Isaiah Foskey reveals the biggest difference between Marcus Freeman and Brian Kelly

Last year, Notre Dame EDGE Isaiah Foskey built a close relationship with then-defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. But now that Freeman is the head coach, Foskey said he’s seeing differences in the program — but not in the first-year headman.

During an appearance on ESPN’s College Football Live, Foskey talked about the biggest difference as Freeman gets ready for his first year as a head coach. Freeman is taking over for Brian Kelly after he left Notre Dame to become the new head coach at LSU, and Foskey said the program has a new type of buzz to it as training camp approaches.

“Coach Freeman just brought, to me, a lot more energy toward the program,” Foskey said. “You can see with the new Shamrock Series [uniforms], revealing it. With the recruiting that he’s bringing the new players in, it just brings more energy, a lot more family oriented.

“He’s just always around his players. It’s just great to see him. He hasn’t changed much from [the] defensive coordinator aspect to head coach. Everything about him is just great.”

Foskey, Freeman and Michael Mayer went viral on Wednesday when they released their Shamrock Series uniforms in the style of the movie The Hangover. The group went to Las Vegas and met with Mike Golic and Mike Golic Jr. before finding the uniforms atop Caesar’s Palace.

Freeman explained the backstory behind the video during an appearance on ESPN’s First Take, and it’s just as awesome as you’d expect.

“It’s pretty cool,” Freeman said. “They flew me and two of our players — Isaiah Foskey and Michael Mayer — to Las Vegas. We play a Shamrock Series game vs. BYU. We get new uniforms for that game every year. So they flew us out there and then they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to kind of do a Hangover-type parody for it.’ I didn’t get into this profession to act, but they made us do some acting. It was really cool.

“The jerseys are unbelievable, they put so much detail into them. I’m excited for our players to get a chance to wear those.”

Freeman and his staff have had plenty of success on the recruiting trail, holding the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation for 2023 and the No. 1 group in 2024, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking. Five-star EDGE Keon Keely is the biggest piece of the 2023 class, coming in as the No. 12 player in the country, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.