Tag: catholic school

Marcus Freeman has converted to Catholicism

Welcome to the Church, Coach!

Not everyone who works or goes to school at Notre Dame is Catholic, but Catholicism is the primary identity of the university. Anyone who professes the faith can fit in right away strictly for that reason. Now, you can add [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] to that list. The Irish football coach officially has joined the faith according to the Sept. 11 bulletin at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Granger.

The Rev. Nate Wills, Notre Dame’s football chaplain, had been preparing Freeman for this moment ever since Freeman first came to South Bend. During a Mass in August that included the [autotag]Rev. John Jenkins[/autotag], Notre Dame’s president, Freeman was confirmed and made his First Communion:

By joining the Church, Freeman joins his wife and six children as members. It also paints his decision to reinstate the pregame Mass with the football team in a new light. This is his faith now, and he can serve as an example to the community with that faith.

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Lou Holtz prayed Rosary for Notre Dame to win national title

Did the power of prayer help the Irish win their last national title?

This probably won’t surprise anyone, but Lou Holtz is a man of faith. That being the case, it only made sense that he and a Catholic university like Notre Dame worked so well together for so long. In fact, it was because Holtz prayed the Rosary on a regular basis that the Irish achieved great success in 1987 and 1988, or so he says in this interview:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaVVFUXjI8J/

After Holtz’s first time praying the Rosary for 30 days, the Irish made it to the Cotton Bowl, the program’s first New Year’s Six bowl in seven years. The Irish suffered a 35-10 loss to Texas A&M in that game. Of course, the Irish won their most recent national championship the next year, and that followed another 30-day period of Holtz praying the Rosary.

Give whatever reasons you want for the Irish’s success during that two-year period, but as far as Holtz is concerned, his devotion to prayer was the primary thing that put his team over the top.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame Rival Report: Boston College Fires Steve Addazio

Addazio finishes with a 44-44 record in his seven seasons while his Eagles teams went to bowl games in five of his seven seasons and at 6-6 qualified for a sixth this season.

As we await word if the Sports Illustrated report from earlier today plays out to be a true about Clay Helton and his future at USC, another rival of Notre Dame has made their coaches firing official.

After seven seasons of perfectly average football, Steve Addazio is out as Boston College’s head coach.

Addazio finishes with a 44-44 record in his seven seasons while his Eagles teams went to bowl games in five of his seven seasons and at 6-6 qualified for a sixth this season.

But the lack of growth in the program is likely the main reason he’s out at Boston College.

The former Temple head coach began his run at BC with a 7-6 mark in 2013 that ended in an Independence Bowl appearance where the Eagles fell to Arizona.

He would win seven games four more times as Boston College’s head coach, but never more.

His worst year came in 2015 when the Eagles went just 3-9 and 0-8 in ACC play.

Addazio lost all three games to Notre Dame while at Boston College:  19-16 in the 2015 Shamrock Series Game at Fenway Park, 49-20 at Boston College in 2017 and just a couple of weeks ago in South Bend, a 40-7 Notre Dame victory on Senior Day.

Addazio will probably be best remembered (by me at least) for his “What’s Better Than This” video that took over the college football section of the internet a few short years ago…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzSVmsrJEzk&w=560&h=315]