What Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said about Florida, Penn State job openings

The head coach hiring cycle is heating up. So that means Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman‘s name is being thrown around like Halloween candy into the buckets of hungry kids all over.

The Penn State and Florida jobs have opened up recently. Freeman was named a candidate for both of them. It isn’t likely he takes either, and it was even reported Tuesday that he shut the latter down without much of a conversation.

Freeman, who was linked to the Chicago Bears head coach opening within the last year, let the world in on his line of thinking when it comes to being courted for such high-profile gigs in an interview with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan of the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast.

Here is everything Freeman said.

“I think this year, as I look at it compared to last year, maybe, the impulsive thing would be to say, ‘Oh, I’m not interested. I got a great job,'” Freeman said. “And, yeah, is that the case? Yes. But when I do hear a little bit of the noise, and I try to control a little bit of the noise, people know how to text ya or say certain things. It’s a reminder of the gratitude that I have to have for the position this program’s in, for the position I have. That’s what I reflect on.

“Man, first of all, your name wouldn’t be mentioned if your program wasn’t doing really good things. And the reason why we’re doing really good things is because of everybody in the program. It’s not one person. I always tell our guys, outside of this building, they’re always going to point the finger at one person when you have success and one person when you have failure. And it’s usually the head coach or the quarterback, right?

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman opened up to @BussinWTB about being connected to job openings like Penn State and Florida.

He doesn’t take being at ND for granted.

“Every time I hear something like that, I just remind myself of the gratitude that I have to be in this position.” pic.twitter.com/iLt9BpulRl

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) October 21, 2025

“So, I know the reality is it takes us all. It takes every person in this program to have success. So when you have that mentality, you understand there is a gratitude to the program that I’m involved in and I’m a part of but also the opportunity that I have to be the head coach here and this position that I hold. Every time I hear something like that, I just remind myself of the gratitude I have to be in this position. For sure.”

Freeman has a 38-12 record including the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2021 season since taking over as Notre Dame’s head coach. He’s 15-7 in ranked games and has a bowl game record of 5-1 including a 3-1 mark in the college football playoff, all four games of which came last season in a run to the national championship game that ended in a runner-up finish to Ohio State.

Before that run began last December, Notre Dame announced a four-year contract extension for Freeman that runs through the 2030 season.