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Notre Dame

Pro Football Focus ranks Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman a top-five coach in CFB

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•07/10/25•

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Marcus Freeman explains how he will use Michigan vs. Ohio State to prepare for National Championship
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. (Photo by Brett Davis-Imagn Images)

There was a time not long ago when you had to scroll a bit to find Marcus Freeman‘s name on offseason college football head coach rankings lists. That time is no more.

Pro Football Focus ranked Freeman the No. 5 coach in the country this week.

“Freeman has gotten better every year as Notre Dame’s head coach and brought the Fighting Irish all the way to the National Championship Game this past season,” PFF’s Max Chadwick wrote. “During that playoff run, he took down three other top-10 coaches in Curt Cignetti, Kirby Smart and James Franklin. The Fighting Irish should once again be a title contender this year, thanks to some key contributors returning like running back Jeremiyah Love and cornerback Leonard Moore.”

Here’s a look at PFF’s top 10 college football head coaches.

The top 10 head coaches in college football per Pro Football Focus

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
2. Ryan Day, Ohio State
3. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
4. Dan Lanning, Oregon
5. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame

6. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
7. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
8. James Franklin, Penn State
9. Brian Kelly, LSU
10. Kurt Cignetti, Indiana

Notes from Blue & Gold
• Every coach on the list has taken a team to the College Football Playoff. Eight of the coaches took their teams to the 12-team CFP this past season. The only ones who didn’t were DeBoer and Kelly.

• PFF did what most outlets do when concocting head coaches rankings lists and put the ones who have won national championships at the top. Can’t complain about that. Day just won it all by beating Freeman. Smart has two national titles on his résumé, and so does Swinney.

• Interestingly, Lanning and Freeman are both entering their fourth overall seasons as head coaches and they’re both in the top five. Both of them have registered more wins as the seasons have gone on; Lanning’s gone from 10 to 12 to 13, and Freeman’s gone from 9 to 10 to 14. They’re the quintessential “knocking on the door” head coaches, and they were rewarded for that by way of inclusion in the top five.

• Speaking of the benefit of the doubt — Kelly’s obviously still got it. His three-year journey at LSU hasn’t been as upward trending as Lanning’s at Oregon or Freeman’s at Notre Dame. It’s been a bit more stagnant with the Tigers winning 10 games in 2022 and 2023 and 9 games in 2024.


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