My minor from my small local university on the Susquehanna River is in economics. So I think alot in trends.

ND football usually buys high in the market. They get an experienced head coach or NFL guy who passes the eye test.

Last 2 times they were in they bought high and correctly on defensive coordinator. Mike Elko like Brian Kelly later we found out that the asset was to coveted to keep. Marcus Freeman made a business/personal  decision because his wife had family in the area and he was from the midwest to take ND's offer over LSU's

Fast forward a year later Brian Kelly's stock was at its peak and the guy who "bought high"  on Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M did the same thing for Brian Kelly because he thought he was getting Notre Dame's whole football operation. The firm of Kelly, Freeman, Rees. He figured incorrectly as Jack Swarbrick had other ideas. Sure, I'll give you the head coach I've had for 11-12 years at a higher price than I wanted to pay. BUT............I'm going to make impossible for you to get the insurance of having Freeman or Rees as a coach in waiting. I'm going to hire Freeman a year or 2 before he's ready to be the hottest head coaching candidate on the market having FAITH that he will get there. If Rees does move on he might just move on to LSU's biggest Rival Alabama..

I honestly believe Jack's plan is to hold on to and grow with Marcus Freeman. I urge my fellow fans to hold on and not sell out though it was tempting after watching a 5 turnover distaster of a road loss. But the USC win should reinforce what needs to happen. I also like what Parkers doing schematically but he needs another year to get his air-raid passing scheme and his pin and pull heavy running scheme in place. Our offense will have a South Texas flair to it when he's done but still be able to hang in cold south bend november. I just need you  all to hold on to to your fandom a bit longer.

Not exactly sure why this is here now.  Did something happen?

Just now, TexasDomer said:

Not exactly sure why this is here now.  Did something happen?

The stock's been pretty up and down the last two weeks i'm just encouraging people to hold on even if it gets bumpy again.

I have a bachelor's in History.  As the adage goes, "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."  This is where I stand with ND football and head coach hires in my lifetime.  We hired three coaches with zero head coaching experience Faust, Davie, and Weis, plus a diversity hire who had one decent season in an extremely subpar Pac 10 with Willingham.  Ara outright said he needed every bit of HC experience he had to come to ND and be successful.  Our administration has been grossly incompetent in this area for a long time, despite known factors that make a successful HC here.

That said I really like Freeman and want him to succeed.  I would love him to buck the trend of first time coaches at ND.  Prior to the seismic shifts going on with CFB with NIL, transfers, and realignment, I probably would have been more confident in Freeman and his ability to recruit which can overcome coaching mishaps on occasion.  We had three 5* pretty much ready to come last year minus NIL drama.  Will he be able to overcome the changing landscape on top of experience?  I'd like to see it happen and will be patient for now.

In Freeman We Trust

If anyone can navigate this new landscape, it will definitely be Marcus Freeman.

The reason is he’s younger, which makes him much more connected to this new landscape! Same goes for his coaches, with all but Rudolph and Golden, being fairly young in the grand scheme of the CFB world.

That’s just how I see it anyway. 🍻

But yes @NYGoldenDomer, In Freeman We Trust!!

3 hours ago, jessemoore97 said:

I have a bachelor's in History.  As the adage goes, "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."  This is where I stand with ND football and head coach hires in my lifetime.  We hired three coaches with zero head coaching experience Faust, Davie, and Weis, plus a diversity hire who had one decent season in an extremely subpar Pac 10 with Willingham.  Ara outright said he needed every bit of HC experience he had to come to ND and be successful.  Our administration has been grossly incompetent in this area for a long time, despite known factors that make a successful HC here.

That said I really like Freeman and want him to succeed.  I would love him to buck the trend of first time coaches at ND.  Prior to the seismic shifts going on with CFB with NIL, transfers, and realignment, I probably would have been more confident in Freeman and his ability to recruit which can overcome coaching mishaps on occasion.  We had three 5* pretty much ready to come last year minus NIL drama.  Will he be able to overcome the changing landscape on top of experience?  I'd like to see it happen and will be patient for now.

