Marcus Freeman Must Change Course In His Offensive Coaching Search
The last five days have been quite eventful for Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. After scouring the nation for an offensive coordinator to lead his program to the next level, the Irish head coach thought he found his man. Instead, a lack of support from the higher ups and the departure of line coach Harry Hiestand have put Freeman in a very precarious position.
Freeman is being tasked with bringing a championship back to Notre Dame, but the reality is there are road blocks being thrown in front of him, unnecessary road blocks. Freeman didn't get the support he needed to hire Andy Ludwig to run his offense, and it continues a pattern that I've seen for over a year. That pattern is great external support for Freeman from fans, alums and many donors, but not enough support internally.
Freeman tried to be the good soldier in his first season. He embraced the direction leadership wanted him to go in certain areas, which included some coaching hires. There were off-the-field folks in place that were holdovers from the previous coach, and favorites of the administration, and Freeman worked to embrace them, even though some haven't reciprocated enough. Freeman made decisions with his staff that gave them freedom to take charge of their rooms, especially on offense. Things certainly didn't start off well, as Notre Dame went 3-3 to start the season.
Things began to change after the loss to Stanford. Freeman started to take back more and more control of the program, and he started to insert his will on things to a much greater degree, and the result was the Irish going 6-1 to finish the season, with Notre Dame outscoring opponents by an average score of 38.7 to 23.9.
After what happened the last week, Freeman needs to double down on remaking the program and taking more control.
I believe Freeman learned some hard lessons the last couple of weeks. The offensive coordinator (Tommy Rees) the athletic director pushed so hard for and supported, even at the expense of the head coach's reputation, left for Alabama. Less than two weeks later, line coach Harry Hiestand retired, which only happened because Tommy Rees left. No hard feelings towards Rees or Hiestand, who is a legend, but it showed the line coach didn't come back to be part of what Freeman was building, he only returned to support Rees.
Moving forward, Freeman needs to surround himself with more and more coaches who will be truly loyal to him, will have his back, and will truly support his vision for Notre Dame football, and no one else's. They need to be his picks, through and through.
If Freeman isn't going to get the support he should get from the administration, he needs to take advantage of the support that presently exists from donors, fans and his players. Simply put, he needs to bet on his vision, and his vision alone.
The events of the last week has been eye opening, and it has caused me to shift what I believe is the best path for Marcus Freeman, and best for the Notre Dame football program.
So what does this mean? It means Freeman needs to change course with his original plan for hiring an offensive coordinator and filling out his staff, which involved him looking outside the program, and looking nationally for more of a splash hire. It means perception be damned, he needs to hire his guys. Take advantage of the current support that exists outside the program, and double down on his belief for what is best for the players and others inside the program.
That means hiring coaches he knows will truly buy into his vision, who know what he wants out of an offense, and who will be at Notre Dame because of their faith in his vision.
It means the national search needs to end. Betting on himself means hiring coaches that not only have talent, but just as importantly will buy into his vision of what a championship offense looks like. It means coaches who are teachers first, coaches who value the student-athletes in all phases of their lives, coaches who are going to get after it on the recruiting trail.
Let's get into specifics, and some of this won't be popular.
No matter who Freeman hires, the events of the last five days will put a dark cloud over whoever is named offensive coordinator. That coach will always be considered the "settle" guy that came only because Freeman couldn't get the guy he wanted. That will be the perception no matter who Freeman brings in, so he needs to drown out that noise and shift his focus to what I discussed above, and no coach better fits that mold than current tight ends coach Gerad Parker.
A week ago he was on my list, but he wouldn't have been at the top of the board for a number of reasons, including perception. That part is dead, and the priorities have changed. There isn't a candidate outside the program that knows Freeman better, knows what he wants for his program, knows what he wants from his offense, and will be more loyal and supportive of his vision than Parker.
