Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua on making Marcus Freeman feel valued
Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua jokes about even Hollywood having interest in Irish football coach Marcus Freeman, who turns 40 in January.
EAST RUTHERFORD – The New York Giants are not alone in their affection for Marcus Freeman and what he has done as head coach at the University of Notre Dame.
No one – likely outside of a small circle of people in his life – really knows how Freeman truly feels about the Giants’ interest in making him their next head coach, or that from any other potential suitors.
Would Freeman jump to the NFL? Maybe one day. But now? That’s uncertain.
Here’s how I feel about the situation: the Giants should force Freeman to turn them down.
Make him say no.
Because if there is a chance, Freeman would be a home run hire for the Giants. He’s the caliber of candidate they should be pursuing, no matter if he wants to come.
Matt Fortuna is the creator and writer of The Inside Zone, a site dedicated to college football. His coverage of Freeman spans his entire tenure at Notre Dame, and those connected to the sport have been keeping tabs on his ascension through the ranks for a decade-plus in his days as an assistant coach at Cincinnati, Purdue and Kent State.
“Marcus Freeman is a guy that I know a lot of important people in the industry have had their eyes on for a very long time,” Fortuna told NorthJersey.com and The Record on Tuesday night. “So, trusting the people I trust, and then seeing it with my own two eyes at Notre Dame, you know, as impressive as his success has been, honestly I am not surprised by it. And as far as being a face of the program, he’s phenomenal. He’s so dynamic with everything he does.”
Freeman turns 40 in January, and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua suggested this week that the school is prepared to do whatever it can to keep him in South Bend. Bevacqua confirmed the financial parameters of his existing contract may be altered year to year depending on outside interest and offers that could come down the road.
Freeman has gone 43-12 in four-plus seasons as Notre Dame’s head coach, leading the Fighting Irish to the national championship game last season.
The Giants are about to enter the fifth head coaching search for the organization since Tom Coughlin’s exit following the 2015 season. And just because Brian Daboll’s firing came with seven games remaining, there has been time – perhaps too much – for a list of candidates to evolve between now and season’s end.
Get ready for the misdirection. College coach. No college coach.
CEO coach. Great coordinator. No coordinators.
The Giants owe it to themselves and this fan base to consider the best candidates. Don’t put parameters on who they may be based on job description alone.
Taking everything into account, Freeman is emerging as somewhat of the NFL’s white whale, similar to the way Dallas Cowboys executive Will McClay has been in general manager searches and what former Stanford coach David Shaw was for years.
Will he or won’t he, that is the question. And the Giants don’t have to wait to get an answer, one way or the other, especially with national signing day in the rear view and Freeman done coaching for the season, albeit in stunning and controversial fashion with Notre Dame declining bowl invites.
And due to all that attention for Freeman in recent weeks, especially in the aftermath of Notre Dame’s snub from the college football playoffs, oddsmakers have now made him the favorite to lead Big Blue.
That speculation even got back to Freeman earlier this month, and as one might expect, he approached the situation trying to be as non-committal as possible.
“The gratitude you have, for one, even being mentioned by an organization like that. I got a lot of respect for all NFL teams, but the history of the Giants is tremendous,” Freeman said in a recent interview with the New York Post.
“But it’s gratitude for me, it reminds me of the honor that I have to be in the position I have. And I’ve said that before. I use that to remind myself of the gratitude that I have for this position because you wouldn’t have said that statement if I didn’t have this job and we weren’t having success.”
With Freeman, accountability within the team has been a priority. He’s certainly charismatic and that’s what everyone sees, giving off the vibes of being a players’ coach. But Freeman does have an edge to him behind the scenes, perhaps just enough of a disciplinarian to make the leap from a college locker room to the pros without feeling like the challenge of coaching a locker room full of millionaires won’t be too big of an ask.
Freeman also comes from a former player’s perspective, even if that part of his resume is often overlooked. He played safety at Ohio State and was a fifth-round pick of the Chicago Bears before ultimately being forced to medically retire due to a heart condition.
A big factor for Freeman’s candidacy will be his ability to assemble a staff that combines experience with breadth of knowledge and an ability to work in lock step from position to position. That’s where the last three head coaches for the Giants failed, and the inability to keep things together in rough times cost them (Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge and Daboll).
Freeman should have no problem in vetting coaches and garnering interest to join his program, especially on the offensive side of the ball with Jaxson Dart at quarterback, a franchise left tackle in Andrew Thomas and an elite playmaker in Malik Nabers returning.
Giants rookie wide receiver Beaux Collins played for Freeman at Notre Dame last year, so we asked him to make a pitch for his former head coach to come here – if someone from upstairs asked for one.
“He stands by what he coaches, which is trust, accountability and always working hard,” Collins said. “You’ve got to work hard for everything you get, and if you make mistake, own it and get better. He’s one of those guys who can connect to players no matter what level he’s at, on and off the field. If I have to hit him up to see what’s up, I think I will.”
The Giants have proven the search for a head coach is certainly not an exact science. But they can’t let past missteps and failures scare them away from any and all candidates. Everything should be on the table, and make no mistake: Freeman would set a tone they have not had around here since Coughlin.
“He can be as competitive as anyone else out there,” Fortuna said of Freeman. “He’s got a chip on his shoulder, he’s always going to have that. This year might be a hard time for him to do it, but there are only 32 of these jobs, right? They don’t come open for just anyone, and this is the Giants, he’d owe it to himself to listen.”
Which is why the Giants owe it to themselves and their fan base to go all in and get an answer from Marcus Freeman before moving on and considering other options.