Think back all the way to 2010. Notre Dame football had just come off a season in which they went 6-6 and fired head coach Charlie Weis. They hired up-and-coming Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly to steer the ship back to the promised land.
Kelly would have the Fighting Irish in the National Championship Game within three seasons, though they did get absolutely demolished by Alabama in that game. Many to this day wonder if Notre Dame actually had any business being in the title game over any of Florida, Oregon, or Kansas State.
In 2022, they looked to do the same. Kelly departed for much more humid waters in LSU, and the Irish promoted defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to the head coaching role. Thus far in 2022, he has the Irish sitting at 6-3 and No. 20 in the country after a rough start to the season, with impressive wins over North Carolina and Clemson on their resume.
What makes Kelly and Freeman different is their style of program management. Kelly runs his programs like a business, not placing too much emphasis on the emotions of college football where he doesn't feel the need to do so. He's a calculated coach who, frankly, often comes across as inauthentic, but the results speak for themselves.
Marcus Freeman is a player's coach, through and through. He manages the emotions of his players and lets them come out on the field. Where Kelly is more akin to a Pete Carroll, Marcus Freeman coaches the way Mike Vrabel does. Teams can be successful with both, but I'm not sure it's a coincidence that Kelly's teams often fail to win the big, emotion-packed games.
Freeman's Notre Dame has won two of them in this 2022 college football season. It often takes a mixture of talent and emotion to win big-time games at the highest level, and Freeman seemingly does a good job of managing that. His players would run through a concrete slab for him, and he also provides them with the scheme and tactical coaching necessary to execute on a very high level.
Brian Kelly may wind up surpassing what he achieved at Notre Dame during his time at LSU. He has more money and resources to work with down in the bayou, for sure, and he has already proven this year that under the right circumstances he can beat Alabama, which is the litmus test of every program in the SEC.
Freeman, however, seems like he has learned a lot from Kelly while also implementing his own style. Not to mention Freeman has experience working within the resources provided to Notre Dame. You'd have to imagine whether or not Kelly left, Freeman wasn't long for getting a head coaching job somewhere. At Cincinnati in 2020 he won 247Sports' Defensive Coordinator of the Year. In an era where schools often look to offensive minds to be the head coach, Freeman is a star of a different mold.
I'm not sure that Marcus Freeman will ever reach a national title game with Notre Dame, because it often takes the right schedule and a good bit of luck on top of having an uber-talented college football team. But I can be absolutely certain that if he ever guides the Irish to that highest of mountaintops, there will be zero question on if they deserve to be there or not: they will.
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