As the start of Year 1 approaches in the Marcus Freeman era of Notre Dame football, it’s important to set the expectations for the new Irish head coach. What will a successful year look like for the Irish, and what kind of season will leave impatient fans howling for the 36-year-old’s ouster by the year’s end?
First, Irish fans will expect that there are no major off-the-field incidents involving players. Being dispersed throughout the campus dorms and in the community, players are part of the school community in ways that are rarely seen with other major Division I football programs. Behavior and character are more than just buzzwords for the nation’s premier Catholic university, and fans will expect that winning is done in the right way.
And winning football games is, of course, the expectation.
Fans should give new Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman the benefit of the doubt in 2022, as the Irish have a tough schedule ahead.
After the notable departure of former head coach Brian Kelly to LSU at the end of 2021, it’s safe to say that on-field expectations are sky-high for Notre Dame. Within the last decade, the Irish have lost the 2012 national title game and have reached the College Football Playoff two other times, losing in the semifinals in 2018 and 2020.
Notre Dame football has reached double-digit wins five times in a row and in six of the past seven years. Officially, Brian Kelly left South Bend with a 92-39 win-loss record after 12 seasons. Despite the well-noted postseason CFP losses, the Irish have returned today to unquestionably being one of college football’s elite football programs.
In nine of the past 10 seasons, too, Notre Dame has spent time ranked as an AP top 10 team.
Freeman got some impressive results on the recruiting trail after officially being announced as Notre Dame’s new head coach on Dec. 3, 2021, showing that the Irish can, it seems, draw big-time prep standouts just as well as Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas in today’s college football recruiting landscape.
This year’s class is highlighted by five-star linebacker Jaylen Sneed from Hilton Head, S.C. and four-star linebacker Josh Burnham from Traverse City, Mich., who apparently grew up dreaming of playing for Michigan. Even with Kelly’s departure to LSU, Freeman’s staff put together the nation’s seven-best recruiting class, according to 247Sports — ahead of OU, Michigan, and Clemson.
Notre Dame faces a difficult 2022 schedule: the national title race-forming, get-your-popcorn-ready, should-be-College-GameDay road trip to Ohio State takes place in Week 1, later followed by a trip to Chapel Hill to face UNC and a game against a dangerous BYU team in Las Vegas. In November, the Irish face Clemson and then later wrap up the regular season with a road trip to the newly Lincoln Riley-led USC Trojans.
News came just three weeks out from the season opener against the Buckeyes that Notre Dame’s starting wide receiver Avery Davis was lost for the year with an ACL injury. It will further deplete the depth of the Irish pass catchers and is an unfortunate blow to the offense that already has to replace last year’s starting quarterback.
Jack Coan threw for 3,150 yards, 25 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions last year for the Irish as a graduate transfer and will be replaced by Tyler Buchner as 2022’s Week 1 starter.
As a first-year coach, it was key for Freeman and Notre Dame to hire an experienced coaching staff — cue Al Golden, who has previously served as the head coach at Temple and Miami (Fla.) before time as an NFL assistant.
My gut says that Freeman will do well in the eyes of the intense fan base if the Irish reach 9-10 wins this year, especially if one of those victories comes against USC at the end of the regular season.
Despite his flaws, Kelly built Notre Dame into a modern-day program that can compete for national championships. Freeman might not do that in 2022 — remember that he’s facing three strong contenders for the CFP this fall — but he should still build the program in his fashion without fearing for his job after a relatively ‘rough’ first season in charge.
If the first-year head coach wins eight or fewer games with the Irish, though, the howls for change may come sooner than you think.
Let’s hope that a group of rabid boosters wouldn’t try to force Freeman’s ouster like Bryan Harsin at Auburn, but the pressure to win in South Bend is extremely high.