Marcus Freeman breaks down what Notre Dame must do to reach greatness

Marcus Freeman hasn’t been shy about his mission to get Notre Dame to the pinnacle of college football. The Irish weren’t exactly slouches during the back half of Brian Kelly’s tenure, making multiple College Football Playoffs, but the gap between Notre Dame and the upper crust of college football became clear.

And that’s the gap Freeman is trying to bridge. Talking with ESPN’s Greg McElroy on the “Always College Football” podcast, Freeman explained that two things are the focus for Notre Dame as they strive to reach the mountaintop and the first one is pretty obvious.

“I think there’s two things that we talk about often. One is, that’s the talent acquisition,” Freeman said. “We have to continue to recruit against the best teams in the country and we’ve got to believe that we are getting the best players in the country that fit this place. And we can’t settle for anything less. And so that’s the one way that you’re going to immediately be able to enhance your opportunities to win — is enhancing your roster and getting the best players in the country that fit this place. The second part is continuing to — I say all the time: Centralize our culture.”

The talent acquisition seems to be going well, as Freeman has Notre Dame sitting at fourth in the On3 Consensus team rankings for the 2023 class. Time will tell, but his ability to recruit at a high level helped fuel Freeman’s ascent and he’s seemingly leaning in to that early in his Notre Dame tenure.

He also explained what it means to “centralize” the culture for the Irish.

“And what’s that mean? That we’re all in this thing together. It’s not a hierarchy. It’s a group of individuals that are coming together for a common goal and that, you know, we’re gonna be a family,” Freeman said. “We’re going to be able to really become one in terms of the players, the coaches, that we’re going to have such an authentic relationship that we’re willing to fight for each other when things get really, really hard. Because it’s a real relationship. And you know what? When we’re pushing our players to uphold the standards that we have, it’s not going to be personal. What’s personal is winning and losing. And they have to understand that we’re a family and we’re in this together. So when we push them, they have to understand that we’re doing it to help them. Which ultimately is going to help our program.”

Freeman thinks if Notre Dame does those two things, greatness will soon follow.

“So, if we can continue to recruit those best players in the country that fit this place and continue to centralize our culture and get these guys to choose to love each other and sacrifice for each other, I think greatness is really destined for us,” Freeman said.