Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MAY 2022 9 UNDER THE DOME self. Freeman's change-up conveyed that he's situationally aware. It's not that he hasn't changed his routines in his prior 12 years of coaching, but he hasn't done it in this job. He says, though, there need not be a difference. "It's the same thing when you're run- ning a linebacker group," Freeman said. "You have a routine, you have a plan, but every day you adapt and adjust to what's necessary for the group. It's not a head coach thing. It's a leader thing. "If you're in charge of a room, in charge of a defensive unit, in charge of a team, it doesn't matter. You have to understand what's needed for that group that day. And if you didn't like what you got from that group, you bet- ter change things up so you get a differ- ent outcome." Freeman must wait until September for a like-for-like opportunity to the Fiesta Bowl where he can prove his ad- justment skills when game plans and in- game routines go awry. His initial plan to beat Oklahoma State worked to per- fection … until the Cowboys delivered a second-half haymaker and left Freeman and Co. reeling. No adjustments were found in time. The punch back hurt less than the inability to recover from it. Smaller-scale examples of slippages and ensuing corrections, though, offer some encouragement. And Notre Dame did indeed right Practice No. 9's lassitude. The 11th spring practice, which came four days later, was a 100-play scrim- mage with several game-day elements. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees was calling plays from above the field in- stead of 15 yards behind the action like most practices. There was a winner and a loser. The offense won by five points, Freeman said, because it didn't turn the ball over until the second-to-last series. He could sense emotion and passion af- terward — a 180-degree pivot from four days earlier. "We try to create this competitive environment," Freeman said. "[It] was about winner and loser. At the end, you could sense a little of the defense is up- set, the offense is happy. That's how we continue to do this. You compete, and you come together." Sounds like a routine everyone can get behind. ✦ Freeman Has An Advocate In Former LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron One wonders if the scene April 12 in the Irish Athletic Center is possible without a January 2021 phone call between Marcus Freeman and Ed Orgeron. Notre Dame's 12th practice of the spring ended with Orgeron, the former LSU head coach and 2019 na- tional champion, speaking to the team Freeman now leads. Imagine reading that 15 months ago. Better yet, imagine if Freeman's decline of the reported $2 million per year offer to be LSU's defensive coordinator under Orgeron was instead an acceptance. Maybe Orgeron is still LSU's coach. Which, of course, means Brian Kelly is likely still at Notre Dame. Maybe Freeman parlays a successful one-year stint at LSU into another head coaching job. Maybe he bolts to be the defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Ohio State, which was the possible-if-not-likely move if Notre Dame passed on him when looking for Kelly's replacement. You can come up with myriad other hypotheticals, but one thing's pretty clear: Orgeron isn't spending a week at Notre Dame with his three sons as a practice observer and Freeman's guest if Freeman takes his offer. Instead, Freeman chose Notre Dame, Orgeron was fired amid a 6-6 season last fall, LSU filched Kelly to replace him and the Irish promoted Freeman from defensive coordinator. Freeman turning him down and picking Notre Dame was a pivotal move in each's career. Orgeron has grown to understand it even more in hindsight. "It was tough," Orgeron said. "I think he liked LSU. It was a family decision to stay up here. "Notre Dame's a great school. It looks like he made the right decision to me." Orgeron targeted Freeman for the same reasons Kelly and Notre Dame did: his work from 2017-20 as Cincinnati's defensive co - ordinator. In four years, Freeman built the Bearcats' defense from a unit that ranked 83rd in yards per play his first season to fourth in his last. His work was invaluable in their rise from 4-8 in 2017 to a No. 8 ranking in the final CFP top 25 in 2020. The defensive infrastructure Freeman left behind helped fuel Cincinnati's 13-1 record and College Football Playoff ap - pearance in 2021 (as well as their 24-13 win at Notre Dame Stadium in October). "His defensive play at Cincinnati — phe- nomenal," Orgeron said. "Energy, the way they got after it, the way he had energy on the sideline. That's the way I like to coach. He just has something about him — character, class. "You can tell he's going to be a championship coach. I think he has all the makings of being a great coach." Championships are the goal for Freeman every year he's in this job, including his first one, because it's the standard to which Notre Dame chooses to hold itself. Players who returned for fourth or fifth seasons openly discussed it as a primary motivation for coming back. It doesn't matter if there's a first-time head coach. Freeman wasn't hired to replace a fired predecessor. He's taking over a program that is 54-9 since 2017 with two CFP appearances. "The expectations are one goal and one goal only, I imagine," Orgeron said. "That's what I talked to the team about. The standard of performance has to be very high. What I saw was a very good football team." Orgeron was just there to observe it. He can, though, appreciate being in Freeman's shoes. Eighteen years ago, Orgeron jumped in the deep end of the SEC West when Ole Miss gave him his first head coaching job at age 43. He was fired after three seasons and a 10-25 record. Even if the advice he can give about being a first- time head coach is more about avoiding missteps he made than his successes, Freeman won't turn it down. And Orgeron does have advice. "Don't try to do everything," Orgeron said. "I tried to do everything at Ole Miss. You can't do everything. Hire a staff, believe in them, let them do it. Let the players know you really care about them. "Offense, defense, special teams, be close to all of them. I see him doing that." — Patrick Engel Orgeron tried to hire Freeman as his defensive coordi- nator at LSU, one year removed from a national cham- pionship. A little more than one year later, Freeman hosted the former SEC head coach and his three sons at Notre Dame's practice facility. PHOTO BY CHRIS PARENT/COURTESY LSU ATHLETICS