Homecoming? New Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman will open next season in an interesting location … Columbus

Now that former Ohio State linebacker Marcus Freeman has officially been named the head coach at Notre Dame, we can begin dreaming of a matchup that’s going to occur next season. And not just any game next year, but the first one on the schedule for both teams involved.

We are of course talking about Notre Dame’s visit to Columbus for the first game of both teams’ 2022 season on September 3. It was already going to be made for television eye candy, but now that a former Buckeye linebacker is running the show, it won’t just be Irish eyes that are smiling.

Freeman played linebacker under Jim Tressel from 2004-2008. That means his first regular-season game, and the first hostile crowd will be on the banks of the Olentangy. It’ll unfold in the venerable stadium he used to play in as a college football player, Ohio Stadium — more affectionately known as, “The Horseshoe,” or “Shoe” for short.

Sometimes you have to stretch for storylines in sports, and sometimes they just drop right in your lap. Freeman did visit Columbus as an assistant with Cincinnati in 2019 as an assistant, but it’s a whole new ballgame as the head coach of one of the most storied programs in college football history.

The timing couldn’t be any better in this case, and you are going to be hearing about it as a major plot twist we didn’t see coming even two weeks ago as the offseason buzz starts to build towards the start of the 2022 college football season.

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