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You’ve probably heard it’s a tough time to coach college football. Never mind that coaching salaries soar into the eight figures for guys who’ve never won a national championship or that exorbitant buyouts protect some failing coaches. Yes, indeedy, the echo chamber says coaching college football is a fool’s errand nowadays.
Players possess more power, freedom and compensation than ever before, and coaches are left with less roster control. That’s unbearable for some coaches who can’t stomach operating without unchecked omnipotence.
And then here’s Marcus Freeman, standing in contrast to all that coaching doom and gloom. Notre Dame’s 39-year-old coach sprints along the career fast track while shepherding this blue blood to power. He’s at the vanguard of a youth movement taking over college football sidelines.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman calls a timeout during his team’s 2023 game against Pittsburgh at Notre Dame Stadium.
If Freeman’s Fighting Irish beat Ohio State on Monday in Atlanta, he’d become the youngest coach to win a national championship since Danny Ford, at age 33, led 1981 Clemson to a national title.
In this millennium, Urban Meyer was 42 when he won his first national championship at Florida, and Bob Stoops turned 40 a few months before capturing his lone national championship at Oklahoma.
Freeman and Ohio State coach Ryan Day, 45, combine for an age of 84 years. That’s the youngest coaching pairing for a national championship game since the Bowl Championship Series began pitting No. 1 vs. No. 2 in a title matchup beginning in the 1998 season.
Freeman and Day manage strong relationships with players even in this transactional age of the sport.
So, it’s a bad time to coach college ball, huh? Maybe, it’s only excruciating for those with a foot stuck in a past that’s never…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/marcus-freeman-puts-notre-dame-110352903.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2025-01-17 11:03:00
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