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How many bites of a turkey burger do you enable a person earlier than you problem him on why he’s not the new coach of your soccer staff?
Today, it’s three.
I’m at lunch with Marcus Freeman, the forty-year-old head coach of Notre Dame soccer, at a comfy burger-and-beer bar in Hell’s Kitchen in New York. It’s late January, when most NFL groups have simply completed filling their head-coaching vacancies. Many believed that Freeman—thought-about one of the sport’s biggest younger leaders—would’ve had his choose of coveted gigs in New York, Baltimore, and my hometown: Pittsburgh. He not solely declined to interview with any staff but additionally agreed to a brand new contract with the Fighting Irish. So I respectfully marvel aloud why we’re not clinking Yuenglings to the future of Steelers soccer proper now.
Freeman flashes a smile, then turns studious. “I had some conversations with higher-ups in the NFL,” he says. “They all usually start with conversations about our current players and turn into: Would you be interested in making a transition to the NFL?” He finally wasn’t, however nonetheless: “I’m glad I had those conversations. I learned a lot.”
That doesn’t imply Freeman wasn’t excited by the prospect of teaching on Sundays—he’d be mendacity if he mentioned in any other case. Back earlier than anybody had any concept there can be a whopping ten head-honcho gigs opening up throughout the final NFL offseason, he chatted together with his agent about the chance. “I remember saying, ‘You know, we’ll see in a couple years. If it’s right, the Steelers would be amazing. The Ravens … Then all of a sudden, the Ravens open. The Steelers open. I’m like, Oh, my God, man.” Again, although, cooler heads—and also you don’t get a lot cooler than what’s on Freeman’s shoulders, thoughts you—prevail. “I feel very content with the decision to continue to stay at Notre Dame. And I am happy and I love where we’re at.” He means it.
Coat and shirt by Calvin Klein Collection; sun shades, Freeman’s personal.
It’s straightforward to see why Freeman’s title skyrocketed to the high of each NFL fan’s want checklist. When he succeeded Brian Kelly at Notre Dame in 2021, Freeman immediately revitalized one of faculty soccer’s most iconic packages. (Rudy—ever seen it?) A former Ohio State linebacker who retired early from the NFL as a result of of coronary heart issues, Freeman efficiently rebuilt Notre Dame right into a powerhouse that reached the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2025. The loss to, wouldn’t you already know it, Ohio State nonetheless stings: “I want a national championship,” he says. “We’ve gotten there. To get so close and not get it? It’s tough, man.”
Freeman’s prodigious defensive mind, which he makes use of as a nuclear weapon on the gridiron, is just half of what makes him nice. In faculty soccer’s Wild West period, when gamers make hundreds of thousands in NIL cash and coaches are all the time trying over their shoulders for the greater and higher gig, Freeman has maintained a virtually extinct advantage: class.
Preternaturally calm, cool, and picked up, Freeman is rattling close to presidential in the means he goes about his enterprise. He’s recognized for treating his gamers with respect, prepared to confess when he’s perplexed however not afraid to boost his voice if it will get the message throughout. He’s Steve Kerr–esque in that he all the time appears to strike the proper word, it doesn’t matter what’s occurring in the nation. When the Bourbon Street assault postponed Notre Dame’s Sugar Bowl look in 2025, Freeman advised his staff to mourn for New Orleans earlier than even excited about the playoff sport once more. “Being a person of color, half Korean, and married to an Italian woman, you have to have empathy,” he says. “That’s something that maybe our country lacks at times. There always has to be an I’m right or You’re wrong. I believe it’s okay to say, ‘I see your side. Here’s what I believe.’ ”
Coat and shirt by Calvin Klein Collection.
It isn’t simply speak, both. When the College Football Playoff committee snubbed Notre Dame from the remaining taking part in discipline final season, Freeman requested his staff captains in the event that they nonetheless needed to play a bowl sport. They mentioned no. Freeman revered their resolution and declined an invitation, despite the fact that the rejection was criticized as poor sportsmanship by pundits and followers. “Why do you have captains if you don’t give them any power?” he asks.
Freeman’s postseason wouldn’t get a lot simpler. Just a number of weeks earlier than we meet, he attended his son’s high-school wrestling match in Mishawaka, Indiana. An assistant wrestling coach at a rival faculty accused Freeman of shoving him after the match–an allegation that was rapidly denied by Notre Dame and dismissed after a police investigation. Freeman brings it up after we speak about what he’s discovered from coping with the media over the years, which successfully boils all the way down to: What you say can and will probably be taken out of context–and somebody’s all the time watching you.
“I don’t know if you read about the alleged assault with the wrestling coach,” Freeman begins. “The craziest thing I learned was, like—there was ten reporters there. There was reporters at the wrestling meet.” They reached out to Freeman’s advisor at Notre Dame, she advised them to attend till the police report was launched two days later—an eternity in an period when too many sports activities followers learn a headline and hold scrolling—and Freeman needed to sit by way of assaults on his household for a complete weekend. (In a press convention after the reality, he’d call out reporters who had been dragging “my family through the mud … with clickbait headlines.”) “It was a lie,” he tells me. “It was what it was. And that’s what the prosecutor said. It was a lie.”
Jacket, shirt, trousers, and tie by Louis Vuitton Men’s.
Thankfully, Freeman’s winter was a lot quieter–he’ll even enable himself to go on an unheard-of trip, the place he’ll go to South Korea for the first time, taking his household with him. Now the coach is trying ahead to main his 2026 squad, which probably received’t should face one other bowl-game dilemma. They’ll deliver again one of the finest quarterbacks in the nation, CJ Carr, to enhance Freeman’s savage protection. He has pretty much as good an opportunity as any to win that ring subsequent 12 months, proper? “Can you put it in your article?” he asks, joking, but additionally most likely critical. “Knock on wood.”
Let the document present that Freeman smacked the desk no fewer than 5 occasions. And he is aware of it takes much more than luck to win that ring, however one thing tells me Freeman will probably be knocking on the NFL’s door earlier than lengthy. At least a Steelers fan can hope.
Photographed by Zackery Michael @zackerymichael
Styled by Alfonso Fernández Navas @Alfonsofn
Grooming by Jessica Smalls @jessicasmalls
Esquire Visual Director: James Morris @james_alexander_photo
Esquire Senior Entertainment Director: Andrea Cuttler @angcutt
As Esquire’s senior leisure editor, Langmann edits protection of movie, tv, sports activities, and video video games. During his seven years at Esquire, he is interviewed celebrities and athletes comparable to Matthew McConaughey, Terry Bradshaw, Steph Curry, Carrie-Anne Moss, Josh Brolin, and extra. Langmann has additionally contributed a number of essays to the journal, which vary from the time he discovered the best way to journey a motorbike as an grownup, to the time he ingested a harmful quantity of caffeine in the title of journalism. All of that mentioned, Esquire readers may know him finest from his chaotic time recapping Westworld. He’ll by no means forgive HBO for taking it away from him.