Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 8, 2025 61 M inutes after news broke that LSU fired Brian Kelly, On3 national col- lege football insider Pete Nakos did what you had to expect he would do. Nakos published his first hot board for the Tigers' head coaching job, and the second name on it — after Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin — was the man who replaced Kelly at his previous institution. "Marcus Freeman might not have an interest in leaving South Bend, but he will be the biggest fish athletic directors can land at Florida, Penn State and now LSU," Nakos wrote. "The allure of recruiting some of the nation's top talent with fewer adminis- trative restrictions will be attractive." It's not just Nakos, either. Both ESPN and CBS Sports put Freeman on their initial hot boards as well. Free- man's name has appeared prominently on watch lists for the Florida and Penn State jobs, too. Irish fans reading those hot boards might have felt some combination of irritation, anger, disgust and post-trau- matic stress disorder. And to those ex- periencing those emotions, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that this probably isn't going to stop any time soon. Free- man's name will likely be on every major hot board until he does eventually leave Notre Dame, for one reason or another. LSU job is open? No more onerous academic standards. Florida? Recruit- ing is easier. UCLA? The weather is nicer in Los Angeles. Kent State? He's from Ohio, right? Athletics directors at quite literally any school wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't at least check to see if Freeman is interested. The worst he can say is no, although he might laugh at that last one a little bit. The good news is that the reason ath- letics directors have to call the Irish's coach is Notre Dame has the coach everyone wants. If you could design a head coach for the modern era of college football, it would look a whole lot like the fourth-year Irish boss from Huber Heights, Ohio. Freeman is a tireless recruiter. He is a players' coach, which is essential in an era where you have to re-recruit your roster every year. He is a forward thinker on several fronts (NIL, the transfer por- tal, analytics, sports science, etc.), and he has proven he can adapt to changes in the sport. He identifies and attracts quality assistants. He knows how to fix his team's issues in-season, which is imperative at a time when one or two losses do not kill your championship goals. And he can beat the nation's best at a level previous Notre Dame coaches, including Kelly, could not. His weakness was losing to teams he shouldn't, but that hasn't been an issue for 416 days at the time this was written and probably about 423 by the time you read it. With that being the case — and with the knowledge that Notre Dame lost a coach to another job four years ago — of course teams will check in and of course national reporters will include him on their hot boards. Oregon fans deal with the same thing every year with Dan Lanning, although things have gotten quiet on that front after he turned down Alabama in early 2024. Will Freeman actually leave? I can't promise you he won't, but there are a few pieces of logic that work against that idea. For one, Freeman has never shown any indication that he is unhappy at Notre Dame. He would probably tell you in an honest moment that he has to turn down players for aca- demic reasons more than he would like, but he has been much better than his prede- cessor at working with admis- sions and pushing borderline kids through. And if the cur- rent ranking holds, he will sign the No. 4 recruiting class in the country in December. From an administrative per- spective, Freeman has everything he needs to succeed at Notre Dame. Pete Bevacqua has been incredibly support- ive as an athletics director, and a brand- new football operations building will open in 2026. He also proved that win- ning at Notre Dame is possible when he quite literally made the national cham- pionship game last year. Freeman has also never coached any- where outside of Ohio or Indiana. He and his wife, Joanna, have six children and are probably in no rush to uproot their family any time soon. So, my best advice is this: Get used to Freeman's name appearing on other schools' wish lists. Don't expect it to stop any time soon. There will always be a market for Freeman's services, but there will also always be a caveat: He will probably say no. "The impulsive thing would be to say, 'Oh, I'm not interested, I got a great job,'" Freeman said Oct. 22 on the "Bus- sin' with the Boys" podcast. "And yeah, is that the case? Yes. But I do hear a little bit of the noise. "It's a reminder of the gratitude that I have for the position this program's in, for the position I have." ✦ Good News And Bad News Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE Don't expect Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman's name to disappear from other schools' wish lists any time soon. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER