Marcus Freeman vs. Brian Kelly: A Tale of Two Opposite Trending Tenures at Notre Dame

Marcus Freeman's rising success contrasts sharply with Brian Kelly's recent struggles. A look at how these two Notre Dame tenures differ.

Nov 4, 2023; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly yells to a side judge during the second half against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the LSU Tigers 42-28. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images / John David Mercer-Imagn Images

Notre Dame is trending up in 2024 while LSU has fallen on hard times

Whether it's fair to either party or not, Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman will be linked forever because Freeman replaced Kelly at Notre Dame after Kelly left South Bend controversially for LSU nearly three years ago.

These coaches are so different in so many ways, from coaching experience length to style of coaching and personality, that it's hard to compare them. But in some ways, it's easy. All one has to do is look at now and look at then.

One would think the natural coaching arc progression at a new school that would indicate progress would be for the team's record to improve the longer said coach is at the new school and has time to settle in, get comfortable, and implement their vision.

Almost three years in, Marcus Freeman has gone from four losses, to three losses, to now one loss at Notre Dame.

Brian Kelly on the other hand has gone from four losses, to three losses and now back up to four and counting. This trend line should comfort Irish fans and make LSU fans pause and think, exactly what direction exactly are we heading in here?

LSU in Year 3 under Brian Kelly

* Lost to a bad USC team
* Destroyed by Alabama
* Destroyed by A&M
* Lose to Florida
* Never led Ole Miss until the final play of the game
* Would've lost to South Carolina if LaNorris Sellers didn't get hurt

This is what $10 million a year gets?

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) November 17, 2024

Freeman & Kelly's records vs ranked teams are also on divergent paths

Aside from looking at overall record trends, we can dive a bit deeper by looking at Freeman & Kelly's records vs ranked teams since taking over their new and prestigious head coaching roles.

So far, Marcus Freeman is 10-4 in games vs ranked teams with the Irish. Brian Kelly on the other hand is 4-9 vs ranked opponents since the move to LSU, a continuance of his underwater record vs top teams when at the helm in South Bend.

Notre Dame and LSU are very different football operations. Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman are very different coaches at very different junctures in their careers.

This isn't meant to be an apples-to-apples comparison, but just more of a snapshot in time to analyze where some of these big-picture markers are at for two coaches who will be somewhat tethered to one another forever.

Moving forward there are a couple of trends to monitor. Can Marcus Freeman continue his impressive record against ranked teams and also prove he can eliminate the "lower level" losses he's had so far?

And for Brian Kelly, will he be able to pivot from any early mistakes he's made at LSU to turn things around the way he did at Notre Dame?

Time will tell.

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