Notre Dame Fighting Irish News: Marcus Freeman outdoes Brian Kelly, more

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coach Marcus Freeman’s win over USC on Saturday was a big one, and maybe showed he’s better than his predecessor.

While it may be true that Marcus Freeman hasn’t yet achieved the benefit of the doubt as an in-game coach, it does appear that more often than not, he has his players playing well, especially against the top competition.

In fact, after the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the USC Trojans on Saturday night, Freeman already notched quite an accomplishment on his belt. He has as many wins in South Bend against Top 10 teams in 1.5 years as the head coach as now LSU coach Brian Kelly had in 12 with the Golden Domers.

That number is 2. That doesn’t sound all that impressive for Kelly. But in less than two years Freeman has two wins against Top 10 teams. Most coaches around the country would want that number.

Freeman’s star might be burning a bit brighter these days.

More Notre Dame Fighting Irish news

• Speaking of Marcus Freeman’s star growing brighter, On3 has named the Notre Dame head man as its “Coach of the Week” thanks to his win over the Trojans.

• But wait, that’s not all. Freeman has gotten a lot of love just one week after people started wondering if he wasn’t starting to clamber awful close to the hotseat after his game against Louisville. This week however, he’s been named the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week for the second time. He first got that honor in Week 0 when he led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a 42-3 win over Navy.
• For Sam Hartman, the win over the Trojans had to be nice. But he also got to do something few people get to do in their careers off the field. He got to meet and shake hands with Joe Montana. Some of you may remember he was quite the quarterback himself with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.