Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 30, 2024 11 UNDER THE DOME Irish On Social Media "NFL teams have inquired about Freeman in recent years amidst his meteoric rise in coaching, from his first GA job at his alma mater (Ohio State) in 2010 to becoming the head coach of one of col- lege football's most iconic programs (Notre Dame) 11 years later. Since taking over in the aftermath of Brian Kelly's midnight exit for LSU, Freeman has led the Fighting Irish to a 28-9 record and current No. 6 national ranking. He's an engaging presence who will win the interview — if and when he's willing to take one." — NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero on Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman the only college coach listed with head coaching potential in the NFL as a "candidate for the coming cycle" "Another name that is on the radar of the league office is Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman. Neither [Oregon head coach Dan] Lanning nor Freeman have any NFL experience, but if there's a year to think creatively, this might be it." — ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler "It's just an example of what I tell our players every day; with team glory and with team success comes individual recognition and individual glory. … It's a reflection of how this program is playing and performing every day and on Saturdays. … I haven't spent any time really thinking about what the future will provide. "Do I ever want to coach in the NFL? I have no clue. I don't even know what that entails really right because I've never done it. I'm just focused on staying here in the present and getting this team ready to have a great Thursday practice and hopefully putting in the work to achieve the out- come that we want on Saturday." — Freeman when asked about the NFL rumors "There are three teams I just don't know about: Indiana, Miami and Notre Dame. What would hap- pen if those three teams lined up against Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee? I coached in the SEC. I haven't seen Notre Dame live, but they lost to Northern Illinois and are beating the teams they are supposed to beat. I'm just not sold on Miami. You take Cam Ward out of Miami and they're .500. He's a beast. I just see teams ranked behind In- diana, Notre Dame and Miami that would beat them badly." — FOX Sports college football analyst Urban Meyer via the "Triple Option" podcast "Based strictly on tape, Morrison would have made my top 50 — likely in the 30-45 range. But the uncertainly surrounding his season-ending hip injury dropped him off the board. Concerns about his play strength give me pause, but Morrison is a technically sound cover man." — Dane Brugler of The Athletic on including injured Notre Dame junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison on his list of 20 NFL Draft pros- pects he hated leaving off his updated top-50 board "Notre Dame is poised to make its first deep NCAA Tournament run under Niele Ivey after three straight Sweet 16 defeats. Olivia Miles, Hannah Hi- dalgo and Sonia Citron make up the country's best guard trio and will likely all be in the WNBA a few years from now." — Connor Groel of CBS Sports "In 2014, Notre Dame and the ACC entered into a scheduling agreement in which the Irish promised five matchups per year against the con- ference in exchange for a home for their non- football programs. Since then, Notre Dame has effectively been Biff from 'Back to the Future' to the ACC's McFly family. They roll into the house unannounced, raid the fridge and eat Wake For- est's leftover chicken and then take Georgia Tech's car without asking. "… Notre Dame finishes 5-0 against the ACC, the sixth time in 11 years the Irish have gone un- defeated against the conference in the regular season. Overall, Notre Dame is 50-9 in the regular season against the ACC since 2014, including a 9-0 record as a full member in 2020, and somewhere Jack Swarbrick is inviting his buddies to crash at John Swofford's beach house for the entire sum- mer again." — David Hale of ESPN "Notre Dame's alliance with the ACC is still good. It's not perfect. Nobody said it was. But winning is winning. And Notre Dame wouldn't go 41-3 against the Big Ten or SEC the past eight years during the regular season. It wouldn't have gone 41-3 against the Big 12 or Pac-12, either. So, this is the deal you make with yourself if you're Notre Dame. And it's a no-brainer. You get to stay independent. You win a lot of football games. You find an ideal home for all your other sports. You just have to play more forget- table football games than you might like. Again, it's not perfect. But have you looked around at college football? Nothing is." — Pete Sampson of The Athletic THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "It's not easy. There are a lot of people that go into me stepping on the field 63 times. The trainers, family, teammates, strength coaches, coaches in general — there's a lot of people that play into that. That's the best thing about this record. It's not a me thing. It's a we thing." — Graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser on setting the Notre Dame football program record for most games played with 63 PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER