Category: 2021 ND Football

Watch: Marcus Freeman’s first message as Notre Dame head coach

“This isn’t about the future, and not about next year…it’s about RIGHT NOW!”

Marcus Freeman is officially Notre Dame’s head football coach as of Friday morning.  The University offered a press release and has a press conference scheduled for Monday.

The current football team was surprised on Friday morning when a team workout was called for and they were introduced to their recently promoted defensive coordinator and new head coach.

That new head coach has since addressed the Notre Dame football team for the first time as head coach and he isn’t worried about the future but is instead focused on finishing the 2021 mission at hand.  Check out the video below:

Related:

Notre Dame officially hires Marcus Freeman

Marcus Freeman comments on Notre Dame promotion to head coach

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Twitter reaction – Freeman hire has many changing stances on Notre Dame football 

Watch: Notre Dame players get surprise announcement

You think you’re excited? Take a look at this team…

The Notre Dame football team was called to assemble for a Friday morning team workout.  Upon arrival they were greeted by strength and conditioning coach Matt Balis, a man we’ve mentioned a lot in recent days here at Fighting Irish Wire.

Before the workout Balis began to tell the team how proud he and everyone associated with the Notre Dame football program was for how they’ve handled an incredibly strange and difficult week.  He then…just watch the video and try not to run through a brick wall at the end of it:

What does a player’s coach look like?

Hint:  a player’s coach doesn’t have to tell anyone he’s a player’s because its painstakingly obvious to all around when someone is one and someone isn’t.

Awesome stuff and great job by the Notre Dame multimedia team to share this content.

Related:

Notre Dame officially hires Marcus Freeman

Marcus Freeman comments on Notre Dame promotion to head coach

Notre Dame football coaching staff tracker

Twitter reaction – Freeman hire has many changing stances on Notre Dame football 

Twitter reaction to Notre Dame officially hiring Marcus Freeman

Is anyone not excited?

Marcus Freeman was officially named Notre Dame’s head coach on Friday morning.  The move was known to be coming since Tuesday evening but obviously a lot had to go on behind the scenes in order to put it all in place.

Notre Dame’s football team was made aware of the news as they were called together Friday morning for what they were told was a team workout that instead turned into their new head coach being introduced by strength and conditioning coach Matt Balis.

The rest of the college football world reacted to official news of the hiring as well.  See some of the best below:

Marcus Freeman on being named Notre Dame head coach

Who is more excited about this hire: Freeman or Notre Dame fans?

It has been known for a couple of days now that Marcus Freeman was going to be Notre Dame’s next head coach but on Friday morning the announcement was officially made by the University.  In the press release the University of Notre Dame sent out, Freeman made his first comments about being named the 30th head coach in program history.

“It is an honor to be named the head coach of Notre Dame Football,” said Freeman. “I am eternally grateful to both Father John Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick for giving me the opportunity to lead the exceptional men who make this program what it is. Notre Dame is a very special place and I look forward to pursuing a national championship with the most outstanding student-athletes, coaches and staff in college football.” – Marcus Freeman

Previous to Notre Dame, Freeman served as the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati and worked at Purdue and Kent State before that.  He was also a graduate assistant at Ohio State where he had previously played for the Buckeyes from 2005-2009.

Related Links:

Twitter reaction to Notre Dame’s hiring of Marcus Freeman

5 reasons Marcus Freeman is the right man for the Notre Dame job

Photos: New Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman through the years

Twitter users roast Brian Kelly for awful accent

What was the best tweet you saw in regards to Kelly’s awful accent?

Wednesday saw Brian Kelly get introduced as LSU’s new football coach and by nightfall he had stopped by the LSU basketball game to address the crowd at halftime,  It was during that roughly two minute speech that Kelly turned into Gomer Pyle despite only having lived as an adult in the northeastern United States, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

As you can probably expect, Twitter users had a field day roasting the former Notre Dame coach for his suddenly different voice.  Below are some of the best tweets in regards to Kelly’s accent that we saw:

Watch: Brian Kelly debuts sudden new southern accent

Oh dear lord this is cringe-worthy

Brian Kelly and his family haven’t even unpacked their bags yet in Baton Rouge but there has already been a massive change for the former Notre Dame head coach.  After speaking at his introductory press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Kelly stopped by the LSU men’s basketball game that evening.  It was there he debuted his new southern accent while addressing the crowd at halftime.

Related: Notre Dame coaching staff tracker

Take a peek at the video below and start it at roughly the 30 second mark.  A fair warning to you that things are about to get really uncomfortable and awkward.

