The Mike Martin Effect: How Character and Culture Will Propel Notre Dame Football
Choose hard. Team glory.
Those messages sound great at a press conference and look great on a t-shirt. They also are the kind of things that coaches preach all the time, but they aren’t more than words.
That isn’t the case with Marcus Freeman’s program. We saw his players and staff at Notre Dame embody those words and the results followed. Freeman has increased the overall talent on the roster as evidenced by an uptick in blue-chip ratio (percentage of 4 and 5-stars signed over four years). That doesn’t matter without buy-in from the players and that doesn’t occur without finding the right players for Notre Dame.
The buy-in came from players who signed while Brian Kelly was still the head coach as well as ones who signed to play for Freeman. Only one player opted out during the season. No players entered the transfer portal at the conclusion of the regular season. None of the six players who decided to transfer after the conclusion of the College Football Playoff were projected starters in 2025.
Georgia and Penn State, who both lost to the Irish in the CFP, had key players leave the program at the end of their regular seasons and lost projected 2025 starters after it.
It’s not easy to retain players in this era of college football. Notre Dame has done an exceptional job of it and Freeman explained how they’ve been able to accomplish that while they were competing in the CFP.
It's not an easy answer to say how you keep young people part of your program. But if you can get them to feel like they have value and you can get them to understand that whatever role they have determined for them in that week or this season is going to be a part of us reaching our full potential, then I think you can more so than not get them to stay.
I think young people want to be valued, and that's important. So I think you've also got to show them stories of examples of guys that have stayed the course and have turned into great football players. You look at a guy like Xavier Watts that redshirted and moved to wideout his first year and moved to DB his second year and played very little, and then his first year starting was just okay and his fourth year he wins the Bronko Nagurski award. So you have to use that example just as much as the example of seeing a Leonard Moore, a true freshman that ends up starting at corner.
Everybody's journey is different. And if you can convince them that your journey is your journey, don't compare your journey to his journey, that's hopefully a way to get young people to stay.
If Watts was a different person, then his story at Notre Dame ends a lot sooner. He stayed and is now an example for others to follow.
The talent of the player matters. Placing a precedent on talent without properly evaluating the person can damage a program’s culture. Notre Dame’s new general manager Mike Martin knows that he is walking into a situation where the culture is in a good place.
Part of Martin’s job is to find talent, but it’s not going to be at the expense of finding the right people that fit Notre Dame and Freeman’s program.
”I think process is a big part of what I believe in. I think to everything there is a process and developing out those processes and being well thought out with those processes are a big thing, even in evaluations,” explained Martin. “There’s a lot more than seeing a talented kid play football. There’s a lot that goes into it. Digging and figuring out the background of kids.
“I’m a big believer in the intangibles, so character will be a big part. I know here, there are so many people of character. If you don’t have that and if you’re not of a certain yoke, you’ll be a little out of place here. I want to make sure you guys understand the process for me starts with character.”
There are very few recruits who are ready to make an immediate impact. They rarely are physically or mentally ready to do so. Players have to want to be coached and be willing to work through adversity when things don’t come easily. And if they aren’t a starter or star as early as they want to be, they still have to want to be a part of what the team is trying to accomplish.
“When you get to the evaluation process, it’s identifying players who fit what we’re looking for, not just on the field, but in terms of as a person. People who are open to being developed,” Martin said. “It’s important we develop young individuals. Whether it’s football players or athletes, or employees who I’ll work alongside - it’s important to develop them.
“It’s important they understand we share the goal of trying to reach team greatness. It’s all a collaborative and team thing. Team glory will be huge here. Marcus says it over and over again. It’s about team glory.”
Martin worked for the Detroit Lions before this opportunity at Notre Dame. A big part of what drew him to the job was the similarities between the two organizations. The culture starts at the top and it trickles down from there.
“Jack Kiser probably said it best in his people speech (after the national championship game). It’s the people,” Martin stated. “Detroit, there’s a lot of awesome people there. Dan Campbell is one of the most sincere people and a great person. Brad Holmes is the same. “I felt a lot of the similarities here from the moment I met Coach Free, Pete Bevacqua, Ron (Powlus) and all of the staff. My staff currently is just a great feel. That’s what makes this place special and that’s what drew me to this place.”
There’s always something to be learned from teams that win. One of the important things to take away from Notre Dame’s success last season is that character matters. Having people who will put team success before individual success matters. Upgrading the talent would mean nothing if the culture wasn’t elevated by those players. Martin is happy to use analytics to help narrow down lists for talent, but players need to check the character box in the same way they check the boxes for speed or size.
It’s clear that Martin understands it’s not just as simple as finding the best players. It’s about finding the right fit for Notre Dame. It’s easy to see why Freeman and Martin can work together well when they are so closely aligned with the type of people they are looking to add to the program.
Men's Cutter & Buck Green Notre Dame Fighting Irish Play Like A Champion Today Coastline Epic Comfort Eco Recycled Polo
