Notre Dame football will take on Indiana Football in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has been the talk of the Midwest, as well as college football, for the job he's done this season. After a disappointing start, they won 10 straight and won by at least a touchdown in those games.
Because of the good job Freeman has done, that's thrown his name into the Chicago Bears head coaching candidacy. It's not the first time Freeman's name has been thrown into an NFL rumor. Regardless, he made his point known on the Outta Pocket Podcast that he isn't going anywhere else.
“I love this place, I love these guys, I love 18 – 22-year-olds,” Freeman said. “The impact you can make on young people is so special. I don’t know what it’s like in the NFL, right? I spent one year there, and I don’t know what that life is like. This is the life I’ve been coaching for 15-16 years now, and it’s a joy.”
Freeman credits his team’s success and everyone’s involvement with him even being in these rumors. He played college football at Ohio State. His name has also been mentioned for that job if Ryan Day is fired after the playoff. Freeman, though, has previously said that if he would have done it over, he’d have chosen to go to Notre Dame over Ohio State. Still, that's a tough comment to come back from if you take over as head coach of Ohio State Football.
Marcus Freeman knows that Notre Dame is home, despite the Bears HC opening
The Bears job makes a lot of sense, too, coming from Notre Dame in the Midwest and Chicago being the biggest city and most popular team from the area. Freeman was drafted in 2009 by the Bears, winning the 5th round of the draft, but was waived in September of that year.
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Even though Freeman has the Midwest connection, he's committed to what's ahead of him. Freeman even googled Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti after it was announced the two teams would square off. The winner of that game will take on No. 2 Georgia in the Peach Bowl. Freeman distinguished a key difference between coaching in college and the pros.
“With team glory comes individual glory,” Freeman said. “The media, somebody is going to have to pick out somebody and say hey, you get the credit. We know it’s because of everybody getting their job done.”
Notre Dame football will hope to get the job done against Indiana. However if the Fighting Irish make a serious run in the playoff, Freeman's name could be in more rumors.