re: Would you rather Marcus Freeman or Billy Napier as your head coach?

I think Napier and its not close. Dude has been a head coach and built a damn good program at ULL. I thought Freeman was going to be great at ND and he still can be but wow dude had the deer in the headlights moment in the bowl game. He literally looked like he was lost and moment was too big for him.

Freeman could be a good transition hire. Bring in some good talent and then get let the next hire succeed

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Freeman could be a good transition hire. Bring in some good talent and then get let the next hire succeed

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Not sure if Notre Dame cares, but they'd be raked over the coals hard firing their only two black coaches in short order.

Napier for sure. Freeman was completely unqualified for the job he was gifted. If it weren’t for his players going to bat for him, he wouldn’t get the job.

Napier has earned his stripes. He did it for years as an assistant under Saban and Dabo then made ULL more relevant than ever during Covid. He’s a good coach and if given time and resources he will stabilize Florida. Does this equate to a title in 5 years? Not sure but if they relax and let him do his thing I could see the gators being a force and pushing Georgia. Ton of respect for Napier.

Freeman has yet to earn it.

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If I had to hire one of them to a generic school, I’d lean Napier given he already has head coach experience (and did well) If I had to pick which one is most successful at their current job, give me Freeman. My early read on Napier is the job as it currently stands is a little too big for him. He won’t get swallowed up by it like Mullen, but he’s not going to be able to put it all together and get everybody at UF pulling in the right direction

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This is where I am. I think Napier may be the better coach, but I’ll take freeman having more success over the next 6 years or so

The big piece I worry about is sometimes Florida still wants to be Spurrier fun n gun Florida and that isn’t how Napier is going to play. I think any warts he has may get exacerbated due to a fit mismatch

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I dont think ND is going to lose to OSU by 20.

They’re going to lose by 35.

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Yeah that is going to be an absolute arse beating. If they lose something like 45-14, which is entirely possible, there will be some interesting commentary afterwards. I also think that if Freeman was white, Fickell would have gotten that ND job.

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Freeman could be a good transition hire. Bring in some good talent and then get let the next hire succeed

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Which would be a PR nightmare for the university. Freeman will get a minimum of 5 years to build his team his way and they will evaluate his performance then. No way he gets canned within 3 years unless ND completely bombs under his leadership, which is unlikely.

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To be fair, it is a good question. Outside of 2 games, Notre Dame has a very cupcake schedule. I can tell you they have no business being ranked #5 with a first year coach. I think Florida will have a more difficult year with a first time head coach, but that doesn't mean Freeman is better.

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For the sake of the original question, neither of their schedules really matter since its "who would you rather have".

The two situations are really different too anyway. Napier has built a winning program already and knows how to create a culture. Freeman hasn't done that, and hasn't had to yet, but he also isn't coming in from outside the program. He does seem energetic and is recruiting well so far though.

I think I take Napier given the experience, but its pretty close given what we know right now.

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Please tell me you actually believe this

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I live in a South Bend suburb and am married into a family with season tickets. The ND fanbase in general was getting tired of Kelly. They consistently bitch about ND consistently playing down to their opponent's level, etc. Same as us ironically enough.

Other than the jilted lover psychology, I don't know a lot of people who are generally pissed he left and feel it's a loss. Most ND fans here in SB think Kelly is a really good coach but not good enough to get them over the hill, and Freeman will be. They are pretty fine with him moving on, almost a little bit of relief in that they wanted him to move on but knew there was too much risk in just firing him.

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Based on what?

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I don't pretend to understand these people.

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That fanbase is absurd

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Could have stopped here. They have SEC level Fandom up here. It's admirable really. They are also very entitled and naive. They believe Notre Dame is the very best school in the country, and if Kelly can't bring home the crystal he needed to get out of the way and let someone else try.