History also says we were willing to let BK go 8-5, and 8-5 when his "experience" finally kicked in in year 3. I'm glad you're at least willing to let Marcus go 2 seasons. Some guys already wanted change. My Bachelors is in political science, very similiar to history but more like how governments make policy. I think a policy of give them the length of the first contract is a good one that was never broken before Faust I believe. I'm willing to give Freeman  at 5 years (3 more at least, are you?)

I'm all for giving Freeman the full five years.  He has shown his inexperience no doubt about it, making many question his hire.  Yet he has also had really good games, like USC last week and Clemson last year.  There's something there IMO, and hopefully Freeman is able to harness consistency and coalesce everything as his regime moves forward.

Besides his inexperience, which is a big deal, he doesn't appear to have many other albatross tied to him, namely ego.  Freeman is very driven, yet he is humble and understands his shortcomings, which seems to motivate him to improve.  And as Baldy mentioned,  his youth may actually be better suited to the evolving landscape better than more seasoned coaches who may struggle with the times a changing.  The biggest hurdle I perceive is our administration, who as we've observed in the past can be very slow in the sea of change.  With Swarmy and Jenkins both stepping out the door, perhaps that may change the equation with new blood and ideas.  We'll see...

The biggest reason to give Freeman time is that he works tirelessly on recruiting. IMO, multi seven figure recruiting budgets and NIL seem to have concentrated talent even more in the Top 10 teams. Thankfully, ND has been able to stay close with Freeman. If Kelly had still been at ND, I think that he would have had classes closer to #20 instead of #10 and the Irish would be slipping away from being able to contend. 

As it is now, the Irish have talent to compete this year with the Ohio States and Southern Cals with the younger classes being thought to have better physical skills than the upper classmen.

Just now, jbrown_9999 said:

The biggest reason to give Freeman time is that he works tirelessly on recruiting. IMO, multi seven figure recruiting budgets and NIL seem to have concentrated talent even more in the Top 10 teams. Thankfully, ND has been able to stay close with Freeman. If Kelly had still been at ND, I think that he would have had classes closer to #20 instead of #10 and the Irish would be slipping away from being able to contend. 

As it is now, the Irish have talent to compete this year with the Ohio States and Southern Cals with the younger classes being thought to have better physical skills than the upper classmen.

Great point. Urban Meyer was the first to say, I love special teams but I am also the head of recruiting. Notice Freeman never appointed a recruiting coordiinator so to speak. When he hired and empowered Al Golden, I'm like he's serious, he's going to basically coordinate recruiting and he has. Its not Freeman's defense anymore its Al's defense, but its freeman's team. Notice special teams getting better that directly corelates with recruiting because a lot of your young guys play on special teams teams. 

1 hour ago, FaithInIrish Forever said:

Great point. Urban Meyer was the first to say, I love special teams but I am also the head of recruiting. Notice Freeman never appointed a recruiting coordiinator so to speak. When he hired and empowered Al Golden, I'm like he's serious, he's going to basically coordinate recruiting and he has. Its not Freeman's defense anymore its Al's defense, but its freeman's team. Notice special teams getting better that directly corelates with recruiting because a lot of your young guys play on special teams teams. 

When Freeman was DC under Kelly, he basically took over as recruiting coordinator for defense and some offensive ND assistants talked about how they felt they needed to step up their recruiting due to the example Freeman was setting. (sad but telling that it was Freeman not Kelly who was the catalyst for improvement)

I like coach Freeman and he's the CEO of the team.  He's got to hold coaches accountable and continuously push for excellence.  Lackluster play against Louisville is just unacceptable.  Sometimes I wonder if Freeman is just too nice at times.  Don't want purple face Kelly but a little more intensity when players are sleepwalking would be nice.

Yes, Golden is on a hot streak. Why did it take so long for him to realize that he's got excellent DBs and he can pressure opposing QBs and leave them in single coverage?? Also not convinced that Golden is buying into the recruiting process like he needs to.

Why isn't Parker getting more out of preseason Heisman candidate Hartman? Yes, the WRs aren't as good as we would like but Parker should be able to scheme them open with Hartman's abilities.  More play action to take advantage of stacked boxes, perhaps.

It could be worse but my standard for this team is high!

