Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is taking recruiting to the next level.

We talk win totals for the Titans and the Texans, and Kale Gundy from Oklahoma had to resign.

I'm Jake Crane, and welcome to Crane & Company.

When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for a prettier girl in the SEC, the program was put into a tough spot.

They now only needed someone to swoop in that would be a big name, but also someone that has the capability to take Notre Dame to the next level.

That level is not just being able to make the playoff, but actually win a championship when they get there.

Now Brian Kelly was able to get them to the doorstep, but they were never able to burst through because the line of scrimmage wasn't up to par with the Goliaths they were going against.

The depth wasn't at a level where they could sustain four quarters of winning football against the best to the best in our Marcus Freeman, who's had nothing but success since he put a headset on, and is the polar opposite of Brian Kelly in his swag, flash, and age.

Coach Freeman is a part of the new wave of young coaches that have catapulted themselves to the top of College of Ball's hierarchy.

Now, he burst onto the scene and recruiting so far, and while there's a long way to go, right now the Irish have the number one class in the country on 247.

Now to put that in perspective, under Brian Kelly, Notre Dame typically finished around 10 to 15 each year in the recruiting rankings, with Notre Dame finishing 5th one time, but that seems like an anomaly.

But a look at that Marcus Freeman can have them finishing in the top five consistently, which over time will not only increase the talent of the starting 11 on both sides, but give the Irish to much needed depth they need to be able to finish the top the mountain.

So while Freeman has answered the recruiting questions so far, there's one big question left out there.

How will they be on the field and as a program?

Can he be as effective in building culture and turning Notre Dame into a machine you just feed players into and let the rest take care of itself as he has in recruiting?

That remains to be seen, but keeping OC Tommy Reese in the fold is huge not only because Tommy's a damn good play caller, but it also gives you continuity.

We all know Marcus is going to have a huge hand in the defense, but getting our gold in his defensive coordinator will only bring more knowledge and ability to remain unpredictable.

Being a great recruiters one thing, being a great program builders totally different.

The Irish have a very tough schedule starting with game one at the horseshoe against the vaunted buck eyes, so his team will be put to the test early.

Can Marcus finally get Notre Dame over the final hurdle?

We shall see bringing my co-host David Cone and goose gossage over here guys look you know we have our fun with Notre Dame and they we they've earned the right to kind of be made fun of which the way they showed up when you get to the playoff and you know you get your underwear stolen and hug in the flag pole in front of the whole high school, but it seems to me like Notre Dame is there's just a different flavor at Notre Dame right now we're going to have a big time commit on from that class is going to kind of give us more insight into it.

But Marcus Freeman to me not Brian Kelly's all time winning his coach Notre Dame I get that I think he's going to have a ton of success at LSU I've talked about that, but it seems to me that a guy like Marcus Freeman that's young energetic good on social media kind of that new wave as I mentioned is that the key David for Notre Dame to get the players because if you look at their commits isn't just wide receivers and quarterbacks it's on the edge it's offensive tackle and they're still in the hunt.

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