How Marcus Freeman will help Notre Dame close the gap on the elite

Notre Dame replaces Clark Lea with Marcus Freeman

Marcus Freeman is that replacement.

Like the three defensive coordinators (Leak, Elko, and VanGorder) before him, he comes from a linebackers background. Like Elko and VanGorder, Freeman has experience as a defensive coordinator. Now, it’s on Freeman’s shoulders to help take Notre Dame from one of the best teams in the game to the rank of the elite teams in the game.

It’s a fine line, but crossing that line is how Notre Dame will be able to win a National Championship again. Unfortunately, for Freeman, that last step is the hardest to take, and anything less is going to be considered a failure.

It’s not like Freeman doesn’t have a good track record in improving programs. He went to Cincinnati as defensive coordinator under Luke Fickell when the program was a mess. In four seasons, Cincinnati went from AAC bottom feeder to the best G5 program who was pushing for a spot in the College Football Playoff in 2020, and they did it on the back of Freeman’s defense.

By year two, Cincinnati was ranked under Fickell and Freeman, but they ran into a UCF team in the middle of a 25 game winning streak. The next year, they fell short when they hit a Memphis buzz saw. By 2020, though, Cincinnati was the most talented team in the Group of 5 by a wide margin, and it showed on the field as they went unbeaten, won the conference, and should have beaten Georgia in the Peach Bowl.

That’s the key thing. They recruited and developed their roster into being the most talented around. Yes, their strategy was good, but their recruiting was better. This is also how Freeman will, and already has started to, make Notre Dame one of the elite programs in the country.