Marcus Freeman believes in his staff. The leader of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program has built a team around former head coaches in high-level assistant roles and relies on their experience in compiling game plans and making in-game adjustments to help his team carve a path through the College Football Playoff.
Marcus Freeman Praises Experienced Staff as Notre Dame Attempts To Reach the National Championship
On Wednesday morning in Miami, Freeman praised his assistants and said they all serve a particular purpose. They assist with game planning and help him make in-game adjustments, and their experience as head coaches has proven critical to Notre Dame’s success.
“When I hired Al Golden three years ago, it was for two reasons,” Freeman said. “One, I believed he had a great defensive mind and could do great things with our defense, but two, at that point, we did not have a former head coach on our staff. And I thought it was important to get somebody that had experience where I had none on our staff.”
Golden was a coach in the NFL with the Detroit Lions and the Cincinnati Bengals, but he also served as a big-time college football coach with the Miami Hurricanes and Temple Owls.
“The growth we’ve made in three years has been tremendous, the growth of our defense. And our defense is doing really great things right now, and coach Golden gets all the credit, and that staff and the players,” Freeman said.
“But there’s times I have to — I’ll ask him things about his experiences. And at some point, you’ve got to make a decision of what you believe is best. But it’s good to have some of those guys that have experience in areas that you don’t.”
Golden was a finalist for the Broyles Award this season, which goes to the top assistant coach in the country.
“I’ve never had experience in a playoff, so I spent some time talking to coach Golden, who had [it] in the NFL,” Freeman said. “Deland McCullough, our running backs coach, who had [it] in the NFL, and some of our other coaches that had experience dealing with the playoff in terms of the mentality, in terms of how we practiced, and some different things.”
“I believe in them,” Freeman concluded. “I believe in trying to gain wisdom from other people that have experience.”
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