Marcus Freeman: Notre Dame ‘has everything to win national championship’
As both Notre Dame and college football fans are well aware, the Fighting Irish haven’t won a football national championship since 1988. At that time it was looking like a Notre Dame dynasty was in the making under Lou Holtz but they haven’t won a national title since, despite a few close calls.
So can Notre Dame still win a national championship without having a drastic overhaul? If you ask Marcus Freeman, everything is already in place for Notre Dame to be able to win a title.
That’s not to say a few things can’t be improved, but Freeman isn’t about to sound like his predecessor in making excuses.
Freeman chatted Tuesday with Irish Illustrated. Be sure to check out the full article in that link as they have some reporting on the future of Notre Dame’s athletic facility plans as well.
Side note – excuses weren’t included in Freeman’s talking points. See some of the best quotes below.
'We have everything..."
“We have everything we need right here to win a national championship,” Freeman said. “Don’t blame a lack of success on our facilities! Like that’s just crazy in my mind! It doesn’t prevent us from doing anything.”
I know he has said similar things before but for a football program that has traditionally taken pride in trying to do things the hard way, it’s refreshing to hear things be embraced and not run from. To me there is clearly a recruiting pitch being made in the comments as well.
Does the Gug prevent Notre Dame from winning a title?
“No! No!” said Freeman emphatically. “And if a recruit comes in and says I’m not going to Notre Dame because you guys bring in food instead of making it in your kitchen (on site), then it’s probably not a great fit.”
Remember when Brian Kelly was hired by LSU and one of the first things you heard about was the incredible cafe for athletes? That unquestionably helps LSU athletics and there is no denying it. If I’m a 17 or 18-year old kid though am I picking my college based off the food options? Spot on here by Freeman.
Enhancements would be nice, sure...
“This building opened in 2005. Our staff has out-grown it,” said Freeman from the Gug. “We have people doubling up. We need more office space. We obviously want a full-time kitchen to be more efficient and to be able to serve our players…
“We’re always looking to enhance. The training room, recovery…any way to get our players to maximize their potential and help them feel better, we’re looking for ways to do that.
When it was opened in 2005 it was state-of-the-art and certainly a piece of pride in the program. Like any building that construction began on two-decades ago, it’s outdated and I don’t blame Freeman for acknowledging that, but it’s what he said next that was best.
Reiterates it not being any excuse
“But that,” said Freeman with a chuckle, “is not a reason for not having won a national championship.”
I think Freeman is handling this just about perfectly. Yes, he’d like bigger offices and grander things for his staff and program, but is it the reason a kid doesn’t choose Notre Dame? Is it why Notre Dame largely hasn’t showed well in big games for the last 30 years? It might not be a net-positive but it’s not like a new modernized facility just wipes away all of the questions.
NIL confidence
“I feel like we have a great handle on NIL right now,” Freeman said. “Our players are truly maximizing their opportunities to make money off Name, Image and Likeness and that’s a credit to Notre Dame, the FUND, our collective, and what they’re doing.
From a far it feels like Notre Dame is turning the ship a bit regarding NIL. I feel safe in saying it’ll never be a place that uses NIL like maybe Texas A&M and some others do and perhaps some recruiting battles will show that. We’ll see come signing day if Freeman and the Irish have stopped some of those worrisome spots.
Transfer Portal
“I don’t want to major in transfer portal roster additions. I don’t believe that’s going to be our key. The foundation of our roster will continue to be high school recruiting. That’s where we will have to spend 90 percent of our time. Then, as the season goes on, we have to look and say, ‘What deficiencies do we have on our roster that we can instantly improve through the transfer portal?’
“We know we can’t just replace all attrition with transfer guys. We are very specific right now in the two types of individuals we can get admitted into our university. One, graduate transfers, and two, mostly first-year guys that have shown the ability to truly understand the academic challenges and expectations we have at Notre Dame.”
This part comes off funny to me. Sure, Notre Dame isn’t going to do what USC did last season and plenty of others like Florida State and Colorado have done in reworking an entire roster. That said, adding Sam Hartman, probably the biggest portal prize this off-season, can’t be undersold.
In Summary
My high school football coach used to always say “Excuses justify failure”. If we had a budget for extra t-shirts then that would have been on one (or several). It’s that kind of mindset that Freeman clearly has in regards to Notre Dame’s chances at winning it all.
I am however curious, and will remain so, what the exact story of what went down with the Andy Ludwig situation this past winter.
