The role of defensive coordinator has put Notre Dame fans on a roller coaster of emotions in recent years.
After Mike Elko impressed in his debut leading the defense of Fighting Irish in 2018, he shook Notre Dame by breaking his contract to make a parallel move to Texas A&M. The Aggies offered a much more substantial contract.
Coach Brian Kelly choosing the most reputable Clark Lea assuming the crucial position of the team facilitated Irish fans due to the positive feedback from various sources about the young coach. And that optimistic outlook proved to be correct as Lea led his unit with great success.
It was successful enough to land a position as head coach at the SEC – the second major blow to the Irish defense in three years. And just like Elko’s departure, the news of Lea leaving South Bend came just before the final class he set up to sign his Letters of Intent.
Unfortunately, although the concern was that Notre Dame would be overtaken by LSU or others (the message board collapse was already underway), Freeman took over at Notre Dame to the delight of the Irish faithful.
Looking at Freeman as a recruiter has its difficulties due to unbalanced platforms – analyzing class results on an AAC program in Cincinnati through the lens of Notre Dame. But scratching the surface and talking to the sources, below are 10 opening notes about Freeman at the end of the recruitment spectrum.
1 Speaking with a source who has been competing with Freeman for prospects, he said the new Irish defensive coordinator “has always been difficult to recruit against.” He mentioned that the prospects ‘relate to him and you have to be relentless on the trail when you go against him’.
This source joked that he was happy to see Freeman leave Cincinnati, as the Bearcats represent a major recruiting competitor (especially with state-of-the-art prep schools in Ohio).
two Over Cincinnati’s 10 recruitment cycles before Marcus Freeman joining the team, the Bearcats signed only one class classified in the national Top 50. And since being hired in 2017, Cincinnati has signed three categories in the top 50.
3 – When Freeman joined the coaching staff in 2017, it had been seven years since the Bearcats hired a four-star recruit. But during his short term, Cincinnati signed four candidates classified as four stars, including Jaheim Thomas in 2020 – a hometown linebacker from Cincinnati’s Princeton High School and a former Notre Dame recruit.
To put in perspective how rare it is for a four-star recruit to land at AAC, among opponents of the Cincinnati conference – Central Florida, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, South Florida, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa – those 10 programs collectively signed a total of four four-star prospects during Freeman’s five-year term in Cincinnati, 2017-2021. (Again, Cincinnati, alone, signed the same total over those five cycles).
4 Of course, all of this progress and four-star victories are not directly linked to Freeman. Luke Fickell, Mike Mickens, and others also deserve credit. But he is known as a major contributor to the overall effort.
Several sources speak with assurances that Mickens has the right cocktail of characters to be very successful on the recruiting trail by selling a program like Notre Dame.
5 Two of those four-star prospects came from Cincinnati. Another came from Springfield, Ohio, which is 20 miles from where Freeman played high school football in Huber Heights, near Dayton.
This Huber Heights program is Wayne High School. And it should be noted that Notre Dame offered two 2022 recruits from Wayne to face Aamir Wagner (OT) and Elijah Brown (DE), both four-star recruits.
Over the past five cycles, Freeman has hired athletes from Ohio programs known as Notre Dame in Fairfield, LaSalle, Archbishop Hoban, Saint Frances de Sales, Saint Xavier, Saint Edward, Archbishop Moeller, Princeton and Dublin Coffman, and elsewhere, like West Bloomfield (Michigan), Bolingbrook (Ill.), Cardinal Gibbons (Florida), Martin Luther King (Mich.) And Monte Carmelo (Ill.)
Clearly, these connections are an advantage.
6 With Freeman on the team, Cincinnati’s recruiting classes were classified as class # 1 in AAC in three cycles (2018, 2020, 2021). In the 10 years prior to Freeman’s arrival on board, the Bearcats added the upper class of the AAC only twice (2011, 2012).
7 As an AAC program, in the 2020 cycle, Freeman helped Cincinnati to a national ranking of 41 classes, listed ahead of Louisville, NC State, Michigan State, Pittsburgh and Iowa State (in that order). And in the 2021 class, Freeman & Co. finished 44th, ahead of Kansas, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Auburn and Vanderbilt.
8 Often, first year coordinators have strong recruiting groups. And that makes sense if you can imagine yourself taking on a new role and wanting to start working while building for the future.
An example would be when Clark Lea became a defensive coordinator, he brought together 11 four-star recruits in the 2019 class, including four four-star strikers, four All-Americans and, of course, Kyle Hamilton.
After consecutive classes in which most of the top-ranked talents were offensive athletes, bringing in a new popular defensive coordinator and an acclaimed recruit could help a lot.
9 If we can be sure of anything, it is that Coach Freeman has many very strong connections in Ohio. Through the five recruiting classes he helped build, Cincinnati hired 54 athletes from the state of Ohio. And its reach across the Midwest is strong, attracting many potential customers from Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, specifically.
Numerous candidates from Florida and Georgia have also landed in the defense of Cincinnati, which is good news for the Irish – areas in which Notre Dame has many targets (especially on the defensive side of the ball).
It will be exciting to see how Freeman operated with a name like Notre Dame, its resources and its national reach behind it.
10 When it became public that Freeman was heading to South Bend on Friday night, Irish Illustrated gathered some reactions from athletes who will join the defense of Notre Dame this year.
Ryan Barnes
“I’m super excited. The success he had last season (in Cincinnati, that) shows how great he is and I can’t wait to learn and improve with him.”
Gabriel rubio
“You know it’s great that we got him and everything. I can’t wait to work with him and the scheme he brings to the table. “
Kahanu Kia
“I’m really excited! From what I’ve learned, he’s a great coach and I can’t wait to learn from him. He was also a linebacker, so that’s great too. I can’t wait to start working!”
Chance Tucker
“Yes, he is certainly an accomplished Defense Coordinator. In addition, I am particularly excited because of your familiarity with Coach Mickens. This is a great choice for ND. “
Jason Onye
“I think it’s a great hire and I loved seeing what he managed to do in Cincinnati last season, and I can’t wait to get on campus and start working with him.
Will Schweitzer
“Super pumped! We have a great base to build on. He can help us take the next step. ”