saban. Those guys are good examples of how college success can be derailed by the NFL.

When Freeman says "the grass is always greener, I get it, I want to stay", I take him at face value.

Of course, he may just get tired. ND's average tenure for NC coaches has been what, about ten years? Rockne died in the job, Leahy ran out of steam around ten, Parseghian the same. Devine and Holtz were forced out. Presumably we've learned our lesson on that. But five years from now, we'll see. Freeman's young though, and has shown every chance of being able to build an organization that grows over time where he can effectively delegate. That should help.

So what changes the game where Freeman opts out?

The single greatest thing I can see is if the mentoring component goes away... and that's by the NCAA becoming even more of a revolving door where players don't stick around long enough to build relationships and the opportunity for mentoring and cultural development.

Right now, that's holding up well at the top end (though it's a disaster for lower-level programs). Some good stats on it here: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-transfer-portal-2026-r...

The other kinds of shifts that may force Freeman out are not really knowable. Some kind of superleague/collective bargaining where the players become only loosely moored to their educational institution sponsors might do it. I've thought for a while that the end game will be "affiliated teams" - where the universities do not directly employ players, but they sponsor teams that report up to a league structure outside the individual schools. Sort of like baseball's AA/AAA but where the teams are all independent of NFL teams, probably with relegation and promotion. But what will that look like? Who the hell knows.

I'm just happy we have the man and proud that he's our coach and to have some association with him through ND. And I look forward to a few years yet where that's the case.

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those are all good points. Ever since Holtz, I've felt like Charlie Brown certain that Lucy was going to hold the ball and winding up flat on my back.

The notion that this might not be so this time has me bumfuzzled.

--
"Somewhere in Middle America"

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Malloy really set ND back in his tenure. BoT issues aside, much can be laid at the feet of Malloy and his ADs Wadsworth and White.

I could get fooled again, I guess, but at this juncture in life I prefer a leap of faith. Already have Vegas hotel rooms booked.

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before the NFL challenge steals him away.

We know he's better off where he is. He knows he's better off where he is. If he gives us three, I guess I can be content.

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In a pinch, I might even accept two titles.

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I had a brief chance encounter today in downtown Chicago with two current ND students (one of them was wearing and ND cap and I did the obligatory “Go Irish!).

After the also obligatory exchange of “what dorm do you/did you live in” - it warmed my heart that they asked first, some things never change - I asked them “do you guys have any idea how lucky you are”

They knew exactly what I was talking about.

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Of course anything can happen in the future, but there weren’t any weasel words there.

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From being pretty wishy-washy about his future, ambitions, desires, etc. to putting out some of the strongest quotes you're going to see from a coach about his intentions to stay.

I want to believe that its genuine, because it doesn't seem like there's much about Marcus that ISN'T genuine. But the drastic change in messaging in such a short period of time has me scratching my head a bit.

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Last season was probably the first time he garnered really serious courting by an NFL team, and it's only reasonable that he should want to at least kick the tires on the whole thing. After missing the playoff, he certainly had the time to do so. And even if he was 98% sure he wouldn't want to jump, it only serves him to play out the string, both in terms of professional thoroughness about opportunities and also to compel ND to further underline their commitment to him, which is nothing but good for him.

Wouldn't be at all surprising for him to really get under the hood of the NFL coaching process last year and discover and/or confirm that it's not the right fit for him and he's good where he is.

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1. the best and most likely jobs in alignments with Marcus were the Pittsburgh and Baltimore jobs. There was enough noise and we were late enough in the offseason that he had to (possibly) prematurely shut down all of the interest if only to create some stability around ND.

2. I think he understands his highest and best use as a coach and developer. Yeah, you have to deal with all the uncertainty of conference alignment, NIL, the portal, etc. But he is given some latitude and control to go out and get the best guys to navigate these issues. He knows he makes a difference in these kids' lives and it feels like that matters to him. Not sure he would have that impact on NFL guys.

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He loves ND and has never really entertained leaving. His agent told him to respond in certain ways that were less than authentic. This response is the real one; he got tired of the mealy-mouthed stuff because it just created more questions.

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but I suspect that how the season ended up with ND on the outs left a pretty bad taste in Freeman's mouth. And then he had no bowl game to prep for but rather a lot of idle time over the following 4-6 weeks to stew over the whole deal and ponder his options. I suspect that he had more than a few conversations with friends & acquaintances with NFL experience who disabused him of any "grass is greener" sentiment. And continuing to crush prep recruiting and more freedom to navigate the portal have further bolstered a roster that's starting to look like a juggernaut. The additions to the staff seem to have meshed nicely with the established culture, too.

Overall, I think some stuff has happened over the past 6 months which has likely reinvigorated Freeman's feelings about ND, not that they were ever in serious jeopardy.

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is that he was less than convincing before because he was less than convinced. Yes, he loves ND and wasn't looking for a reason to leave, especially for a different college job (even OSU). But he's the ultimate competitor, and the NFL tends to intrigue people like that. He felt that he had to do his due diligence in exploring those opportunities, and that's what he did last offseason with the Giants and the Steelers. He did so exhaustively, as with everything he does, and what he took away is that the NFL is not for him. It doesn't suit his particular coaching style of molding young men into a team, plus the parity of the league punishes people like him who at the college level can use his charisma and tireless work ethic (plus ND money) to build a massive talent advantage over his competitors. That's just what he's doing now, and a sustained run of great success is going to follow. Why would he want to give that up to go 10-7 and earn a wild-card berth in the AFC North?

