Marcus Freeman Is Doubling Down On His Vision For Notre Dame

The recent hires that Marcus Freeman has made shows he is doubling down on his vision for the Notre Dame program

The first year of Marcus Freeman's tenure at Notre Dame has been a bit of an up-and-down affair. There have been some very exciting moments on and off the field, but there were also a couple of tough losses on the field, and on the recruiting trail. Freeman has shown flashes of being capable of getting Notre Dame to the next level, but doing so will require continued improvement in every facet of the program.

Notre Dame is going through a bit of a staff overhaul this offseason, with three coaches having now departed the program. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees (Alabama), offensive line coach Harry Hiestand (retired) and special teams coordinator Brian Mason (Indianapolis Colts) have all departed.

From a personnel standpoint the Notre Dame program will look quite a bit different next season, but one thing is for sure, the vision Freeman has for the program won't be different. In fact, his hires so far show that Freeman is doubling down on his vision for what will bring a championship to Notre Dame.

Freeman first needed to hire a new offensive coordinator, and that process put a dark cloud over the entire offseason. There's no need to rehash what happened, but it certainly gave Notre Dame a black eye. In order to get the program back on track, Freeman responded to the initial offensive coordinator fiasco - which was out of his control - and he shifted gears.

His search immediately went away from external candidates and quickly moved onto Gerad Parker, who Freeman hired to coach his tight ends a season ago. Parker was heralded as a strong proponent of technique and detail, and he played a key role in star tight end Michael Mayer enhancing his route running and blocking as a junior.

Freeman decided to replace Rees with former Cincinnati quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator Gino Guidugli. The two coached together at Cincinnati from 2017-21. The job he did developing Desmond Ridder, who is now the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, was quite impressive.

After missing out on Matt Luke, who brought a great deal of name recognition to the mix, Freeman quickly narrowed down his list of offensive line candidates. All three were coaches with a strong reputation as teachers, and he settled on Joe Rudolph, who coached the Wisconsin offensive line from 2015-21 and was most recently at Virginia Tech.

Rudolph also comes with a reputation as a strong teacher of fundamentals and detail, and his lines at Wisconsin were also tough and physical. 

Rudolph was a graduate assistant coach at Ohio State from 2004-06, which happened to overlap with the first three years that Freeman was a player for the Buckeyes. Once again, Freeman went with someone known as a teacher, and someone with whom he has a longstanding relationship.

Freeman doubled down on hiring coaches that fit his vision for developing players on and off the field. Freeman put a coach he trusts in a position of authority (Parker), and at offensive line and quarterback - arguably the two most important positions on the Notre Dame - he went further and brought in coaches he knows and trust. These are coaches who will buy into how Freeman wants his offense to look, but also will buy into how he wants to the program to be run.

Not all of Freeman's initial hires a year ago were coaches he had a previous relationship with, but outside of one coach the hires he made of coaches he previously knew were impressive. Parker's work with the tight ends was excellent, Mason was named the Special Teams Coach of the Year after the 2022 season, and corners coach Mike Mickens was brilliant with his development of the Irish cornerbacks.

Freeman chose to go that route with his latest hires, and it shows no matter what adversity he and the program faced in 2022, his belief in how Notre Dame can turn into a championship is as strong as it was when he was hired.

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