This is Jack Swarbrick's week to run a victory lap. Doesn't matter where -- around Notre Dame Stadium, past the Grotto or Touchdown Jesus.
The point is, the former Irish athletic director who hired Marcus Freeman should be ripping off his shirt, pounding his chest and whooping at the top of his lungs. It worked. The chance he took on a 35-year-old defensive coordinator with no head coaching experience worked.
To this point, it has worked spectacularly.
You might have noticed Notre Dame is chasing its first national championship in 36 years. It is playing for the title for only the second time since 1988.
Freeman might be the hottest coach in the country, right down to his debonair good looks that have ignited a different, um, base of fans. Because of all it, Notre Dame is likeable again. Or should be.
"I take enormous satisfaction in it having worked out," Swarbrick told CBS Sports this week. "It's not about all the people who thought I was crazy."
And there were plenty of those, especially with bigger, sexier names available after Brian Kelly, the program's winningest coach, departed for LSU three-plus years ago. The likes of Luke Fickell, Matt Campbell, Pat Fitzgerald and Jeff Brohm all had extensive coaching experience.
But suddenly, the coach who lost to Marshall and Northern Illinois in his first three seasons also has authored the nation's longest current winning streak (13). The coach who was down to two years left on his contract now has an extension and is getting interest from the Chicago Bears.
With Freeman, Notre Dame matters again at the highest level despite all the time-worn obstacles that dictates it shouldn't -- its independence, its adherence to an academic standard, even its climate.
"In South Bend, Indiana ,you're recruiting against kids who take trips to Athens and Gainesville and Baton Rouge," said one veteran athletics administration source familiar with Notre Dame's hiring process who did not want to be identified.
Snow, cold and wind haven't mattered to this point. Freeman just landed Notre Dame's fifth consecutive top-12 recruiting class in the 247Sports composite. Just the right amount of portal imports have paid off.
In the process, Freeman's coaching profile couldn't have changed faster, which makes this 14-1 season all that more amazing. A rash of injuries before and during the season portended this should be the worst of Freeman's three seasons. Instead, the 14 wins are an ongoing school record.
The Northern Illinois loss in Week 2 has lingered until the Irish got into the playoff and made this current run that has resulted in Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl trophies. Talk about sudden. Freeman has more top-five wins at Notre Dame this month (two) than Brian Kelly did in 12 years (1-7)
Freeman may not have been a unanimous choice when he was elevated, but as it turned out, he did have the full support of the locker room.
That's the way Swarbrick described it in an exclusive interview this week with CBS Sports. The former AD quickly zeroed in on Freeman following Kelly's departure. It was shortly after that, Swarbrick invited his core leadership team to his house in late 2021.
"Tell me why I shouldn't hire Marcus?" Swarbrick asked the team. "Nobody could. They gave it their best shot. Other than the risk of hiring someone who hadn't been a head coach, he otherwise seemed to be the logical fit."
Time was of the essence. Notre Dame was still in the running for the playoff back then. There was a bit of needle threading. If Swarbrick had hired, say, Fickell from Cincinnati, then Freeman would have become the likely candidate to succeed his former Bearcats boss.
Swarbrick then engaged with a group of seven veteran players.
"I was clear with the players," he recalled. "I said, 'We're not here to talk about who you think should be your head coach. Were here to talk about characteristics. I don't want any names.' That's when they politely interrupted. 'OK, we'll have that discussion, but first we want to talk to you about how important culture is to us.' It was pretty amazing.
"One of the leaders of the group said to me, 'We have the best culture in college football, but Brian Kelly didn't build it, we built it. And don't bring in somebody who was going to change it.'"
Freeman had already checked two boxes important to Swarbrick, recruiting ability and player development. The meeting with the players took care of the culture piece.
But there are a couple of things wrong with letting players dictate the hire: 1) sometimes they're wrong, 2) they're certainly not accountable as they cycle out of the program. As passionate as they might be, those players are also pass-throughs.
The Notre Dame player who spoke up in that group was Kurt Hinish, a defensive tackle and product of Central Catholic High in Pittsburgh. That was good enough. Freeman was rubber-stamped without his name barely being mentioned. Hinish is currently with the Houston Texans.
With a decision demanded quickly -- that playoff berth loomed and Kelly himself recruiting Freeman to be DC at LSU -- Swarbrick had to act quickly.
A widely distributed video confirmed the locker room had been won ...
Notre Dame's history of elevating assistant coaches has not been good -- at least since Knute Rockne, who did OK for himself. But since that time more than 90 years ago, Notre Dame has hired five coaches without head coaching experience. All five have had winning records with the Irish, but the list doesn't particularly stir the soul: Charlie Weis, Bob Davie, Gerry Faust, Terry Brennan and Ed McKeever.