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I don't see him as playing games to drive more NIL concessions. He's too direct for that.

We're just all still afflicted with BKPTSD. It's like Lyme disease, it can crop up from time to time, and we just suffered a recent triggering event.

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1. I've said for a long time that everything public that comes out of a head coach's mouth is either nonsense or bullshit. So, there's a part of me that doesn't find any of this compelling.
That said, Freeman seems more inclined towards honesty than pretty much any of his colleagues, so who knows -- he might be an exception.

2. ND was certainly paying NIL before. But for HS recruiting, we were probably in up to our knees. Now, we are pretty clearly in up to our necks. By most accounts, we aren't straight-up winning bidding wars, but we are offering enough to make the NIL component irrelevant while these kids are making their decisions. And obviously, we aren't even going to try to get kids for whom NIL is the top priority. Multiple pods have straight-up said we never would have gotten Olu without being a big-time NIL player. And when you see us competing regularly with NIL heavyweights Oregon and A&M, it's clear we have stepped up to the plate.

All of which is to say that Marcus' changed message may reflect his satisfaction with ND's even further commitment to roster building.

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in which one of the speakers (IIRC it was Tim Brown) recounted a story of Freeman meeting with Jimmy Dunne and telling him what amount he needed in NIL to get over the hump at the highest level. I believe the number mentioned was $60MM. As the story goes, Marcus was green-lit for that figure within 72 hours.

If accurate, I'm guessing this was something that happened since last season, given the motivation not only to keep Freeman happy but also to right the wrongs perpetrated by the crooked-ass CFP committee in December. Had ND made the playoffs and then lost to, say, IU in a close but fair result, I wonder if things would've been subsequently turned up to 11 as it seems they have. I mentioned at the time that those fucksticks would likely live to regret shutting us out of the postseason. And now they've unleashed CFB Keyser Soze on the entire sport.

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Marcus had to come out in late December to shut down NFL interest. The 2 teams that indicated serious interest in Freeman were the Titans and Giants. Freeman had to put out some kind of statement because the program needed to know the direction. Recruits needed to know who the staff would be. So he made a declarative announcement.

2 weeks later was when Tomlin stepped down. I think if Tomlin had stepped down in December we would have been dealing with a real situation.

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But then the Steelers turned around and hired McCarthy. And seemingly doubled down on Rodgers.

I'm not sure that Freeman himself didn't dodge a bullet there. Hell, given that sequence of events, I'm not sure that the Steelers would have been interested in Freeman, even if his agent made it clear that he'd love to be considered.

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Hiring MM allows Pittsburgh to have their ducks aligned so as to operate on their timeline. Pittsburgh had no idea Tomlin was planning on retiring so they were blindsided and had no in-place plan to vet & hire a replacement.

I suspect Freeman was on whatever shortlist the Rooneys had but they hadn't laid any groundwork with Freeman or Clint Dowdle in outlining the parameters of the job for him.

GM?
QB?
Salary Cap $$ contracted & ownership willingness to spend X
Assistant Coaches $$ (Free would need some experienced NFL guys on staff)

Janurary 12th was far too late for them to approach Freeman & Agent and basically hammer out a deal in 4 days.

As I said MM buys you 2 years.

At that point Pitt will operate on their timeline and have the appropriate background approaches and (framework) 90% settled with whoever their candidates are.

IMO, Pitt and Freeman had mutual interest but the process was rushed and Freeman didn't feel comfortable leaving, what he knew was a good job, for a Pittsburgh situation that had a bunch of unknowns attached.

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We've had discussion of this across several threads since last season, but the organization appears increasingly rudderless to me. Feels like they're going the way of the Giants. Understood that this happened a bit late in the cycle, but if they weren't prepared for the possibility that Tomlin might tap out, they were simply negligent. One man's "ducks in a row" is another man's "flatfooted" and "out of ideas".

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There was too much chatter after the Irish season ended in December. Lots of speculation about NFL interest. And probably not speculative. But since this carried on for a while, Freeman knew he had to quelle the rumors and uncertainty.

I believe Freeman would have had sincere interest in the Steeler job, but by the time it came open he had already come out and said he was staying at ND. There wasn't a lot of wiggle room to go back on that.

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following Tomlin's departure, they wouldn't have been interested in Freeman.

And if they intended to retain Rodgers, I doubt Freeman would have wanted to be held hostage by a washed up QB with a questionable personality for even one season in the "Not for Long" league.

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There is a lot of historical "Steelers organization" mythology, but I think the recent incarnation with Rooney Jr. and Omar Khan is less than previous iterations. The whole thing was being held together by Tomlin being a good coach.

Their roster age is in the bottom third of the league (older), with an expensive defense and no long-term plan at QB. And they are pathologically averse to the idea of having a bad season in order to rebuild. You don't have to tank like my pathetic Browns to make it work...but it is possible to pull the Philadelphia Eagles and LA Rams "retool on the fly".

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for an organization hoping to lure an attractive young HC with a multitude of options. It is basically the opposite of what someone like Freeman would want to take on.

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for any potential suitors. That’s as cynical as I can get, and even that ain’t much.

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