Lou Holtz: Marcus Freeman 'will win a national championship' at Notre Dame

As he continues to build Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman is gaining popularity as the head coach. In his second year at the helm, the hype is building ahead of this week’s matchup with Ohio State in South Bend.

He also has a big fan in legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, who made a bold prediction about what Freeman can do for the program.

“He will win a national championship here at Notre Dame,” Holtz said on The Pat McAfee Show. “And I’ll say this, it’s damn near time we did. I’ll say that.”

Holtz has been known to write letters to Notre Dame coaches — he famously never got a response from former coach Brian Kelly. However, he said he hasn’t written one to Freeman yet because they’re in close contact.

Now in his second year as a head coach, Freeman is still in the early stages of his career. But Holtz said he’s not giving him any advice. That’s out of respect, though, so Freeman can find his own way. It’s exactly how the great Ara Parseghian treated Holtz when he took over at Notre Dame.

Holtz is confident Freeman will build and maintain success, especially after the time they spent together shortly after he got the job.

“I graduated from Kent State, and our motto was, ‘We can’t read, we can’t write, but we are Kent State,'” Holtz joked. “Now, I haven’t written Coach Freeman, but I talk to him quite often. And my philosophy is the same as Ara Parseghian had towards me. I will never give you advice. I’ll give you my opinion. When I did this, we won, when I did that, we lost. So you make the choice yourself.

“But the first week Marcus Freeman was head football coach, he flew to Orlando and spent a full day with me. I have the greatest respect for him, as I said. He loves Notre Dame, he’s great with the players.”

Lou Holtz: Notre Dame feels like it did when he coached, and it starts with Marcus Freeman

Holtz’s time as Notre Dame head coach was one of the most iconic in program history. He led the Fighting Irish to a national championship in 1988 as they moved to the top of the college football landscape.

Campus has been buzzing all week ahead of the Ohio State matchup. He sees similarities to those teams in the 1980s — and it begins with the head coach.

“It definitely does,” Holtz said. “No. 1, let’s start with the coach, Marcus Freeman. He loves Notre Dame. He understands what Notre Dame’s all about. And that is so important for the head coach to believe in this school.”