Marcus Freeman addresses most unexpected part of being Notre Dame's head coach

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman cemented his spot as one of college football's most promising coaches when he guided the Fighting Irish to the 2024 national championship game against eventual winners, the Ohio State Buckeyes. Despite losing in the title game, Freeman has been hailed by both fans and analysts for returning the Fighting Irish to elite status.

During Thursday's segment of "Next Up" with host Adam Breneman, the Fighting Irish coach revealed the most unexpected aspect of being a head coach of a major college football program.

"I think as a defensive coordinator obviously you had to make the schedule, but as the head coach, everybody is looking at you for direction," Marcus Freeman said. "And you're talking about grown-ups and, 'Hey, what is the direction? What's the schedule for today? What's the schedule for this week?' That's probably something that you don't anticipate taking as much time as it does." [7:30]

"Like, you have to be such a forward-thinker. You gotta make plans for months in advance. You gotta make plans for a year in advance. I remember last year in the summer, having to take 72 hours to prepare for, 'Okay. If we make the college football playoffs, what's gonna be our schedule from week 12 until the first round of the playoffs?' And then, those are the things that you have to be forward-thinking about."

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Marcus Freeman reveals changes in college since he became coach

Marcus Freeman was appointed the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2021 when former coach Brian Kelly took the LSU Tigers job. He had served as Kelly's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach before getting the top job.

During his four-year tenure, college football has changed drastically. The NIL landscape has completely reshaped how coaches and programs approach recruitment while the House vs. NCAA settlement has mandated that student-athletes should be treated as employees. On top of that, the flexibility of the transfer windows has caused chaos with player movement across teams.

During Thursday's segment of "Next Up," Freeman detailed how he has approached the myriad of changes in college football since he became a coach.

"But every year in these four years something has always changed," Marcus Freeman said. "When I first became head coach, there was no NIL. And then after that first year, came NIL to where it is now and the transfer portal and all these different things. You have to adapt to the changes but still have your core values." [8:15]

One way that Marcus Freeman has refused to change with the changing times in college football is in regard to the spring game, a tradation that has been dropped by many elite programs due to open spring transfer portal (April 16-25), which allows teams to poach players. Freeman revealed this week that he will still hold a Blue-Gold game to cater to Fighting Irish fans.