Kyren Williams praises Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman: ‘There’s not going to be a drop-off’
Former Notre Dame running back Kyren Williams had just one season in South Bend with Marcus Freeman, and his interactions with the then-defensive coordinator were relatively limited given he played on the offensive side of ball.
Despite the circumstances, Williams could tell that Freeman’s coaching abilities and dedication to his players was something special.
On Monday, the running back joined The Jim Rome Show to discuss the future of Notre Dame football now that Freeman is the new head coach and had nothing but nice things to say.
“I think that Coach Freeman, as a person, has the same mindset as I do,” Williams said. “(He knows how to build) those relationships with a player so that they know you have their back, so they’re going to work as hard as possible for you because at the end of the day when it’s all said and done, you know that the coach is still going to be there with you whether it’s a win, a loss, a tie, a draw. It doesn’t matter. They know that Coach Freeman is going to be there with them and push them to get better.”
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You’d be hard pressed to find someone who believes Freeman doesn’t treat his players with an immense amount of respect and care deeply about them as people. That was never the concern. A bigger question mark when it comes to the decision to promote a then-35-year-old defensive coordinator to be the head coach of a top-10 college football is surrounding the head coaching learning curve.
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Williams doesn’t believe the inexperience will be an issue.
“With Coach Freeman as the head coach, there’s not going to be a drop-off,” Williams added. “There might be upward motivation in a sense because they’re playing for somebody (they know is) going to have their back 100 percent of the time.
“A lot of people say he’s a players’ coach, and he truly is from what I’ve seen. I don’t know how different it is now that they’re in offseason workouts, but when I was there, I just knew that Coach Freeman could light a fire under your butt to get you to play as hard as he wanted to.”
Freeman will need his team to play hard this fall, and they surely won’t get a cupcake game to ease into 2022. Freeman will kick off his regular season head coaching career against his alma mater Ohio State in Columbus on Sept. 3.
