Marcus Freeman evaluates himself as a head coach entering third season

Marcus Freeman is 19-8 as Notre Dame‘s head coach through two years and is coming off his first 10-win season at the helm of the Fighting Irish program.

Freeman admitted that there is room for improvement to be made for him as a head coach. However, the more he has coached, the more he’s won. As he told On3’s Andy Staples on Tuesday, there is no substitute for experience.

‘I hope when we’re on we’re having another Zoom or podcast here next year that I’m saying I’m a much better head coach going into year four than I was year three,” Freeman told Staples. “And that’s the thing like when you stop growing. There is no finish line for me. And I’m speaking for myself, there is never a finish line where you say ‘I’ve got it. I know exactly what it’s going to take.’

“For me, it’s it’s how can I consistently grow, challenge myself to make those sacrifices and those choices that it takes to be a better individual first. That’s my challenge for everybody in this program. Let’s find ways to be the best version of ourselves. That’s going to take sacrifice for coaches. The same things we tell our players, they have to do. And if we are better individuals, we’re gonna become better leaders and better coaches, and that, to me, is what I’m challenging myself with.”

After Freeman began his head coaching career at Notre Dame 0-2 — with losses to CJ Stroud and Ohio State, as well as to an unranked Marshall squad — the Fighting Irish were 3-3 after six weeks of the 2022 regular season. They eventually rattled off five wins in a row after that before losing to Caleb Williams and USC as he capped off his Heisman Trophy campaign.

After an up-and-down year, Notre Dame ended it with a Gator Bowl win over South Carolina and finished the season 9-4.

In 2023, Notre Dame went ahead and asserted itself as a mainstay in the AP Top 25 Poll with a 4-0 start to the season. Before losing a 17-14 heartbreaker to Ohio State on Sept. 23. Losses to Louisville and Clemson kept the Irish out of the New Year’s Six conversations, but a 40-8 win over a ranked Oregon State squad capped off Freeman’s first 10-win season as Notre Dame headman.

If Freeman continues on this trajectory, an 11-win season could potentially be in Notre Dame’s future, which would almost ensure their spot in the new 12-team College Football Playoff. That would be another notch in the ever-growing resume Freeman is putting together in South Bend.