Marcus Freeman's Track Record Of Hiring His "Buddies" At Notre Dame Is Different
Notre Dame has a track record over the last decade of a head coach bringing in his "buddies" as assistant coaches, and in many ways that has created a lot of problems. Marcus Freeman is following a similar path, and we saw that with the hiring of Gerad Parker as his offensive coordinator, but his track record in this area is quite different.
Hiring "buddies" under the previous administration brought us folks like Charlie Molnar, Tim Hinton, Paul Longo and worst of all ..... Brian Van Gorder. There were some successes with coaches like Mike Denbrock, Mike Elston and Chuck Martin, but the overall track record was less than stellar. Van Gorder's incompetence overshadowed the good we saw from coaches like Elston and Denbrock.
With that track record it makes sense that Notre Dame fans are skeptical about the hiring of Parker to run the offense. Freeman, however, needs to be judged on the success, or lack of success, that his hires have and not what happened under the previous coach. That matters because Freeman's track record of hiring his "buddies," which are coaches he's worked with in the past, trusts and has a strong relationship with, is much better.
A case could be made that Notre Dame's most impactful assistant coaches in 2022 were Mike Mickens, Brian Mason and Harry Hiestand. Hiestand had no prior relationship with Freeman, but Mickens and Mason absolutely do. They fall into the "buddies" category for Freeman, especially Mickens.
Had Mickens not already been on staff, believe me, that would have been arguably the first hire that Freeman would have made. Mickens has done a very good job from the moment he arrived at Notre Dame, and things started to really turn the corner in 2022. Freshman All-American Benjamin Morrison got much of the attention, but Cam Hart continued to develop and thrive, TaRiq Bracy had an outstanding final season and Clarence Lewis continued to improve. Then there is his recruiting, which has been stellar.
Mason was the nation's best special teams coach in 2022, which made that an absolute home run hire. Mason didn't exactly walk into a great situation, and he had to completely overhaul the Irish special teams, and he did so brilliantly. That was another Freeman "buddy" who thrived in his new role.
Another ally of Freeman is Director of Recruiting Chad Bowden, who has completely overhauled the recruiting mentality of Notre Dame. Gone is the stale, scared and lazy recruiting tactics of those who ran the back office recruiting before him. Bowden brings energy, a tireless work ethic and outstanding results.
Parker is an unknown as an offensive coordinator, but Freeman brought him in to coach the tight ends, and he did so at a very high level last season. That's four outstanding hires in just one year. The only question mark from this track record is Al Washington, who didn't do a great job recruiting or coaching the defensive line in his first season.
Freeman is dipping back into that background with the promotion of Parker to offensive coordinator and the addition of Gino Guidugli as the quarterbacks coach. He is hoping that these hires are just as good as his hires the first go round.
I get that Notre Dame fans are gun shy about a head coach hiring people he trusts, people he has worked with, and people perceived as his "buddies," I do. But if Freeman's "buddies" continue coaching in 2023 and beyond the way they did in 2022, the perception is going to change dramatically, and eventually fans will start to beg for the next Freeman ally to be brought into the program.
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