Marcus Freeman discusses ‘work-life blend’ as Notre Dame coach

The college football season truly never ends for coaches, constantly tasked with coaching, recruiting, and everything in-between in today’s landscape.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman joined ‘The Pivot Podcast’ and discussed balancing the demands that come with being a collegiate head football coach and his personal life, sharing his philosophy on work-life balance.

“You’ll never be at a championship level at home, and what is the evaluation of a championship level right? But the demands of a college football coach are extremely high to have success, the hours it takes to put in, there are a lot of hours. I’ve always said this, it’s not a balance. It’s a blend,” Freeman said.

Work-life balance is a commonly used term, but blend? Not so much, as Freeman explained how he’s able to make those worlds collide as much as possible within his busy schedule.

“We have a work-life blend, so what’s that mean? I’m fortunate I live 10 minutes up the road, and if my wife can bring one kid, two kids, five kids, six kids it doesn’t matter, if she can bring them here for 10 minutes, she can bring them here for a practice, she can bring them here for a dinner, she tries to,” Freeman said. “And it’s for two reasons.”

Freeman and his wife Joanna have six children, children that Freeman does not get to see as much when football season kicks off, making a few minutes here and there that he can see them extra special during the fall.

“One so I can see them,” Freeman said. “For sure in the season, you leave they’re sleeping, you come home they’re sleeping, right? You can see your wife but you’re not seeing your kids during the week. I see them on Sunday when I leave, I don’t see them again awake until Thursday, and so if they can come and see Dad for a minute we try to do that.”

Freeman also in a way has 80-plus children in the form of his players that he cares about, and wants to make it a priority that he and his coaching set the proper example for them on what a family man looks like during some of the most impressionable years of their lives.

“And the second part is that a lot of our players, I don’t care if you have both parents at home or not, you still need the example model in front of you,” Freeman said. “You can have the example for 18 years, and 18 to 22 if you got a bad example man I can effect you. And so I want our players to see me and our other coaches as a husband, as a father, and not about what we say. ‘You gotta treat your wife with respect, you gotta love your kids,’ no I want to show it to you, because that’s what going to stick with them longer. That’s why we have this blend and that’s how we make it work man.”

It’s clear that Freeman is doing his best to win on and off the field, a challenge that’s definitely a tough one, but seems extremely rewarding when done right.