Notre Dame Isn't Starting Over, Marcus Freeman Is Simply Trying to Start Faster

Marcus Freeman didn't run from Notre Dame's September struggles.

Maybe that's because they're impossible to ignore.

Losses to Marshall, Northern Illinois, Ohio State (twice), Miami and Texas A&M have become the "bloody wounds" Freeman often references when discussing the program's evolution.

There's little debate that Notre Dame is in a significantly better place than when Freeman took over. But one trend has persisted throughout his tenure. The Irish have struggled early in the season against both the best and the worst teams on their schedule.

In 2022, Notre Dame lost to Marshall, arguably the weakest opponent on its schedule, and to Ohio State, the toughest. In 2023, it was an almost inexcusable loss to the Buckeyes at home. 

The pattern resurfaced in 2024 with the stunning upset loss to Northern Illinois before another defeat to Ohio State, but that was in the national championship game.

Then last season, the Irish opened 0-2 against what proved to be the two best teams on their schedule. While they responded with a comfortable win over Purdue, the performance still left plenty to be desired.

Freeman knows September has been an issue and he's challenged everyone in the program to figure out why.

“The focus has to be how do we become a better program at the start of the season, right? We’ll evaluate it based on outcomes, I’m sure, but how do we become a better program? You have to evaluate, again, for us it went back to January.

“What did we do from January to spring ball and is there a better way to do that? Maybe we need more lifting and conditioning in what we’re doing in spring ball. But then even going into fall camp, how are we gonna do fall camp?” 

That evaluation has already resulted in adjustments.

With new additions to the coaching staff and ideas gathered from outside the program, Freeman revamped portions of Notre Dame's offseason training and fall camp schedule.

The changes likely won't be noticeable to fans, or even players, but Freeman believes small refinements can make a meaningful difference when September arrives.

“We’ve made some slight adjustments,” Freeman explained. “We ran fall camp very similar the past two years. We’re gonna have a little bit of slight adjustments, when the off day is and stuff like that.

“It wasn’t just some off-the-wall thing. It was just change. It’s give me your expertise, give me your expertise, what have you done when you were here or there. Let me look at your training camp schedule. I took some of those different calendars and thoughts and kind of came up with ours for this fall camp.”

At the same time, Freeman isn't looking to reinvent a program that's consistently improved as seasons have progressed.

Notre Dame has won at least 10 regular-season games in each of the past two years, and one of the hallmarks of Freeman's tenure has been the team's ability to play its best football late in the season.

“We still have to evaluate what we’re doing, but I think as you look at over the four years, we’ve improved as a team as the season goes on,” said Freeman. “There’s something that we’re doing in our process that is helping us improve and play better at the end of the season.” 

That trend could prove especially important this fall, with Notre Dame's three toughest games (on paper) all coming during the second half of the schedule.

“How do we make that better,” stated Freeman. “How do we evaluate through practice scripts and through what we’re doing through science to make that better, but also how do we fix the way we start? I think it’s a fine line. We don’t wanna blow it up. We’re doing something that’s right. There’s a way to get better and we just gotta find it.”

If Freeman believes he's found the answer, he certainly wasn't sharing it publicly. What he did reveal was how he spent part of his offseason seeking fresh perspectives.

Freeman spoke with several NBA coaches and continued building his relationship with Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, looking outside football for new ideas on leadership, preparation and building a championship program.

“A lot of self-eval this year of what we’re doing, why we’re doing it,” Freeman said of his offseason. “I spent some time with some basketball coaches. Me and Jon Scheyer have become pretty close, just because of similar situations in basketball. I love Shrews (Micah Shrewsberry), but I’m just saying, like I’ve gotten pretty close with Scheyer, just talking about different things.” 

Scheyer also echoed the benefits of the relationship as the two programs are extremely similar. 

“There's just a lot of parallels when you look at it,” Scheyer said following Duke’s game with Notre Dame. “Huge fan of who he is, what he's all about. We've kept in touch through the years because I think he's as good as any coach that's out there. He's establishing himself as a head coach.

“He’s handled adversity incredibly well, which I think is a big part of what we do.” 

Still, some of Freeman's most valuable conversations don't happen with coaches at all.

Instead, they come from the people who simply know him as Marcus.

“You have those close circles of people that love — the people that call you Marcus,” Freeman explained. “I say it all the time, sometimes it’s (refreshing) to just be Marcus. That could be college teammates like James (Laurinaitis) and Rory Nicol and some other guys, Ted Ginn. It could be maybe non-teammates, maybe guys that grew up in high school and I talked to my father a little bit. 

“Using my time to talk to people is from leaving here to home. I gotta call my kids too. I gotta call my son, who’s at Cornell and check on him, and so I don’t get a whole bunch of time. It’s important to have those certain relationships. I believe I actually take a little bit more than I give, like they make me better. They give me a little rejuvenation, and I wish I could give them more. Those relationships help me be a better version of myself.” 

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