Notre Dame Football: 3 biggest concerns heading into 2022 season

1. Inexperienced head coach

A brand new coach taking over one of the elite programs in college football could be either a recipe for disaster or a home run. Notre Dame took a risk here and many feel it’ll pay off.

I’m one of the believers of Marcus Freeman, but I do think that his first season could be rough because, well, he’s never been a head coach before. He was a quick riser in the coaching ranks, going from Ohio State grad assistant in 2010 to Kent State linebackers coach for a couple of years before taking over the same position at Purdue and working his way up to co-defensive coordinator. Luke Fickell hired him as defensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 2017 and then Notre Dame hired him away in 2021.

At the age of 36, he’s bounced around to five different schools and he’s only been a Power Five defensive coordinator for two out of his 12 seasons as an assistant coach.

Freeman is going to be a good coach in the long-run but I could see the first year coming with a lot of learning moments and bumps in the road.

But hey, I could be wrong and he could be an instant natural.