Notre Dame football's Marcus Freeman wins Bear Bryant Award after incredible CFP run
01/23/2025 02:39 AM
Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman was given a significant award a few days after the college football season ended. The third-year head coach led the Fighting Irish to the National Championship game this season, where they lost a close one against No. 6 Ohio State. This team accomplished a lot, winning the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl en route to Atlanta.
Deservedly so, Marcus Freeman is being rewarded for leading the best Notre Dame team of this century in 2024. College Football Insider with Action Network, Brett McMurphy, revealed on Wednesday that Freeman has just won the Bear Bryant Award for Coach of the Year. This is the third accolade for the nation’s best coach that Freeman has collected this year.
Marcus Freeman deserves all the praise in the world for elevating a college football titan
The Fighting Irish have come a long way since their Week 2 home loss to Northern Illinois. After that defeat, Notre Dame football went on a ten-game winning streak, blowing out most of its opponents. Despite that impressive run, there were many questions about this squad heading into the College Football Playoff.
In the recent past, when this postseason tournament was in the four-team format, the Fighting Irish were largely non-competitive against the college football elite. That fact changed in the span of a month in this twelve-team bracket.
On December 20, Notre Dame dominated No. 8 Indiana at home. The Fighting Irish followed up this victory with a surprisingly decisive win over No. 2 Georgia on New Year’s Day. Then, after going down two possessions in the Orange Bowl, Marcus Freeman’s team rallied to edge out No. 4 Penn State on a game-winning field goal. Resilience has been the theme of this year’s Irish squad, and it carried over into the National Championship game.
After going down 31-7 to Ohio State, Notre Dame launched a furious comeback, putting the contest within one possession with four minutes left. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes sealed the game at 34-23 on a field goal with less than a minute to go. But the Fighting Irish are much closer now than they were the last time they played in the National Championship in 2013.
Overall, Freeman deserves a lot of credit for elevating a program that seemed to have a glass ceiling on it in the 21st century. The Fighting Irish now should be national title contenders for the foreseeable future. After some reflection, Notre Dame’s head coach will return to focus on winning this program the elusive championship it has been waiting for since 1988.
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