1 minute ago, 4thand1 said:

I like coach Freeman and he's the CEO of the team.  He's got to hold coaches accountable and continuously push for excellence.  Lackluster play against Louisville is just unacceptable.  Sometimes I wonder if Freeman is just too nice at times.  Don't want purple face Kelly but a little more intensity when players are sleepwalking would be nice.

Yes, Golden is on a hot streak. Why did it take so long for him to realize that he's got excellent DBs and he can pressure opposing QBs and leave them in single coverage?? Also not convinced that Golden is buying into the recruiting process like he needs to.

Why isn't Parker getting more out of preseason Heisman candidate Hartman? Yes, the WRs aren't as good as we would like but Parker should be able to scheme them open with Hartman's abilities.  More play action to take advantage of stacked boxes, perhaps.

It could be worse but my standard for this team is high!

Players have been in position all year they've not tackled real well in key moments until last week

Anyone else more than a little concerned that ND has been about the only offense that the USC defense has been able to stop? I’ve watched this Utah team all season, and their offense is not good at all. I’m pretty sure they are on their 3rd string qb and they look way better than the ND offense against this USC defense. It still boggles my mind how ND can be so inept on offense when you look at the roster. Freeman is going to have some big decisions to make about the future of his offense.

54 minutes ago, nremdn said:

Anyone else more than a little concerned that ND has been about the only offense that the USC defense has been able to stop? I’ve watched this Utah team all season, and their offense is not good at all. I’m pretty sure they are on their 3rd string qb and they look way better than the ND offense against this USC defense. It still boggles my mind how ND can be so inept on offense when you look at the roster. Freeman is going to have some big decisions to make about the future of his offense.

You’re not wrong, but I was so happy to see USC lose again! Notre Dame broke them! 😝😂

1 hour ago, nremdn said:

Anyone else more than a little concerned that ND has been about the only offense that the USC defense has been able to stop? I’ve watched this Utah team all season, and their offense is not good at all. I’m pretty sure they are on their 3rd string qb and they look way better than the ND offense against this USC defense. It still boggles my mind how ND can be so inept on offense when you look at the roster. Freeman is going to have some big decisions to make about the future of his offense.

Not really, I was pretty pleased with a 4 TD victory over a top 10 undefeated team, all while ruining our biggest rivals’ playoff chances and qb’s heisman chances

1 hour ago, nremdn said:

Anyone else more than a little concerned that ND has been about the only offense that the USC defense has been able to stop? I’ve watched this Utah team all season, and their offense is not good at all. I’m pretty sure they are on their 3rd string qb and they look way better than the ND offense against this USC defense. It still boggles my mind how ND can be so inept on offense when you look at the roster. Freeman is going to have some big decisions to make about the future of his offense.

I am very concerned. Parker has no business being an OC in training with this offense. He is way over his skis. No short passing game and an uninspiring use of our skill players. 

1 hour ago, Baldy said:

You’re not wrong, but I was so happy to see USC lose again! Notre Dame broke them! 😝😂

You’ve got that right! I’m sure no one is shocked that a team of hired guns coached by a hired gun struggles with adversity.

31 minutes ago, VCDomer said:

I am very concerned. Parker has no business being an OC in training with this offense. He is way over his skis. No short passing game and an uninspiring use of our skill players. 

It will be very interesting to see how Freeman handles the offense going forward. I can’t imagine he’s too happy the offense has been so consistently bad since he took over.

I'm very interested in the off season.  I think Golden will be gone for another job, and I don't know if Freeman will retain Parker or not.  Potentially we could lose both coordinators, and what does that process look like this time around?  Will Freeman be able to go out and get people he wants, or will Jack insist on having to hold his hand at the bargain bin yet again?

3 hours ago, jessemoore97 said:

I'm very interested in the off season.  I think Golden will be gone for another job, and I don't know if Freeman will retain Parker or not.  Potentially we could lose both coordinators, and what does that process look like this time around?  Will Freeman be able to go out and get people he wants, or will Jack insist on having to hold his hand at the bargain bin yet again?

And for us all to learn, again, that after exhaustive national searches, it turns out that the best candidates to replace them just happen to already be on staff!