Does Parker have the chops? We'll see, but Freeman believes he does. Part of betting on yourself is not listening to the noise and being willing to put your reputation, and job, on the line for the guy you believe is the right fit for the present moment. After the Ludwig fiasco, the moment has changed, and there isn't a candidate for the coordinator position that better understands what Freeman wants on offense, what Freeman believes in, and will buy into Freeman's vision more than Parker.
Freeman said all the right things about his offensive philosophy last season, stating publicly a level of aww shucks, what do I know about offense. It was part of him going along with the hand he was dealt, and the authority that was given to Rees.
It was Freeman being the good soldier, but if you know him, you understand that Freeman absolutely has a very clear vision for what he wants on offense, and what he believes goes into putting a championship squad on the field. I'll have more to say down the road on Parker's background and fit for the position, but it's not a secret that Freeman saw this as eventually being a route he would go. It's a big reason he brought Parker in, even against some objections. He needed someone that would advocate for what he wanted, someone that shared a similar vision for a championship offense.
I know what most of you are thinking, and I get it, trust me. But if you have faith in Freeman, and believe he has the chops to win at Notre Dame, trust that if he made a move like this he has a very clear reason for doing so. Trust that those intangibles that Parker would bring to the table would outweigh, and outshine, any perceived limitations.
With Parker coaching tight ends, Notre Dame needs to hire a quarterbacks coach and offensive line coach. The "have my back" principle must apply to those hires as well.
For the quarterbacks opening, I believe Freeman needs to pursue someone like Wisconsin pass game coordinator Gino Guidugli. Freeman and Guidugli worked together at Cincinnati for four seasons (2017-20). The former Bearcat quarterback passed for 11,453 yards during his college career, and he developed Desmond Ridder. A three-star recruit that ranked as the nation's No. 1657 overall player and No. 116 athlete in the 2017 class, Ridder became a four-year starter at Cincinnati, finished second all-time in Cincinnati history in passing yards (behind only Guidugli), and led the Bearcats to the College Football Playoff in 2021.
Ridder became a third-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons and finished his rookie season as the starter.
Guidugli is well thought of as an assistant in coaching circles. He was a finalist for the Western Michigan head coach opening and was a candidate for several offensive coordinator openings this offseason.
Should Freeman go the route of promoting Parker and bringing in a quarterback's coach of Guidugli's caliber, the final piece to the puzzle is the offensive line. He could promote Chris Watt to offensive line coach after the work he did with Hiestand this past season, and the Irish alum is someone that I believe to be bought into what Freeman is trying to do. He could also go with a veteran, someone like Darrell Funk (BYU), who is considered one of the top line coaches in college football, and someone he worked with at Purdue.
The offensive coordinator hire will get most of the attention, and if he goes with Parker it is imperative that Freeman hit home runs with the quarterback and offensive line hires.
Names and reputation don't matter, and I'm very well aware that none of these hires will be splashy. Finding coaches who truly buy into Freeman's vision for success, and finding coaches with the talent to thrive in their positions are what Freeman must focus on, not perception.
Moves like this won't be popular, and me writing this article and advocating for these moves will be even less popular, I get it. A week ago I would have looked at this quite differently, but everything that transpired over the last week changes things for Freeman. He needs to approach this differently, and these are the kinds of moves that give him the greatest chance at truly making this his program, and gives him the best chance of having an offensive staff that will build on his vision for Notre Dame.
These are risky moves, but if Freeman desires to truly have a staff that believes in him, and his vision, they are the moves he has to make. That level of buy in is an absolute must. If Freeman allows what we saw in 2022 go on much longer, he runs the risk of allowing it to get too far out of his control, and it would make it much, much harder to get the program where he wants it to be.
You might not like it, you might have major questions and reservations about some of these moves, and I truly get it. But if Freeman decides to go this route, Notre Dame fans need to understand why he would make these moves, embrace how important it is for him to change the culture of the program and the importance of bringing in new staff members that would buy into and sell his culture, and have faith that the coach you supported up to this point has a plan.
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