I saw a quote from the late, great Louie Somogy "summer is for sizzle, fall is for substance. We all get caught up in the hype of a new coach and I'm no different. If Coach Freeman hits a home run he will be the first Notre Dame Head Coach (other than Rockne) to do so without head coaching experience. Terry Brennan went 32 - 18, Gerry Faust 30 - 26, Bob Davie 35 - 25 & Charlie Weis 35 - 27. I thought this next stat was a misprint. Coach Faust opened his first spring practice in 1981 with THIRTEEN Parade All Americans. That's recruiting. I heard Dickie V say in the game of life he's late in the second half. That makes two of us. Some of you guys WANT Marcus to win a National Championship. Hell, I NEED him to. Make history coach, make history.
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Brennan and Faust were really from a different era where recruiting wasn't quite as pivotal. Davie and Weis were better comps although even then recruiting hadn't reached the level of importance it does now. Davie is a pretty legit comp as a successful DC replacing a successful coach, but he wasn't much of a recruiter. Weis was.....Weis. He could recruit and had been successful, but his personality and arrogance probably doomed him. Also, the table wasn't set as well when he got there. Markus comes into a better situation as we are already close to elite and his recruiting chops could put him over the top IF he can make the adjustment to being the HC successfully.
No way of knowing how it'll wind up, but his recruiting should be a big boost while he works out how to run a whole program and his engagement and work ethic make me believe he'll get there. The question is more whether he'll get there fast enough since expectations are pretty high. I'm hopeful, especially since there are a number of other younger HC's who've had success recently, but your right, it's no where near a guarantee.
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A coach was being lambasted on the boards as too old and not up with the times. There was a great defensive coordinator waiting in the wings. Pressure was applied and the coach was forced to retire. The defensive coordinator replaced him. The results: mediocre. The retired coach went to another school where he returned that program to respectability: actually, defeating a highly ranked Ohio State two years in a row in a bowl game. The coach: Lou Holtz
gets his wings. He's smart enough to get things figured out. MF is one of a new breed of coaches in college football, along with the likes of Lincoln Reilly, as just one simple example. I believe the days of a school firing a coach and bringing in someone like a Dan Divine are long gone. Most are going with younger guys and the younger guys are getting it done----and quickly. Not all of them, for sure, but enough to establish a trend. I believe MF will be successful in the near term.
New HC, new QB, poor depth at key positions.
If he falls to OSU and Clemson but stomps SC, I'll be happy. It's not so much about wins and losses this year, it's more about how they look. Think Holtz in '86.
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only goes so far. He was not bad for us he just didn't have the ability to make plays at the right time both against Cincinnati and the bowl game. And he was lucky he was bailed out by Pyne in the Wisconsin game and Buchner in several games.
The other one is leaving Clarence Lewis in the game after he got continuously torched. Everyone in the world saw it, but Freeman did...nothing. Elston was the DC but Freeman had been for a long time previously and he should have done something about it, for at least a series or two. He didn't. I think that not inserting Buchner in the third quarter and not replacing Lewis at around the same time cost ND the bowl game.
Freeman and his staff have been a breath of fresh air on the recruiting trail but their in game coaching acumen has yet to be determined so I agree with the "pump the brakes" thing.
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