While the Marcus Freeman to Penn State talk died off relatively quickly, Florida fans are doing their level best to keep whispers alive that the Notre Dame head coach might move to Gainesville this winter. The problem is that he's shown more than once that he doesn't have any interest in making the jump.
There are apparent reasons why Freeman would turn down the Gators and stay in South Bend. The biggest one is that he has the Fighting Irish in a better situation than the SEC school. He seemingly knows that.
While Freeman's recent comments about leaving Notre Dame didn't publicly shut the door on taking another job, he's privately done so when it comes to Florida, according to numerous reports.
Florida reportedly made multiple runs at Marcus Freeman
Earlier in the week, hosts on the Dan Le Batard Show talked about how Marcus Freeman is clearly a top target for the Gators. In fact, one host claimed that the SEC school even "back channeled" Freeman this past winter to judge his interest in the job.
While there wasn't a definitive statement on what Freeman's interest was, he wasn't all that intrigued since Billy Napier kept his job, at least until the middle of this year. However, according to insider Ananand Nanduri, the Gators weren't deterred.
He reported earlier this week that they did reach out to Freeman's people again after Florida fired Napier. In fact, he said the Notre Dame coach was their preferred target. Unfortunately for them and to the joy of many in Notre Dame, Nanduri said it took almost no time at all for Freeman to say no a second time.
"It is now Lane Kiffin or you go into the abyss and hope to grab onto something that can save you," he wrote on Twitter.
"For those wondering: he said no immediately. There wasn’t much of a discussion."
Penn State continues to be something that no one believes the Notre Dame coach will take. It would seem that his comments earlier this week that fell short of saying "I'm not leaving" have more to do with the possibility of an NFL job coming calling after the season. If that happens, Fighting Irish fans could get nervous.