Take Five: Players Leaving Early, Marcus Freeman Practice Style, Notre Dame Recruiting
Thoughts on players leaving early, Marcus Freeman's practice routine at Notre Dame, recruiting and Oklahoma State.
1. I’m with Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach on players who opt to skip a bowl game to prepare for the NFL Draft, or to avoid injury. For Notre Dame, that’s Kyle Hamilton and Kyren Williams. Remember when former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly insisted Hamilton’s absence after a knee injury against USC, which was deemed not serious, was not about his NFL future? Of course, it was.
That’s fine but coaches need to be upfront about it. Leach ranted about the indiscriminate standard of deciding to leave before the last game of the season. Why not just start skipping after the third or fourth game if it’s about being afraid of getting injured? And why do elite players come back for a College Football Playoff game but not a high-level bowl game? And shouldn’t there be a responsibility to your team and the school to finish off the obligations that a scholarship provides the players with? It’s just bad form. And I get that it won’t change, but it’s not right.
2. It was the opposite of a Kelly practice. That’s the lens, for better and worse, of how Marcus Freeman will be viewed in this initial honeymoon period. The 40-minutes of practice viewing Sunday was what you’d expect from Freeman. He was a ball of energy. He hugged every player during warmups. He floated quickly between the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of it, and the day started with a competitive drill. This time, it was a 10-yard goal-line pass. It was a defender against a receiver. The best of five. The defense won and the offense had to run.
In contrast, Kelly was sometimes hard to find at practice. He might be on the sideline in a corner talking to someone. He could be watching in the middle of the field by himself. This is your daily reminder that all the rah-rah stuff will only be viewed as effective long-term if Freeman wins consistently at a high level.
3. The Internet can fool you. Freeman had this pithy, funny quote about the Chicago Bears that went viral yesterday. Asked about what he learned about his time with the Bears, he said: “You learn how to take defeat.” That was construed as a jab at the Bears, who have been consistently mediocre or worse the last 25 years plus, but it wasn’t that at all. Freeman was talking about getting cut from the Bears in 2009. He was drafted in the fifth round by the Bears but he never played a down of pro football. Freeman quit the NFL in 2010 after he was diagnosed with a heart condition.
4. Notre Dame ranks fifth in overall recruiting in both 247Sports and Rivals. Signing day is Wednesday and the Fighting Irish should finish in the top 10 when it all shakes out. Their highest-ranked recruit, according to 247 and Rivals, is outside linebacker Jaylen Sneed. Sneed, who is 6 foot 1, 208-pounds, is ranked as the 41st best player in the country by Rivals and the 50th by 247. There are two proven commodities with Freeman. He can recruit and he can coach defense. If more than half the battle for being successful at Notre Dame is getting players then Freeman will be really good.
5. Back to Oklahoma State. Take the under. The early line has Notre Dame as a 2.5-point favorite and the under at 45.5. This game is interesting from the perspective that the Fighting Irish won’t have played a defense as good as OSU’s since it lost to Cincinnati. The Bearcats picked off two passes. Turnovers cost Notre Dame the game in its 24-13 loss. The big question that will be answered involves the offensive line. Has it really improved that much or was their second-half success because they played a bunch of weak teams? We’ll find out.
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