Marcus Freeman shares what he misses about being a defensive coordinator

As he now enters his second season as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach, Marcus Freeman’s days of being a defensive coordinator are behind him. Still, the Fighting Irish headman misses some aspects of that position.

During Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold game, Freeman shared with everyone the things he misses about being a defensive coordinator.

“I miss being in the room with those guys every day,” said Freeman. “As the head coach, you have team meetings where it’s a group of 105 but I miss being in a room. I miss really being able every day to be with a position group. As a defensive coordinator, I still was the linebacker coach. I miss that, probably, more than anything. But obviously, you remind yourself that you can have an effect on a lot more people.”

There are significant differences in how the head coach has to approach things and how a coordinator does. Now, some head coaches take on double duties assuming some of the coordinator responsibilities. But they still have the assistance of another individual, especially when it comes to day-to-day tasks.

With Freeman now a head coach, his impact is broader than directed at one specific position or side of the ball. As the Notre Dame headman lamented in the statement above, he definitely misses the direct impact he once had.

Still, he does appreciate the trade-off of being able to affect a lot more people, which is exclusive to the head coach position.

Freeman breaks down play of Sam Hartman in spring game

Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman was impressive in Saturday’s spring game for Notre Dame. But head coach Marcus Freeman noted that there were plenty of rooms for improvement.

However, one play that Freeman says in on his shoulder’s was a third-down interception.

“I don’t know what the stats will say — even with Tyler — we didn’t protect that well on that side of the ball,” Freeman said. “With the blue team, we had some drop balls. I told him I gotta take responsibility for the pick because on third down, I went in there and I was trying to help the offense and I was like it’s Cover 2. It’s Cover 2. It ended up not being Cover 2.”

“So I said, I take responsibility for the pick. He’s like, You owe me one. I said, I’ll take responsibility. I’ll tell the media. Don’t worry about it. I got this one. That was on me. But listen, both of those guys have done extremely well. But it’s good to see Sam play well in his first real game like experience at Notre Dame Stadium.”