Quiet, Intentional, Effective: Notre Dame’s Ideal Offseason Under Marcus Freeman
Stability, not noise, defined the last month in South Bend.
Player retention was a master class. The Irish continue to recruit at an elite level in both high school and the transfer portal.
Marcus Freeman saw just one position coach leave this offseason, as Max Bullough returned to his alma mater to become co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Michigan State.
It didn’t take long for Freeman to enhance his staff while maintaining cohesion.
Al Washington will move from defensive line coach to linebackers, a familiar role after coaching the position at Michigan and Ohio State.
Freeman has long respected Washington’s work at the second level and viewed the transition as a perfect fit and a professional opportunity.
“I think it was a very short conversation between myself and Coach (Chris) Ash before I talked to Coach Washington about it,” Freeman explained. “We were together in 2017 when he was D-line coach at Cincinnati and I followed him from afar when he went to Michigan and Ohio State.
“I remember being a part of a clinic over Zoom during COVID when he was presenting on linebacker play. He's intelligent, a great developer of all positions, but especially linebacker and D-line.”
The move allows Washington to coach a deep linebacker room — one with proven production and significant upside, while also enhancing his résumé.
“When I looked at the opening, I knew what was best for our defense, but also what was best for his career was to take over the linebacker crew as our run game coordinator,” Freeman stated. “We obviously went and got Charlie Partridge. I think more than anything, it speaks to the coach he is, and the well-rounded, diverse football coach that Al Washington is.”
Washington will also be tasked with developing Notre Dame’s youth at the position. Jaiden Ausberry, Drayk Bowen, Jaylen Sneed and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa are proven, but there’s a possibility all four won’t be in South Bend a year from now.
This spring will be crucial, and there will be no shortage of reps. Bowen and Viliamu-Asa will miss spring practice as they recover from offseason surgeries.
“I expect him to be back sometime in the fall,” said Freeman of Viliamu-Asa.. “He will be back in the fall. We expect him somewhere around the start of the season to be full go. He's doing really, really well in his rehab and recovery process.
“As far as Drayk, he'll be back at some point during the spring doing some type of activity. I don't know if he'll be full go for the spring, but it was more of a cleanup of his labrum.”
Charlie Partridge arrives in South Bend with a reputation as one of the top defensive line coaches at any level of football. His track record of development and talent identification may be second to none, as evidenced by his time at Pitt and in the NFL.
Freeman doesn’t have a long relationship with Partridge, but the two connected over the summer as Ash spent plenty of time around him while they were at Drake.
“I got to meet Charlie this summer,” stated Freeman. “I remember being a linebacker coach at Purdue and recruiting South Florida from 2013 to 2016. During that time, he was the head coach at FAU. Some of the recruits they were getting, some of the things I had heard about who Charlie Partridge was, have stuck with me.
“He came over this summer because him and Coach Ash were roommates in college and he visited with us. I knew he was with the Indianapolis Colts and I've even talked to Brian Mason, their special teams coordinator about him.”
What stood out most wasn’t just Partridge’s résumé. It was how former players spoke about him.
“It’s not as much as on the interview, as much as your reputation,” explained Freeman. “You hear some of the things that JJ Watt says about who Charlie Partridge was when he coached him. There's a guy at the Bengals, (Trey) Hendrickson. A lot of the players that he's coached, the things they say about him to me, I said, that's the guy I want to be a part of this football staff.
“X's and O's wise, he's as good as anyone I've ever been around, but who he is as a person and a developer of young men is what made him the right fit for our staff.”
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