Replacing Kelly was that 30-something defensive coordinator who played under Jim Tressel at Ohio State. Freeman made his mark with solid jobs on the defensive side from 2017-2021 as coordinator with Cincinnati and, for one season, at Notre Dame.
"People reacted that way, and I knew they would," Swarbrick said of Freeman's lack of head coaching experience.
It is dizzying to once again consider this Irish high after the events of Sept. 10. A Northern Illinois team that would finish in a tie for sixth in the MAC gutted out a 16-14 upset. The biggest win in NIU's history also continued a troubling trend in Freeman's career.
The season before, there were only 10 defensive players on the field when Ohio State scored the winning touchdown at Notre Dame Stadium. In Freeman's third career game, Marshall upset ND at home, 26-21, as the Irish started 0-2 for the first time since 2011.
"Tell me why," one fan wrote to NDInsider.com, "we shouldn't fire Freeman right now?"
"Even to this day, you don't hear anybody talk about Notre Dame without bringing up Northern Illinois," said Tim Grunhard, the center on the 1988 national championship team.
The questions about Freeman have quickly shifted. Is all of this at Notre Dame sustainable? Freeman's record through his first three seasons (33-9) is the best start by an ND coach since Dan Devine started 28-7 from 1975-77. Freeman's record after Nov. 1 is now 14-2.
"There is a difference between player coaches and coaches who coach players," Grunhard said. "When you take one of the most pressure-packed programs that has its own network, the way he dealt with it with alumni and administration and national media has been unbelievable."
Kelly took over for Charlie Weis in 2010. In his third year, Kelly had the Irish playing for the BCS championship. Like Kelly and Lou Holtz, Freeman has the Irish playing for a title in Year 3.
"It was very different in the search when I hired Brian Kelly," Swarbrick said. "Our program was broken then. I needed a program builder. Brian Kelly left the program in good shape."
On his way out the door, Kelly questioned Notre Dame's commitment and lack of "resources."
"It was frustrating in that sense," Swarbrick said. "We invested an extraordinary amount to [reinvest] in what I think is the best stadium in the in the country, invested in what I think is the best indoor facility in the country. I would argue in the last 10 years no one in the country invested more in football facilities. [But] you'll never hear me say a bad thing about Brian. If he doesn't restore the program we're not here today."
Kelly did tell CBS Sports Tuesday he's pulling for the Irish, several of whom he recruited. So tip your hat in his direction too, Notre Dame Fan.
The Irish have become cool under Freeman, though. Freeman is a part of a group of young coaches represented by Clint Dowdle, a rising star in the industry who left Creative Artists Agency in August 2023 to head the coaches' division at WME. Dowdle had two of the eight CFP coaching quarterfinalists in Freeman and Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham.
Just as suddenly as Notre Dame has made this push, its coach now has options. Freeman has now put himself in position to consider only top-10 college jobs or the NFL. The Bears opening is interesting in that team president Kevin Warren is a proud graduate of Notre Dame's law school.
"He's not going to make a decision to leave Notre Dame because of any lack of support from Notre Dame," Swarbrick said of Freeman. "Professionally, if he has some itch to do something else, that's different. That's personal. Notre Dame will do everything necessary to have Marcus remain at the school."
Now that defense molded by Freeman is the strength of the team, this is probably the Irish's best chance at an upset. The Irish choked off Georgia, holding the 'Dawgs to a tie for their lowest point total since 2015 (10) in the quarterfinal. Penn State did not complete a pass to a wide receiver for the first time in 20 years in the semifinal.
There is a constant adjustment to simply being Notre Dame. There was a vigorous vetting process three years ago that was described as "anti-George O'Leary". (It was O'Leary who infamously lasted five days on the job after it was discovered he falsified parts of his résumé.)
"It was interesting for me to call Marcus up and say, 'You're my guy, but now you've got to go through interviews with the president and board of trustees,'" Swarbrick said.
President Fr. John Jenkins interviewed Freeman from Rome via Zoom.
The quizzing continues. Notre Dame's coach is being asked about everything, from being the first Black and Asian head coach in a championship game, to coaching on MLK day to his connection to Ohio State. He and Ohio State linebackers coach Jim Laurinaitis were in each other's wedding.
But at a place that dunks itself in its history like croutons in fondue, Freeman is ready for his next interview – standing on a podium Monday night in Atlanta.
Then comes his own victory lap.
"It's something that they'll be able to say for the rest of their lives," Freeman said this week. "They were part of a national championship football team."
