It’s game week, and there might have been a little gamesmanship involved on Monday when Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell held their respective press conferences.
The two have a long history.
Fickell coached Freeman at Ohio State before the two reunited at Cincinnati, where Freeman served as the Bearcats’ defensive coordinator under his former position coach.
Now, the two will meet as opposing head coaches for the first time when Notre Dame and Wisconsin open the 2026 season Sunday night at Lambeau Field.
There was certainly mutual respect between the two coaches Monday, although neither used the word “friend” when discussing the other, despite several photos circulating over the years showing their families together.
“I got a lot of respect for Luke Fickell,” stated Freeman. “At the end of the day, it's not about us. It's about our team and our program, but it'll be good to see him pregame. I haven't seen him in a while. I have a lot of respect for him.
“I wouldn't be in this position without the investment he made in me. And so, again, just the gratitude you have for that, more than anything, is what's important about that.”
Fickell, who was also a candidate in Notre Dame’s coaching search when Brian Kelly bolted to LSU, has kept tabs on Freeman and mentioned he was happy to see the success of his former pupil.
"I've known him for a long time and I've been around some really good coaches,” explained Fickell. “Coaches like that continue to find ways to make themselves even better. So seeing the growth of that program and that team from afar, there is a part of it that makes you happy about it, having a history with a lot of the guys that are there with that staff.”
And yes, Fickell has quite a history with Notre Dame’s coaching staff.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli and receivers coach Mike Brown were all members of Fickell’s staff at Cincinnati. Guidugli and Brown later followed Fickell to Wisconsin before being hired away by Freeman.
Offensive line coach Joe Rudolph was a graduate assistant at Ohio State when Fickell was the Buckeyes’ linebackers coach.
And then there’s defensive coordinator Chris Ash, who worked alongside Fickell as co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State when the Buckeyes won the 2014 national championship.
Fickell and Freeman may know each other better than most opposing head coaches, and Freeman clearly learned valuable lessons from Fickell both as a player and as a coach.
“When I think about Luke Fickell, I think of a tireless worker,” Freeman stated. “I think about the demands that he has for his players, his coaches, and the mindset that this is the way we're going to play. This is who we are. This is our identity and we're committed to it. Those are our traits that I continue to instill in our guys that he instilled in me as a player and as a coach.”
There’s likely a little bit of Fickell in the way Freeman runs the Notre Dame program, just as there’s a little bit of their former mentor, Jim Tressel, in both coaches.
But Fickell believes the best coaches eventually take what they learn from their mentors and turn it into something of their own.
“I think that guys find a way to create their own identities,” said Fickell. “The guys that find a lot of success, like Marcus has, find ways to create identities for themselves. Whether the time with us, or at Ohio State, or under Jim Tressel, really good ones find a great way to create an identity for themselves, and I think he has done just that over there."
For all the history between Freeman and Fickell, Sunday isn’t about mentorship, friendship or the Ohio State coaching tree.
It’s about winning.
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