Freeman is not the problem.
He's a young, first time HC that is going to have some growing pains. We all knew that. Al Golden is/was an excellent hire, and the D, despite some lapses, has played well enough to win every game to date. The D has been hung out to dry 5 out of 6 games, so far, and the injuries and fatigue are starting to mount. I'm not blaming Golden or Freeman for what the O is doing to them.
Tom "Three and out" Rees showed in the bowl game that he is waaaay in over his head and stuck in the mindset of system over talent, that he learned from his mentor. Too much thinking and not enough taking advantage of the physical mismatches this offensive roster should present to 95% of the teams in the country. How anyone can look at the bowl game tape, see an offense that made no adjustments to what OSU started doing mid-way thru the 2nd qtr, and say "that's our guy", is mind-boggling. Not to mention, they hired a young , first time head coach (with zero offensive experience) that was probably going to need some experienced guidance on that side of the ball. Foolish and arrogant. And I firmly believe that Swarbrick called that shot, not MF.
I absolutely believe in Marcus Freeman, but he's inherited an albatross around his neck that may be his undoing at ND. 7 games in, there no reason to see any more from TR. Inept does not begin to describe his offense (with 4 and 5 star talent across the board no less). He should have been fired Sunday ala BVG. Ride out the rest of the season with an interim OC and go get a top guy for next year. No sense worrying about keeping top offensive recruits when they're just going to be misused, put in position to fail over and over, or just plain shelved because they don't know enough of the system.
Replies to: Freeman is not the problem.
Excess loyalty to Rees could cost Freeman the team.
All this execution stuff without shouldering the blame and allocating a chunk to Reese will likely get old with the players quick.
It's actually pretty obvious who it is. The one guy who didn't leave is in charge of the worse part
Asking why Freeman hasn't fired Rees yet is asinine. Matter off fact, I expect Rees to be here next year but in a different capacity. Freeman won't outright embarrass him but I expect an OC to come in and be a co-OC or this Offense Quality Control position and maybe take over playcalls and let Rees be on the field to appear to be the QB coach and have direct contact with the QBs.
BVG got fired after 3 games and Rees' offenses aren't any better.
ND is 5-1, at worst, with a competent OC. A lot of coaches have been fired this year already and I can't imagine any of them being as incompetent at their jobs as Rees has been at his.
Yeah, 3 games into the year after VanGorder squandered our best D talent this century.
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Rees is an ND grad. He will be given a wider berth. That's just how it is...
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I don't see him being fired during the season.
Put on a short leash and politely told to leave after the season if things don't change yes.
I don’t think Rees can stomach that. He won’t be fired but he’ll leave for something that looks
like a promotion in some way. I also could see Freeman employing running game and passing game coordinators with a new OC.
I sort of agree. It's odd how arrogant Rees seemingly has gotten. Not sure if he's always been but..
when you're a 3* star mid-level arm QB who falls into the starting position then sorta falls into the OC position...you'd think he'd be a bit more humble and diligent.
I’d say it’s always been there and playing for ND fanned that flame
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Rees needs to burn the Kelly playbook and learn to read defenses.
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The problem is he knows no other playbook
Simply, it demonstrates that all we will see is the same old suck-ass kelly offense which never really was efficient against prime opponents.
Shaw has a lot of experience against it.
He knows what to do to an inexperienced QB to get him to make bad decisions in Kelly's offense.
He's absolutely the problem,inherited no.5 team,
Coming off 5 double digit win seasons
You are out of your mind if you think this is a #5 team.
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You're out of your mind if you think he's NOT the problem
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Reading comprehension is not your strong suit.
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From the person who doesn't know the difference between was and is.
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Sure he is. He’s getting paid a shit ton of money to produce better than this.
I get the fact that we have at best a mediocre backup playing qb, and his predecessor was no better.
But 14 points against the 97th ranked defense in CFB that gives up over 400 years per game? Yeah that’s his fault. He’s the head guy and those Offensive and I mean truly offensive performances against 2 real shitty teams are on him. It’s called accountability and he better start demanding it. Watching that disgrace of an O with almost all at least 4 star talent cept for the qb is just utterly nauseating against a bottom feeder pac 5 team.
This is crap talent that we are losing to because we can’t move the freakin ball and score.
Even with a FCS level QB, there are OCs around the country who would be salivating at the chance to
have Tobias, Tyree, Diggs, Estime, Styles and Mayer as the foundation of an offense. This team should be averaging +40 points per game. The longer this goes, the more it's on Freeman. If Rees has been given so much control as to make Freeman impotent, then he should resign.
Exactly. Pyne is what he is but you help him by making them perform and hold them accountable.
Pyne also when he misses the layups. Pyne can manage a game. He won’t win the many for you with his talent, but there is no freakin way we should have looked that bad against the crap D we played on Saturday.
Good coaching is a direct contributor to good execution.
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Freeman said yesterday Rees was doing an excellent job blames the execution
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My opinion of Freeman keeps on dropping. Rees needs to be fired.
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I like Freeman as a person, but he continues to reaffirm why I thought he shouldn't even have been
considered as a candidate for the job.
The Admin is the problem
Hiring an OC before a head coach was dumb. Hiring a HC because that is who the players wanted was dumb. Hiring a first time HC at ND while saying you want to compete for NC's was dumb
Spot on.
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Great post
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So far he is. And why hasn't he fired Rees?
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Re: Freeman is part of the problem
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Yes and no...
Right now, his refusal to deal with the weak link on this team's coaching staff (Tommy Rees) has cost us two games that were easily winnable, and quite frankly, they should have been blowouts.
Freeman not having taking care of this problem so far means that it's on him. As it is commonly said, the buck stops with him.
I don't see Rees getting let go this year, but if Freeman wants to salvage this season to a reasonably good bowl game, he'd better let someone become "co-OC" sooner, rather than later.
I want Marcus Freeman to succeed, much like how I wanted all of the ND coaches in my time to succeed. Yes, that even Davie when he first started.
I truly believe that Coach Freeman wants the best for our program, and he honestly believes in ND tradition, etc.
I'm willing to give Freeman a mulligan for this year, much like how we gave Brian Kelly a couple of them during his first two years, but with all of that talent on the roster, he'd better produce results quickly, since the fanbase isn't patient at all.
Yes he is.
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Um...
You state: "How anyone can look at the bowl game tape, see an offense that made no adjustments to what OSU started doing mid-way thru the 2nd qtr, and say "that's our guy", is mind-boggling."
Amongst all the "anyones", Freeman is supposed to be the one who possesses the expertise and the power to do something about that.
If he is lacking either of those things...then he is the problem.
By the nature of things, he is going to have some more time, but he had better start correcting both...and now he'd better do it fast...
BS
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No one should get fired during the season. Give Rees a pathway to the NFL after USC game.
Rees deserves to leave gracefully. He is a Domer and deserves that. MF is definitely not going anywhere. You think good old Jack would want to admit his failings by firing MF anytime soon? That would look bad on old Jack. What name as OC would be able to perform magic on Drew to make him faster, taller, and with a stronger arm? The play calling will be different, perhaps better, but Drew will still be Drew. When Rees told MF that the Stanford defense was set up to stop the 4th down play and MF froze, one has to wonder how many other times this has happened? At least Golden learned his lesson by sending his safety blitz out of the playbook and off campus.
Screw the sentimentalities. Lose Rees now. Wisc alum Paul Chryst was zotzed after winning 9 in 2021
Watching videos of the most innovative offenses and copying their playbooks ain't that hard.
Well maybe too hard for Tommy. Either that, or he's too arrogant and stubborn to admit
that other guys do play design it better.