The interwoven coaching staffs for Notre Dame football and Cincinnati

The interwoven coaching staffs for Notre Dame football and Cincinnati

BK and Freeman

Brian Kelly, the winningest coach in Notre Dame football history and a Cincinnati Bearcats Hall of Fame coach, up against his hold team. It’s a great storyline, except the Bearcats players are going to be more interested in their former defensive coordinator.

Marcus Freeman got his first job as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Ohio State. That’s the same place Fickell spent all but two years of his career before Fickell took the Cincinnati job. It is, as everyone knows, Fickell’s first love and dream job.

Freeman and Fickell became attached at the hip, going to Cincinnati together once Fickell got the job.

Freeman, as it has been widely documented, was key to the rebuilding job at Cincinnati following the disastrous tenure of Tommy Tuberville (now a U.S. Senator who failed to correctly identify the three branches of government). His recruiting ability is elite, as Notre Dame fans have seen.

He also adjusts on the fly, bringing a new gameplan week to week. His 3-3-5 approach against UCF, for instance, shut down that high flying offense.

In a lot of ways, the Irish won a sweepstakes for Freeman. LSU and several other elite programs wanted to bring in Freeman, but he just to stay in the Midwest, with the history and potential of Notre Dame. Now, there are even rumors that he could have been brought in as a head coach in waiting in South Bend.

For his former Cincinnati players, though, it’s still an abandonment. They went there to play for him, and now they want to prove that he made a mistake leaving.