UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

Freeman's a good college coach with potential to be a great one. He needs more seasoning as a head coach.

One of the big reasons the pros are interested in interviewing Freeman is pretty simple: he fulfills the Rooney rule. Day at OSU and Smart at UGA have more clear experience and success than Freeman yet their names don't pop up. The other reason Freeman is farther away from a pro job is that he doesn't really have a rolodex of coaches he would need to hire a pro staff. His recent coaching searches for OC and DC are a pretty bad indicator that he needs to continue to build his network.

It has nothing to do with the Rooney rule. Teams can easily (and normally do) interview a current coordinator / position coach to fulfill that rule. NFL teams don't go interviewing college coaches to fulfill that rule. Freeman is a well respected young up and coming coach. In coaching circles he's seen as a rising star. NFL teams are interested solely because they'd like to get him now, while he's young, and hope the gamble pays off.

In the total absence of any pro coaching experience.

Are some pro teams taking an early peak at an up-and-coming coach? Sure. And by the way, which I am sure is a mere coincidence, these teams can cover their ass re: the Rooney Rule.

Freeman isn't going anywhere for a while because he isn't remotely capable at this point in his career of being successful as a head coach at the pro level. The jury is still out whether he can be a great college coach much less be a successful pro one.

Freeman knows who he is and maybe --we don't know -- talking to pro teams about his possible future in the pros. Anyone one of us worth their salt interviewed for jobs they weren't ready for to understand what it took to get to the next level.

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Every. AD keeps a short list in his/her back pocket. Just like every head coach keeps a short list of coordinators/coaches.

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