ATLANTA — Pete Bevacqua, first-year athletic director for Notre Dame, inherited Marcus Freeman as the school’s football coach.
Not that anyone is complaining about that with the Irish (14-1) one win from ending a 36-year national championship drought. Notre Dame faces favored Ohio State on Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the College Football Playoff title game.
“He’s the perfect coach for Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said at Saturday’s media day. “On the field, obviously, we’re here in the national championship game. But everything he does off the field: how he embraces, as he says, (that) when you come to Notre Dame as a student athlete, you choose hard.”
Freeman, 39, is under contact through 2030 after signing a multiyear extension in mid-December. His name continues to surface speculatively in NFL coaching rumors, most notably with the Chicago Bears, the team that drafted him as a linebacker out of Ohio State in 2009.
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Since losing his first three games at the helm, Freeman’s Irish teams have improved each season. Notre Dame went 9-2 after losing to Ohio State and Marshall in 2022, then went 10-3 in 2023 with a Sun Bowl win over Oregon State.
Not even a Week 2 home loss to Northern Illinois could derail Freeman’s career momentum.
“To have your first head coach job in Notre Dame is like rolling out of bed one day, waking up and being the mayor of New York City,” Bevacqua said. “I don’t think anybody’s prepared for that job until you do that job. And to see how he has embraced it, to see how he has succeeded … “
Freeman was named this year’s winner of the Bobby Dodd Trophy as national coach of the year. In addition to on-field success, the award recognizes three pillars of success: scholarship, leadership and integrity.
“You’re going to have every resource imaginable to succeed athletically but you’re also going to have those resources and the expectations to succeed academically,” said Bevacqua, a Notre Dame graduate. “He doesn’t shy away from that; he embraces that.
“It’s been so wonderful to see the confidence in himself, the confidence he has in the team, the program, the university and the university alignment to make sure we can provide him with all the resources he needs to be as successful as possible.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame AD praises football coach Marcus Freeman as ‘perfect’ fit
