No. 1 college football RB sounds off on Marcus Freeman NFL rumors

The coaching carousel that followed the 2025 college football coaching season was one of the most chaotic on record. Across the Power Four landscape, nearly 20 different college football programs made coaching changes from the end of September all the way to December of 2025.

The NFL head coaching carousel was also chaotic as nearly a third of the league was on the hunt for a new coach in January. Per usual, most of the candidates for the NFL vacancies were coaches who worked in different organizations across the league, but some college names snuck into the discussion.

One name that was thrown around for a pair of openings was Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman. While Freeman ultimately did not choose to leave for an NFL vacancy, organizations could pursue him in future coaching cycles.

Freeman worked his way up the coaching ladder as a linebackers coach and defensive coordinator with stops at Kent State, Purdue and Cincinnati before joining Notre Dame's staff in the same role in 2021. He was named head coach in 2022 and has compiled a 43-12 overall record, including an appearance in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship.

A key figure in Freeman's remarkable run at Notre Dame over the past three seasons was running back Jeremiyah Love. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, Love discussed the likelihood of Freeman leaving for an NFL opening on This Is Football.

Jeremiyah Love says he’s not surprised Marcus Freeman is still in South Bend amidst multiple rumor-filled offseasons hinting he may soon end up in the NFL.

“I feel like he started at Notre Dame and I feel like he’s going to finish there.”

(@bykevinclark)pic.twitter.com/OtuJM7P5VW
— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) February 6, 2026

"I feel like he's started at Notre Dame, and he's going to finish there," Love said. "That's kind of like how he recruits. He recruits guys that have the same mindset as him or have the same values as him.

"They want to go somewhere that's considered hard with academics and stuff like that, and they're coming into school ready to work. It's how he recruits, it's how he is as a person, and that's who he likes to surround himself with."

Love was a top-five running back prospect in the class of 2023 when he committed to Freeman and the Fighting Irish. In total, he rushed for 2,882 and 36 touchdowns while catching 63 passes for 594 yards and six more touchdowns. Love won the Doak Walker Award in 2025, given to the best running back in college football.

The track record of college head coaches that have tried their hand at the NFL the last 25 seasons is not particularly strong. Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh have both succeeded, although both strategically left schools where the NCAA had begun to sniff around. Coaches like Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Chip Kelly and Urban Meyer going to the NFL and quickly failing is a more common result.

Marcus Freeman during Notre Dame's game against NC State. — Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images