Marcus Freeman details role of new Director of Analytics Anthony Treash

This past week, Notre Dame hired Anthony Treash to serve as the program’s director of analytics. On Saturday, Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman confirmed the hire and explained why he felt it was a necessary addition to the staff.

“Obviously, the director of analytics will be a guy that helps you out, using a book during the game. But also, again, a guy that can evaluate trends of prospects, trends of your current team, looking at numbers,” Freeman said.

“He’s a guy that’s going to be very beneficial to the addition of our recruiting and our support staff. It was a position, we felt, that we didn’t have that we needed to have to really be able to maximize this football program. He’s only been here a couple days, but I think he’s going to be a valuable asset.”

Before joining Notre Dame, Anthony Treash was the senior college football analyst for Pro Football Focus, which he joined full-time in June 2019. Treash attended Indiana University Indianapolis where he received a bachelor of science in sports management.

Although Notre Dame previously didn’t have a director of analytics, Freeman has always emphasized the importance of data. The Fighting Irish have separate senior analysts for offense, defense and special teams, along with multiple fellows.

Sports betting expert projects Notre Dame to reach CFP

ESPN gambling analyst Joe Fortenbaugh expects the Fighting Irish to make the College Football Playoff this year and recently mentioned that Notre Dame making the CFP is one of his favorite bets ahead of the start of the college football season.

Notre Dame is currently -170 to reach the CFP, according to FanDuel.

“Notre Dame to make the playoff, you’re laying juice on that. But you can always get out of it in some regard if you don’t like the way it goes with [Texas] A&M,” Fortenbaugh said on the Always College Football podcast. “But if they get past A&M, the schedule sets up so nicely.”

Notre Dame had a couple of important additions to its offense this offseason in Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leonard and LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.

Leonard was 13-7 as a starter across two seasons at Duke, while making plays with both his arm and legs. Meanwhile, Denbrock orchestrated the top offense in the country last season at LSU.

“With [Mike] Denbrock coming over from LSU as the offensive coordinator, and Riley Leonard transferring in at quarterback, it feels like they’re set up really nicely,” Fortenbaugh said. “They should be a favorite in all 12. The one where they’re not going to be double digits, outside of A&M, is the USC game. But they’re probably still laying 6 on the road.”

On3’s Matt Connolly also contributed to this article.