Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Under Armour, Guard Battle, Captains

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman touched on several topics in his Saturday meeting with the media

The most polarizing recent topic for Notre Dame football fans has nothing to do with other hot button topics around college football. No, conference realignment and NIL have taken a back seat in recent days, weeks and months for fans of the Fighting Irish because there has been a much more pressing subject at hand.

Apparel.

The gear the Fighting Irish wear and the shoes that go on their feet had Notre Dame fans speculating what brand the Irish would wear when Irish athletic director finally inked a new deal.

Turned out they didn’t have to look far. Under Armour announced last month that it had reached a new 10-year agreement to continue to provide apparel for one of college football’s biggest brands. The financial amount was not announced, but it is reported to be for $10 million annually.

That means 37-year-old Marcus Freeman will be pushing middle aged Marcus Freeman by the time that agreement expires in 2024.

"I’ve been wearing Under Armour since my time at Cincinnati,” Freeman said on Saturday when asked his thoughts on the Under Armour renewal. "We were an Under Armour school when I was there. You know, throughout this entire process of the apparel deal, I’ve been in communication with Jack and I trust Jack Swarbrick. He’s going to do what’s best for Notre Dame and that’s exactly what he’s done. I love Under Armour. I’ve been wearing it for a long time.

"We have a lot of Under Armour clothes for our children at the house that I would like to be able to keep,” Freeman continued with a laugh. "It’s been great, man. Jack’s never going to put our athletic department in a bad situation. He asked me and I’m like ‘Jack, listen I have no problem with Under Armour. I love Under Armour and I know you’re going to do what’s right for our players and for our athletic department and that’s what he did.”

Freeman touched on a number of other topics on Saturday as well.

Who Are The Guards?

Notre Dame’s fall training camp began with Billy Schrauth at left guard and a mix of Rocco Spindler and Andrew Kristofic at right guard. In recent practices that have been open for the media to view, Pat Coogan has taken all of the first team reps at left guard and Spindler has taken all the right guard first team reps. Meanwhile, Schrauth has taken second team reps behind Coogan and Kristofic has taken the No. 2 reps on the right. 

"It’s a great competition,” Freeman said about the guard battles. "Coogs has been getting more reps with the ones and he’s done a really good job and he’s going to be a good player for us. I love the competition that we have going on at the guard spot. Rocco Spindler’s been doing a heck of a job, had a really good camp and Billy has, too. You want to have four guards, right? I think, right now, we feel really good about three going in there.

"I look forward to evaluating today’s scrimmage with (offensive line) Coach (Joe) Rudolph and the offensive staff and saying, ok, who’s going to be the third and fourth guard that we say can go in a game at any point,” Freeman continued. “But man, I love the competition that they’re having. Nobody’s comfortable at those guard positions. I think we all know who the tackles’ going to be and we all know who the center’s going to be. So, to continue to create that competition is something that you love as a coach.”

Oh Captain! My Captain(s)!

Freeman is yet to announce who his captains will be for the upcoming season, but that news should be coming soon.

"In the upcoming days I would like to be able to name captains pretty soon,” Freeman said. "Could be in the next 24-48 hours. The number is to be determined. That will be based off of the results of the voting by our players.”

More Than Just A Kicker

New grad transfer kicker Andrew Shrader has a lot going on. The former South Florida kicker has his hands into a handful of off the field ventures that keep him busy as well.

Shrader is the founder of CopperFox Technologies, which specializes in brand design, web development and sales-force integration. He also runs a web site and YouTube channel which are both called “Proceeding Boldly” (he designed his own logo for them). Shrader is also president of The Liberty Villages, which is a faith-based nonprofit his parents founded. Its mission to build Christian-based communities devoted to education, entrepreneurship, freedom and peace.

"I got to learn a lot of those things as we were recruiting him as I got to visit with him when he was being recruited,” Freeman explained. "He’s a really unique individual that is thinking about life beyond the game of football. I think that’s part of what attracted him to Notre Dame. He could have went to a lot of different places, but he understood this place. That’s what I told him in our meeting, like if you have interests beyond this game of football understand this is one of the most powerful networks there are in all of college education, So, you can maximize your off the field interests as well as playing football here at the highest level.”

Shrader handled all kicking duties when he was at South Florida. He made 28 of 40 field goal attempts in his four year USF career with a long of 52 yards.

“I think he’s going to be a great weapon for us,” said Freeman. “He’s been as consistent as anybody in fall camp and has a huge leg. He is definitely a huge enhancement to our football program.”

Nolan Ziegler Update

Nolan Ziegler has been absent from Notre Dame practices during fall training camp. The sophomore linebacker was expected to be in line to see action this season after a good spring of practice. Freeman updated his status when he was asked if Ziegler will be back with the team at some point.

“He’s here,” Freeman began. “He’s here with the program. He’s just dealing with some off the field issues, but he is a part of our program and he was at practice today.”

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