Where in the world is Marcus Freeman: Fishing with QB1 edition
A quick search of “Marcus Freeman is everywhere” on Twitter shows that the Notre Dame head football coach certainly isn’t scared to get up and go. One minute he’s in South Bend and the next he’s at the White House. Whether its recruiting, doing public speaking, or something in-between, Freeman is certainly active.
During the first week of May, Notre Dame’s athletic webpage started a blog to track Freeman’s whereabouts as he is booked with events nationwide this month that aren’t directly related to on-the-field activities.
So what was the Notre Dame head coach up to in the last few days? Throwing some lines with his starting quarterback was just one of the things he was up to.
Visiting a national champion head coach
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Due to his interest in women’s basketball and with us being in Columbia, Coach Freeman took the time to stop in and visit two-time National Champion women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley.
A little side note: If you listen to Coach Freeman speak, you certainly have heard the term ‘the bumpy road to better’ and that is definitely the literal path we took to meeting up with Coach Staley! Swayed by the beautiful weather, we decided we would walk to see her, only we did not yet know exactly where we would be meeting her. Needless to say, our first guess was wrong and maybe even our second guess! But after about an hour of walking the enormous University of South Carolina campus, we made our way to Coach Staley’s office!
Coach Freeman enjoyed getting to sit down and connect with Coach Staley on a number of topics, which not surprisingly included championship culture, NIL and the transfer portal.
South Carolina is a force in women’s basketball as Staley has pretty much turned them into what Tennessee used to be. With that in mind they’re hardly a rival of Notre Dame’s, they just happen to be good. I would imagine if Freeman was in the northeast however, that he wouldn’t be stopping by Geno Auriemma‘s office.
Chapel Hill Bound
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It was time to depart Columbia and make our next stop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a visit with the Eastern North Carolina Alumni Club.
The ENC Alumni Club hosted us at the University of North Carolina’s on-campus hotel, The Carolina Inn. Coach Freeman again began the event by hosting a VIP meet and greet, signing memorabilia and taking photos.
It’s noted that North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham was in attendance as well. Cunningham is a graduate of Notre Dame and has been in his position at North Carolina since 2011. For whatever it’s worth, Cunningham was Tulsa’s athletic director when the Golden Hurricane upset the Irish at Notre Dame Stadium back in 2010.
Fishing with QB1
The blog is 🔙
Coach Freeman has been all over the southeast. See what he’s been up to ⬇️https://t.co/3Jlw4Hxuj2#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/dRx5jPpoKz
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) May 5, 2023
For lunch, we had a special stop in mind as Dr. Mark and Lisa Hartman, parents of quarterback Sam Hartman, hosted us for lunch at their new home in nearby Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. An added bonus was Sam being able to join us as he had arrived home earlier in the day upon completing his first semester as a Notre Dame graduate student…
Lisa prepared an amazing kale salad – Sam’s favorite – and we got to hear stories about Sam growing up…He and Coach Freeman led the group out to the Hartman’s dock and he took to his favorite pastime – fishing.
A glance at social media shows Hartman caught a fish but there is no evidence that Freeman did.
Also, I can’t help but imagine that somewhere Brian Kelly got up to take a phone call while Freeman sat down for the meal.
Charleston Alumni Club
USA TODAY NETWORK
Following dinner, Coach Freeman and Dolly (Duffy) made their way to the front of the room for their traditional fireside chat. After about a 20-minute conversation between the two of them, the Charleston crowd had the pleasure of hearing from Sam Hartman as well. Coach Freeman summoned Sam to the front to join him for the final 15 minutes of programming and the audience Q&A portion of the event.
It takes skill to be able to essentially have the same conversation on an almost-nightly basis and keep it entertaining. Props to Duffy and Freeman for making this the case because I’m sure its a challenge.
Next stop: Sarasota
USA TODAY SPORTS
Coach Freeman’s favorite way to pass time on the flights is to play cards, with his favorite games being Spades, Booray and Tonk. On tonight’s flight the games of choice were Booray and Tonk, and the record should stand that he did not walk away the winner.
Marcus Freeman and I are three weeks different in age and literally the only difference between us is that he likes cards and I couldn’t tell you how to play any of those games.
