Marcus Freeman 2024-25 Football Staff

THE FREEMAN FILE

PLAYING EXPERIENCE

BOWLS PLAYED

COACHING CAREER

BOWLS COACHED IN

PERSONAL INFORMATION

• A four-year letter winner for the Buckeyes from 2004 to 2008, earned second team All-Big Ten honors in 2008, while helping lead Ohio State to four conference titles, three BCS bowls and two trips to the national title game during his career.
• Played in the 2009 Senior Bowl and was a fifth-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears, spending time with the Bears, Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans before a medical condition ended his playing career.
• A 2007 Ohio State graduate, where he earned Academic All-Big Ten and academic all-district honors.
• In 2011, earned a master’s degree in sports management from Ohio State.
• Graduated from Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio, and was a Parade All-American.

COACHING ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• On December 3, 2021, Freeman was announced as the 30th head coach in school history.
• Guided the Irish to a 10-3 mark, highlighted by a Sun Bowl victory over #21/22 Oregon State to close out the season.
• Also produced wins over ranked opponents #10/9 Southern Cal, #17/16 Duke.
• Notre Dame had two unanimous All-Americans in 2023 in offensive lineman Joe Alt and safety Xavier Watts, giving the Irish a pair of unanimous All-Americans for the first time since 1990.
• Watts took home the Bronko Nagurski Award, given to the top defensive player in college football, after leading the FBS in interceptions with seven.
• Defensive lineman Howard Cross III and running back Audric Estime’ were also named All-Americans in 2023.
• Alt was also a finalist for the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy, while linebacker JD Bertrand was a finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy and the Campbell Trophy.
• The 2023 Notre Dame defense stood out as it ranked first in team pass efficiency defense, second in red zone defense, fourth in passing yards allowed, and eighth in scoring defense and total defense.
• On offense, the Irish averaged 39.1 ppg in 2023, ranking second all-time in the history of the program as the 1912 team averaged 48.6 ppg over eight games. Notre Dame averaged 7.0 yards-per-play in 2023, which would match the 2015 team for the highest in program history.
• Led Notre Dame to a 9-4 mark in 2022, capped with win over #19 South Carolina in the Gator Bowl.
• In his first season at the helm of the program in 2022, the Irish notched wins over four ranked teams, including a win over fifth-ranked Clemson.
• Notre Dame added two consensus All-Americans in 2022, tight end Michael Mayer and defensive lineman Isaiah Foskey.
• In 2022 OL Joe Alt, OL Jarrett Patterson, LS Michael Vinson also earned All-America honors.
• CB Ben Morrison was named a 2022 Freshman All-American.
• In 2021, his first season with the Irish, while serving as the defensive coordinator, he led a transformation on the defensive side of the ball and a number of Top-20 national rankings.
• The Irish finished 2021 seventh nationally in defensive touchdowns (4), 10th in turnovers gained (25) and third-down conversion percentage (.321), 13th in total sacks (41.0), 14th in interceptions (15) and 15th in scoring defense (19.7).
• The 41.0 team sacks tied the program record from the 1996 season.
• Under Freeman’s guidance, Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton was named a consensus All-American in 2021, and went on to be the 14th overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft.
• Freeman oversaw then-sophomore Isaiah Foskey’s breakout season as a starter on the defensive line. Foskey tallied 11.0 sacks tin 2021, third-most in program history for a single season.
• The depth of the Irish defense was on full display in 2021 as 15 different players recorded a sack and 21 different players had a tackle-for-loss.
• The 15 interceptions were the most in a single season since 2014 when the Irish had 16.
• In November, the Irish had three-straight games without allowing a touchdown for the first time since 2012.
• Prior to coming to South Bend, Freeman spent the previous four seasons as the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati.
• 2020 247Sports.com Defensive Coordinator of the Year and 2020 Broyles Award Finalist; 2018 & 2019 Broyles Award nominee
• In 2020, the Bearcats (9-1) earned a bid to the Peach Bowl as the No. 8-ranked team in the nation and won the American Athletic Conference Championship, the program’s first outright league title since 2009, when Cincinnati’s head coach was Brian Kelly.
• Cincinnati’s defense ranked in the Top 20 nationally in several categories for 2020-21, including being ranked 13th in total defense (324.6 yards per game) and eighth in scoring defense (16.8 points per game) among all FBS teams.
• In addition, the Bearcats were third in team passing efficiency defense (101.25), 14th in rushing defense (111.1 yards per game), 15th in red zone defense (0.735), 17th in fourth down defense (0.375 rate), 16th in team sacks (3.00 per game) and 10th in turnovers gained (21).
• Coached the Bearcats to back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018 and 2019, the 2019 American Athletic Conference East Division Championship and consecutive bowl-game wins in the 2018 Military Bowl and 2019 TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl.
• The Bearcats finished atop the 2019 AAC ranks in scoring defense for the second-straight season and ranked among the league’s top three in rushing and total defense.
• Cincinnati led the American in 2018 in rushing defense, scoring defense and total defense and ranked among the Top-15 in the NCAA FBS in all three categories.
• Joined the Bearcats staff after a four-year stint at Purdue. He coached linebackers all four seasons and served as the Boilermakers co-defensive coordinator in 2015.
• Freeman coached linebackers at Kent State from 2011-12, helping develop all-conference selections Luke Batton and C.J. Malauulu.
• Freeman started his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, Ohio State, in 2010 and the Buckeyes went 12-1 with a victory in the Sugar Bowl.