Notre Dame Promotes Defensive Coordinator Freeman To Head Coach

SOUTH BEND, IND. — When the college football version of the white Papal smoke showed itself Friday morning at Notre Dame, it revealed what many believed was coming ever since the winningest coach in school history left earlier this week.

The Irish, still in the hunt for a national championship this season, chose to look inward rather than to the outside in replacing Brian Kelly. Notre Dame officially named defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman as its new coach after Kelly left the program to take over at LSU.

Freeman, whom Kelly was trying to lure to Baton Rouge along with other top assistants, has made a meteoric rise as an assistant coach and will now take over one of the nation’s most storied programs. A former Ohio State linebacker, Freeman is a top recruiter and is believed to be the choice the players wanted rather than Notre Dame chasing over more high-profile candidates such as Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell or Iowa State’s Matt Campbell.

Freeman, who had been an assistant coach at Cincinnati after beginning his coaching career as an assistant and Kent State and Purdue. He will officially be introduced at a news conference on Monday, the school said Friday.

“Notre Dame is a very special place and I look forward to pursuing a national championship with the most outstanding student-athletes, coaches and staff in college football,” Freeman said in a statement released by the school.

Freeman chose to remain at Notre Dame, as did offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who met with Irish players on Wednesday to inform them he was staying. Rees, a former Irish quarterback, said in video released by the school that he wanted to tell players the news himself rather than having them learn of the news by social media as was the case with Kelly’s decision to leave for LSU.

Kelly delivered a late-night text to his team Monday night to inform them that he was leaving the program after 12 years and then met with his players for a brief time Tuesday and left the meeting without allowing players to ask questions.

Freeman is believed to have met with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick on Wednesday. Freeman is just completing his first season with the Irish after coming to South Bend from Cincinnati. The Irish (11-1) rank in the top 7 in four defensive categories and 11th in turnovers.

“Marcus' ability to connect with people, his fit at Notre Dame and the way he coaches young men set him apart as we went through our search process," Swarbrick said in a statement Friday. "I can't wait to see how the culture created by these remarkable student-athletes continues to grow under the tutelage of Marcus and his staff."