When Marcus Freeman was named Notre Dame football’s new head coach back in December of 2021, there was a little bit of doubt of how he may live up to what Brian Kelly had built up. However, Freeman has picked up where Kelly left off.
While his first game as the official head coach of the Fighing Irish started off with a loss (Fiesta Bowl vs. Oklahoma State in early 2022), Freeman and the Golden Domers only lost by two in a thriller. Since then, Freeman has led this program in the right direction, improving win totals every single season. Notre Dame won nine games in Freeman’s first full season as the head coach, then they won ten games the next season.
Marcus Freeman still getting disrespect in recent coach rankings
Then last season, Notre Dame football team became a powerhouse winning 14 games and making it to the National Championship game where they unfortunately lost 34-23 to Ohio State. That was only their second loss of the season. Their first one was a massive upset when Northern Illinois walked into South Bend and took down the Fighting Irish 16-14. But we won’t relive that painful memory.
Notre Dame acted quickly and extended Freeman’s contract by four years, after there were some rumblings that maybe, just maybe, he was going to get some looks from NFL teams. However, Notre Dame fans should be excited for the future with Freeman.
While Freeman has improved every single season and delivered Notre Dame’s arguably best season in program history, he is still not getting enough love in terms of coaching rankings. Tom Fornelli from CBS Sports recently ranked the Top 25 Power Four coaches and Freeman was placed at No. 6. That’s right, Freeman doesn’t even make the top-five on Fornelli’s list.
The coaches ahead of Freeman on Fornelli's list are Dan Lanning (Oregon), Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Ryan Day (Ohio State), and Kirby Smart (Georgia).
Now granted, these five coaches are no joke and rightfully deserve to be recognized as some of the best in the sport. Then again, when you have a coach (Freeman) who just delivered the best season that Notre Dame has ever had, you would think that it would bump Freeman’s ranking up. Maybe he needs to do it again or keep proving that Notre Dame will be a powerhouse for the future.
Either way, seeing Freeman get some sort of love is great to see but we all know he deserves more after what he did with the Notre Dame football team last year and what he’s been doing since Brian Kelly left.