Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman is focused on each moment, not making history

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Call it the Marcus Freeman method.

I went to Notre Dame to learn the way Freeman felt about the opportunity of becoming the primary Black coach – and the primary Asian-American coach, more on that later – to win a university football national title. But at any time when I asked him about his future within the championship, Freeman focused on the current.

“The win is all a reflection of winning the break. It’s a reflection of staying in the moment,” Freeman said Oct. 12 after Notre Dame beat Stanford 49-7. The Irish, ranked twelfth within the College Football Playoff rankings with a 5-1 record, play Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday.

“You don’t control the journey. You have to trust the journey,” Freeman said. “That’s what I tell these guys. There is one guarantee that the longer term is uncertain. Why waste time dreaming about it? Why sit here and take into consideration what is going to occur in the longer term when it is uncertain? Why don’t you are taking the time to focus on the things you should do this have a likelihood of getting the result you would like?

“We will worry about what the result will be at the end of the season. We just have to continue to stay in the moment.”

This moment and this method hold promise for Freeman. Now in his third season at Notre Dame, at age 38, Freeman is one in all a dozen coaches – no matter ethnicity – with the appropriate combination of college, NIL budget and schedule to win a national title. That may not occur for Freeman this season accumulating damage and the blemish of a shocking Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois. But with the playoffs expanding to 12 teams and Freeman’s proven ability to recruit and develop top talent, Notre Dame might be within the constant hunt.

No Black coach has won a national championship in college football, one in all the last unfulfilled “firsts” in sports. Just 16 out of 134 coaches at this highest level of competition, there are Blacks in comparison with greater than half of the players. There are three Polynesian coaches within the FBS: Ken Niumatalolo, who is Samoan, from San Jose State; Kalani Sitake of Tonga at BYU; and Timmy Chang of the University of Hawaii. Despite this history, there are an unprecedented variety of Black coaches leading programs with a reputable path to championships in the following few years: Freeman, James Franklin at Penn State, Sherrone Moore at Michigan and Deion Sanders at Colorado (or anywhere else). might be his next stop).

Freeman is actually the second black coach in Notre Dame history. The first was Tyrone Willingham, who coached the Irishman from 2002 to 2004 and was then fired in what many black observers considered a rash decision. While at Notre Dame, Willingham tried to recruit top-of-the-line highschool defenders within the country – tough forward Marcus Freeman.

“Coach Willingham influenced me,” Freeman said during an interview at Notre Dame Stadium. On his desk is a photograph of his wife and 6 children; a tattooed wedding ring surrounds his left ring finger. On her feet, Golden Goose sneakers. “I remember talking to him on the phone many times, thinking that he reminded me of my father in his attitude and tone.”

Freeman’s black father was serving within the Air Force when he met and married Freeman’s mother, who is South Korean. Identity generally is a tricky thing – a word to Tiger Woods – so I asked Freeman how he describes his ethnicity.

“It depends on who is asking,” he replied. “I am a multiracial person. My father is African American, my mother is Korean. I am a piece of both of them. They both have a huge impact on my life and me cover both sides of this.”

After returning to highschool, despite Willingham’s recruitment, Freeman selected Ohio State, where he was an All-Big Ten linebacker within the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Ohio State lost the national title game in Freeman’s final two college seasons. So how do these losses impact Freeman’s coaching now?

“Those two national championship games didn’t end the way you wanted them to,” he said. “I’m happy that at some point I’ll be able to lift the trophy and become champion.”

At this point, Freeman rubs his hands, probably unconsciously, as he mentions winning all of it – a rare moment when he allows himself to daydream. Then he returned to his method.

“But when I think about these games,” he continued, “I feel concerning the journey. I take into consideration people. I feel concerning the exceptional seasons we had in 2006 and 2007 and the ups and downs of those seasons. But most significantly, I only remember the people, the coaches, the players and the journey we were on.

I appreciate Freeman’s approach. Sport comes with enormous pressure, so many extraordinary demands and expectations, but in each season there can only be one winner. You cannot label anyone or anything as a failure, especially in college football where most of Freeman’s players might be playing last. If we won’t find meaning in the game beyond winning, the entire endeavor does more harm than good.

Freeman was chosen within the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, but his profession was ended by a diagnosis of an enlarged heart. Beginning as an assistant at his alma mater, Freeman coached linebackers at Kent State and Purdue, where he rose to the position of co-defensive coordinator. Then Luke Fickell, who coached Freeman at Ohio State, hired him to run the defense in Cincinnati. Freeman developed the Bearcats D into top-of-the-line units within the country and was recognized as a rising star.

In 2021, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly hired Freeman as defensive coordinator. A 12 months later, Kelly went to LSU. Notre Dame considered various candidates, including Fickell, who finished the season in Cincinnati with a 13-1 record. But behind an outpouring of support from players and recruits, Freeman landed the highest job.

How did it occur?

“I worked tirelessly in the position I held,” Freeman said. “I worked very hard to be the most effective defensive coordinator I might be. I never got here to work attempting to interview for the Notre Dame head coaching position. I tell people on a regular basis that should you keep on the lookout for one other opportunity, you’ll waste the one in front of you. And the most effective thing you may do to make the most of your next opportunity is to make great use of the chance you’ve got now.

This is the Marcus Freeman method. Buckle up, put all the pieces you may into what you may control, after which live with the outcomes.

But it wasn’t that way back that this approach rarely worked for Black coaches in all sports. Even today, exertions and high qualifications aren’t any guarantee – just ask UCLA associate head coach Eric Bienemy or Boston Celtics assistant coach Sam Cassell …or Willingham.

When Willingham began coaching in 1977 at Michigan State, and even when he was hired at Notre Dame 25 years later, opportunities for black coaches were extremely rare. Fast forward to 2021, when Freeman — who has never been a head coach at any level — landed the Notre Dame job over the older, more experienced and, dare I say, whiter Fickell.

It’s like a brand new day for me. What about you, Coach Willingham?

“We now have the opportunity to do things that have never been done before,” Willingham told me over the phone on Monday. “Many years ago we needed to cope with quite a lot of stereotypes. You cannot have a black center, you may’t have a black point guard, because those were our views. So you could not have a Black head coach because that meant you needed to be thoughtful and thoughtful and intuitive.

“I do not know what to call this barrier, nevertheless it was one in all those things that, as we progressed as a society, needed to be removed. And I feel we’re attending to the purpose, the issue is not solved yet, nevertheless it’s lots higher than it was.

Freeman understands the probabilities of this era.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say there are days when I’m in my office, sitting alone, and I say, ‘You’re the top coach on the University of Notre Dame.’ It’s surreal. I’ll definitely remember. You must, because should you take it with no consideration, it would be taken away.

“And then,” Freeman said, “you come back to the moment.”