As there always is with the Notre Dame football team, lofty expectations are set for the program heading into the third season under head coach Marcus Freeman. In an interview with Pete Sampson of The Athletic, Freeman reflected on this past season while also previewing the one ahead.
However, the third season for any head coach with the Notre Dame football team has actually had somewhat of a history as people like Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz won the national championship during that time. Others obviously have not, but Freeman is aware of the possible “folk tale” where the third season decides the trajectory of the program under a head coach, but he sets his own type of expectations.
“Every time I go to a Notre Dame club, I hear about that,” Freeman said. “I don’t even try to put that pressure on our program or myself to, ‘We have to win the national championship in Year 3.’ Our business is still saying, ‘We got to reach our full potential.’ How good is that? What does that do for us? We’ll see.”
Freeman reflects on the past few seasons with Notre Dame football
Going into Freeman's third season, this could be the most prepared we see not just the coach himself on game days and practices, but also the team as a whole compared to the past few years. The 38-year old head coach would even admit to The Athletic that he was “trying to figure out” how everything works being at the helm in college football as he fast forwards to the present, saying that he has been “spending time figuring out how to prepare better.”
“In Year 1, you’re trying to figure out, how do I want to run practice? OK, you’re a leader in this program. What does that mean? There’s no playbook for this thing. You have to learn,” Freeman said. “So Year 3, I spent a lot of time these last couple of weeks and May spending time figuring out how to prepare better.”
Freeman learning lessons from military leadership
Besides digging down deep on to the football side of things, Freeman has done a lot of soul-searching this offseason and in the summer as besides visiting NFL head coaches that have Fighting Irish ties, he also visited with the military on an aircraft carrier. He learned a lot about military leadership on the USS Abraham Lincoln and how he can apply that knowledge to the Notre Dame football team heading into his third season via The Athetic.
“Basically, what the admirals were telling me was we’re going through spring ball. They’re gonna get ready to dock. And then they’re gonna go out for the game. It’s real,” Freeman said. “We were talking about how they were practicing, what are they looking for, how many mistakes they make? How do we correct? They got 5,000 people on that battleship. It was so good for me to just get different perspectives, different ideas of how to prepare better and say, OK, what’s best for Notre Dame football? I gained a lot of wisdom.”
Freeman admits Fighting Irish offense was flawed last season
While there are high expectations for the team, there is a question surrounding the quarterback position since Sam Hartman has been drafted by the Washington Commanders. Now, it seems like it will be Riley Leonard who will lead the Fighting Irish after transferring from Duke University in December, though he is coming off of two surgeries to his ankle, he is labeled as a “full go” from Freeman. It will also be a season under offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock who has been with the team before.
“I don’t know if we always put (Hartman) in a situation to be as successful as he can be,” Freeman said. “He gave us everything he had. And there was a lot of good. It’s not what he wanted, not what I wanted. But I did learn that what’s most important is that you dive into a relationship you spend time with that guy. I spent an enormous amount of time with Sam one-on-one, getting to know him. We have to trust each other, and I spent a lot of time gaining his trust.
“But it’s a different place because (Denbrock) was here,” Freeman continued. “Even though it’s new for the entire offensive unit, he’s here, they’re meeting together, they can go through it, they can talk through it. I believe we have the personnel around Riley Leonard to make sure he’s successful. And that’s probably the two situations.”
The Notre Dame football team's goal is to not be “one-dimensional”
While there are no excuses in college football and in any type of sport, the Notre Dame football team legitimately had some as they dealt with inconsistency in the offensive line and especially injuries to the wide receiver room. With that, they have added a ton of depth in the transfer portal and hopes to now have an offense that is not “one-dimensional.”
“We have to be able, when a team says we’re going to make you one-dimensional, make them pay,” Freeman said. “That, to me, was something I think at points last year when teams loaded the box and said we’re not going to let you run, we didn’t always make them pay.”
Either way, every Fighting Irish fan is going to look at this third year with Freeman under a microscope to see what the results of the season will be by the end of it. For the young head coach, he expressed that there is “confidence” heading into the 2024 season as a “different mindset” will be crucial to build off of the last two years.
“I think there’s just a confidence into what you’re doing as you go into Year 3, and you’re probably going to be different as you want to Year 4 and 5,” Freeman said. “But I think it’s just a different mindset because of the experience you’ve had.”
While the Notre Dame football team will have championship aspirations, they are coming off of a season where they were 9-3 in the regular season, finishing it off with a win against No. 19 Oregon State at the Tony the Tiger Bowl. They start this upcoming season on the road against Texas A&M on Saturday, Aug. 31.
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