With the Notre Dame Fighting Irish neither playing in the College Football Playoff (CFP) nor competing in a bowl game, head coach Marcus Freeman has more time on his hands, time the New York Giants would reportedly like to use to pry him away from South Bend.
Even before the world learned Sunday that Notre Dame would be excluded from this year’s playoff, rumors had begun to swirl that Freeman would be high on the Giants’ wishlist, as that organization works to fill their head coaching vacancy. Those rumors got a boost when ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter confirmed that Freeman was among the G-Men’s top targets.
Against that backdrop, FS1 host Colin Cowherd asked legendary Florida and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who also coached briefly in the NFL, what advice he would have for him when choosing between the NFL and Notre Dame.
Meyer was direct.
“I would say, ‘You stay in college 100 percent.’ You have controllables in college as a head coach. In the NFL, there’s so many uncontrollables that you don’t have, whether it’s the GM, the owner…In college, it’s you.”
“Plus, you’re gonna lose in the NFL. It’s built- and I’m not sure the Marcus I know. He can’t take losing like I can’t take losing. You’re gonna win at Notre Dame,” Meyer cautioned.
Freeman’s NFL experience is limited. He never coached in the league, but bounced around on the practice squads of the Bills, Bears, and Texans, before a diagnosis of an enlarged heart ended his NFL career.
Notre Dame is not unaware that its coach, perhaps the best young coach in college football, is a favorite target of potentially several NFL teams. On Tuesday, Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua spoke at length on the podcast The Echoes about ensuring that Freeman would be among the highest-paid college coaches for years to come.
The Irish are certainly hoping that the promise of financial reward and the chance to avenge the CFP’s snub with a national championship is enough to ease any talk of Freeman making the jump to the NFL.