When Notre Dame hired [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] to replace [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] an instant burst of energy fired through the program as well as the fan base that hadn’t been felt in quite some time. Despite that excitement, Freeman has had struggles.
Notre Dame is 3-3 halfway through the 2022 season, which they started ranked fifth nationally. Sure, that was beyond Freeman’s control. This team had more flaws than we probably wanted to admit in August, and it wasn’t a realistic College Football Playoff contender. Sitting 3-3 with losses to Marshall and Stanford, neither of which has beaten any other Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, wasn’t supposed to be in the cards either.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg graded each of the new head coach hires at the halfway point of the 2022 season. Click ahead to see how he graded and evaluated Freeman’s first year to date.