Marcus Freeman modernizing Notre Dame football with push from Navy SEALs
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SOUTH BEND, IN – Marcus Freeman spends time briefly living on an active United States Navy aircraft carrier.
Training with Navy SEALs.
Turning the NFL’s apparent infatuation with Notre Dame’s 40-year-old football coach into a chance to enhance his Fighting Irish program.
“It’s about serving something greater than yourself,” Freeman tells USA TODAY Sports about the past two summers featuring personal growth with active units of the United States military.
“Those men and women there that serve our country, it’s something bigger than who they are as a person. A sense of purpose that’s of service to others. I think it’s something absolutely incredible.”
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Freeman does not lend much of his attention nor time to social media.
Isn’t familiar with a mock Indiana license plate reading “WK ZRO.”
Or another that condenses “No conference” to “NOO CONF.”
As an interview unfolds, a social media “Think Bigger” hype video — after Notre Dame’s previous “Think Big” version — from the official X account of the Southern California Trojans has 680,000 views.
this pLAce will change your life if you let it ✌️‼️ pic.twitter.com/IXr6G0ieuL
— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) April 17, 2026
Reposts, downloads, additional engagements drive its viewership into the millions.
The video houses the faux Indiana tags.
Chad Bowden, now USC football’s general manager and Marcus Freeman’s first hire upon his 2021 arrival as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, narrates a highlights-heavy short that touts the Trojans and trolls the Irish.
For only the second time this century and first in a non-COVID-19 season, the two rivals are not meeting this fall on the football field. There’s enough finger-pointing in both directions to spike diagnoses of carpal tunnel.
Days following the video’s April 17, 2026 release and just before the rock-star popular Freeman’s Irish elicit a near-record crowd for their annual spring game inside Notre Dame Stadium, Freeman is, blissfully, not among the video’s viewers.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Freeman, a groomsman in Bowden’s spring 2024 wedding, tells USA TODAY Sports. “I didn’t know about that … “
Notre Dame embracing modern-day approach
Might Freeman’s Notre Dame program, trendy 2026 College Football Playoff championship contenders with rising star quarterback CJ Carr and a suffocating defensive cast returning, be occupying brain space with foes neither on the Irish schedule nor their minds?
“Yeah, just like you said …,” Freeman, 3-1 against the Trojans and current possessor of the Jeweled Shillelagh trophy, says as he trails off and pauses. “I’ve got to worry about Notre Dame.
“I didn’t see [the video]. Chad’s going to be Chad. I’ve got to worry about making sure this team reaches its full potential.”
Entering his fifth full season as coach, Freeman has won 29 of his past 34 games, including 5-1 in the postseason. His Notre Dame program occupies positioning upon the precipice few thought it might ever go in college football’s current, free-wheeling ecosystem.
With Freeman, Notre Dame football exists differently.
Pop cultures differently, too.
Notre Dame uniform-release videos spoofing ‘The Hangover,’ with filming in Las Vegas, and “Jerry Maguire”’ in recent seasons both attest to Freeman’s Hollywood effervescence.
The Irish coach is featured in a recent Esquire spread and in advertisements for Chicago-boutique clothier ESQ Clothing.
Notre Dame football recruiting has new look
With Freeman, Notre Dame recruits differently.
It does so now with ex-Detroit Lions front-office personnel man Mike Martin as its general manager after doing so with Bowden prior to his 2025 departure to USC on the heels of Notre Dame’s runner-up CFP finish.
Notre Dame counts 37 signees from the SEC footprint, including North Carolina and excluding Midwest staple Missouri, in Freeman’s first four full recruiting harvests.
“I think you’ve got to tell them why, remind them why they have to choose hard,” says Freeman. “The greatest things in life are the result of consistently choosing hard. I think it’s easier to choose hard in the game of football because they’ve been doing it their whole life, but choosing hard is making yourself do things you don’t want to do.”
Freeman’s own Notre Dame path reflects, at minimum, a now-sturdy if not easier trail on the heels of difficult terrain.
From choosing in January 2021 to become Notre Dame defensive coordinator rather than taking the same job working for Ed Orgeron at LSU. Landing his inaugural head coaching job 11 months later in whirlwind fashion as replacement to Brian Kelly.
Then, dropping his first three games as head coach — the first in the Fiesta Bowl as the 35-year-old sudden leader of college football’s most globally visible program.
“Being named head coach at Notre Dame wasn’t a hard decision, but if I go backward five years, did I really associate what this journey would be like with what it really is?” asks Freeman.
“You look back and say, ‘OK, it wasn’t a bad first year, learned a lot the second year and here we are Year 5, ups and downs, good days, bad days, a lotta fun.’ We all want different things, but we have to understand it takes a lot of hard work to be the thing you say you want to be.”
Notre Dame seeking elusive national title
Notre Dame wants to again be national football champions for the first time since 1988, still a magical year under the late Lou Holtz.
With Freeman and Pete Bevacqua, Notre Dame’s athletic director and former NBC executive, the Irish lean into this shapeshifting landscape of college athletics.
They maximize revenue-sharing with approximately $18 million dollars going to football, fund 100 scholarships for the sport and amplify player funding via outside Name, Image and Likeness deals for star players.
With Freeman, the Irish win differently, too.
Victories against Georgia, Penn State, Texas A&M, Clemson and Southern California.
Even Kelly, the winningest coach in Notre Dame history and man responsible for bringing Freeman to the House That Rockne Built, admits this Notre Dame under Freeman scales up iterations from his watch.
“Notre Dame was much more about building [a modern college football program], a consistent winner and becoming relevant again,” Kelly tells USA TODAY Sports. “Now, Marcus is taking that and moving it to another level. And, that’s how you do it in this world of Fortune 500 companies.”
Freeman continues to be the latest college coaching object of obsession with the NFL. Particularly on the heels of deep discussions this past hiring cycle with the New York Giants and vetting from the Pittsburgh Steelers, four people with direct knowledge of those conversations tell USA TODAY Sports.
“I think it’s just being inquisitive and learning what other people view has led to our success, whether that’s being an NFL head coach or running a business or college basketball coach or the NBA,” Freeman says. “How can I learn from others what they’ve experienced to help them achieve success? That could be an NFL head of organization. What traits have they seen in coaches or coaches they’ve gone against that led to success. Is this something we’re doing? Can I use that to help our program have success? There’s no magical answer, but always little nuggets. Just try to gain wisdom from others.”
In this, the Freeman approach also is different.
Two years after logging nights in standard quarters on a United States Navy carrier, Freeman is less than a year from training in California with active Navy SEALs.
Freeman also understands the process a bit differently.
“You’ve got to have an unbelievable process, infrastructure, routine, no matter if you’re Navy SEALs or the United States Navy,” said Freeman, whose father, Michael, is a U.S. Air Force veteran that was stationed in South Korea in the 1970s. “What’s your everyday process, especially if it requires that you consistently struggle and do things you naturally don’t want to do?
A different era of Notre Dame football, indeed. Perhaps one that can generate a new license plate in a 2027 hype video.
CFP NATL CHAMPS.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Notre Dame’s title quest with Marcus Freeman fueled by Navy SEALs
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