Marcus Freeman plans to take Notre Dame recruiting to next level

Notre Dame has been a prestigious football program for quite some time. Brian Kelly built it into a powerhouse over his long tenure in South Bend, and now that he’s gone to LSU, it’s time for Marcus Freeman to keep the tradition going into the future.

While winning has been a consistent theme for the Fighting Irish, Freeman has the goal to do just that – but he’s mainly focused on recruiting the best talent to Notre Dame. During his introductory press conference Monday, the Irish’s new head man made it clear how important recruiting will be for him.

“I better be the No. 1 recruiter,” Freeman said. “I better be the lead recruiter in every kid that we recruit – and I plan on doing it. We obviously have to depend on our staff, and I will depend on our staff to make sure we know who and what and why we’re recruiting every individual, but if I’m not the lead recruiter then we’re cheating.”

Already having played in a key role in recruiting while serving as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator under Kelly, Freeman shouldn’t have any trouble keeping that trend going as he takes over in South Bend.

As of now, the Fighting Irish’s 2022 recruiting class ranks fifth in the On3 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings with 20 four-star commits and two three-stars, which gives Notre Dame a score of 92.504.

Marcus Freeman on why he can guide Notre Dame to national championships

The college football world was completely shaken up by this year’s coaching carousel. Part of that carousel was former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly leaving for LSU, and the Fighting Irish promoting defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to take his place. As Notre Dame’s new head coach, Freeman has one goal in mind: to bring national championships to South Bend.

Freeman played college football at Ohio State, but he held an offer to attend Notre Dame. He was in his first year as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator before being hired as the team’s next head coach.

“As a recruit, I mean it’s 2000, 2002 or 2003. You hadn’t won one, but you still knew the history and tradition behind Notre Dame and you probably thought every year that Notre Dame had a chance to win it,” Freeman said of the program’s chances at a national championship. “As an outsider before I got here, I mean Notre Dame was in the playoffs two of the past three years before I got here.

“So if you’re making the playoffs, you have a chance to win it all. Now that I’m here, we’re close. We’re not there yet, but we’re close and it can be done right away. We’re not talking about a future, long-term plan. This is talking about the urgency I said for now. To finish the season off and then next year we have to have intentional efforts to make sure we’re doing whatever it takes to put this team in a position to win a national championship.”

On3’s Jonathan Wagner contributed to this report.