The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will enjoy some consistency at head coach for the fifth year in a row.
There have been a lot of college football head coaches who have departed for the NFL, both for the opportunity it awards and the escape it offers from the chaotic nature of the current landscape of the sport. Coaches must deal with constantly recruiting their own rosters, reloading in the transfer portal each season, traversing NIL, and having their postseason future tied to a committee of voters with no established protocol.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are one season removed from playing in the CFP National Championship game last January. However, despite winning their final 10 games of the 2025 season, they began the year 0-2 with losses to Texas A&M and Miami – the latter of whom would end up taking the final spot in the College Football Playoff 12-team field this season. The Fighting Irish were snubbed from the final seedings and decided to opt out of their bowl game as a result.
However, that wasn’t enough to deter Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, who was linked to multiple vacancies in the NFL. He announced on X that he was returning to the Fighting Irish in 2026.
Here is the full story from Irish Breakdown Roundtable writer Bryan Driskell on the decision by Freeman and what it means for Notre Dame’s future.
As Adam Rittenberg with ESPN reports, Freeman also received an “enhanced contract from the university.” The former Ohio State linebacker was thought to be a solid candidate for the New York Giants among other openings. Freeman has led the Fighting Irish to a 43-12 record in four seasons and looked poised to run it back to the CFP in 2025. The committee, however, decided that their Week 1 27-24 loss to the Hurricanes would be the difference-maker in favor of Miami.
That could turn a lot of college coaches off of the sport, but it looks like Notre Dame limited their frustrations to opting out of the Pop Tarts Bowl.