Who is that guy?

I’ve listened to Brian Kelly press conferences and interviews for more than a decade and never heard a single hint of an accent whatsoever.  Now all of a sudden he spends ten minutes in Louisiana and he belongs on the cast of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Related: 5 reasons to love the Marcus Freeman hire

My level of discomfort sitting through those couple minutes was limitless.  Perhaps whatever the heck that voice was is why Kelly’s assistants at Notre Dame all decided to stay at Notre Dame.

Related:

See It – Brian Kelly arrives in Baton Rouge

 

ESPN FPI being kind to Notre Dame?

Is Notre Dame essentially a coin toss to make the dance at this point?

We’ve followed just about every poll, rankings system, and college football analyst who decides to put together rankings this season and one we kept finding to be quite compelling was ESPN’s Football Power Index.  It was mind-boggling at times but also very compelling, however it was rarely favorable to Notre Dame.

That may be until this moment.

The majority of the nation had seemingly written off Notre Dame’s chances at a College Football Playoff berth months ago, yet at 11-1 and their regular season already a wrap, their odds haven’t been viewed as overly great.

Related: Notre Dame football coaching tracker

FPI tells a slightly different story however as they relatively like Notre Dame’s odds at crashing the playoff party.  There are seven teams who FPI says has a chance at a playoff spot so who are they and what are their chances?

Lou Holtz the latest to express disappointment in Brian Kelly

Lou has weighed in…

Has anyone associated with Notre Dame not come forward and stated their displeasure for Brian Kelly’s actions in leaving for LSU?

Brady Quinn has, assistant coaches may not have by words but certainly rallied together based off their actions, and plenty of fans and former players did the same.

You can now add Lou Holtz to the list of those agitated by the now LSU head coach.

“You just don’t leave Notre Dame,” Holtz said Wednesday on The Crowd’s line which he co-hosts with Mark May. “You don’t go to Notre Dame for the money!”

“The other thing that bothered me about him, he never talked about Notre Dame and what really made it great,” Holtz continued, “To be part of Notre Dame you’ve got to talk about the Lady on the Dome…you have to feel the spirit of Notre Dame and you’ve just got to be part of it!”

Holtz also mentioned how Kelly’s biggest win at Notre Dame came against a Clemson team playing without their best player and did praise the accomplishments of Kelly under the dome, but did finish with a bit more of a jab:

“To go somewhere for money, I just don’t think that’s the right reason.”

Personally I was fairly surprised how reserved Holtz was in discussing this compared to how he often can be.

See It: Marcus Freeman’s 2003 recruiting profile

“His head coach calls Marcus a once in a lifetime ballplayer”

Recruiting has certainly changed over the years as sites like Rivals and 247Sports have soared the last two decades and seemingly every high school football player who sees the field has their own Hudl to display their skills.

Not that long ago the recruiting world was quite a bit different, however.  For instance, when soon-to-be Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was being recruited one of the biggest outlets to learn about the future college stars was in “Tom Lemming’s Prep Football Report”.

Lemming was one of the first to really start to cover high school players and recruiting in the capacity it’s done now.  Lemming is still active in the craft and on Thursday morning shared Freeman’s profile from his 2003 edition.

It reads exactly like that of the elite recruit Freeman was when the Wayne (Dayton, Ohio) High School star took his talents to Ohio State.

Freeman will turn 36 on January 10 which just so happens to be the date of this season’s College Football Playoff championship game.

Related:

Photos Gallery – Marcus Freeman through the years

Notre Dame coaching staff tracker – who is stays and goes?

Notre Dame football coaching staff wish list

Notre Dame Football Coaching Staff Tracker

What Notre Dame coaches are coming and going in wake of Freeman hire?

When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU the fear among Fighting Irish faithful was that he’d be taking a good amount of assistant coaches with him.  By doing so that would sting Notre Dame both in the present and in the future as not only coaches would theoretically leave and then current players and recruits would perhaps follow the coaches they have close relationships with as well.

That may have been the fear but so far it’s certainly not the case as to what has happened as one by one more Notre Dame assistants have been reported to be staying on the coaching staff as we await the University to confirm the reports of Marcus Freeman being the next head football coach.

If Kelly thought he’d be able to bring a good amount of the staff with him, so far it’s gone for him about as well as it did for Jerry MaGuire when he left to start his own agency.

Here are what we know so far in regards to Notre Dame’s staff and who is returning and who we do not yet know: