All right, Brian, we're going to switch gears a little bit and get a little bit more granular talking about this Notre Dame football program.

And now we're going to focus on the head coach, Marcus Freeman specifically, because there's also been a lot of rankings coming out, ranking the coaches coming into this season.

And there's a good amount of people, us included, that are pretty upset and question where Marcus Freeman's position is on some of these lists relative to who they have ranked around him.

And so we're going to begin this segment talking about how, look, Marcus Freeman, there's still respect to earn out there for him this upcoming season as well.

We're going to continue to break down some of the coaches that were ranked above him

and try to put our other shoes on from a different lens to see why it makes sense.

Spoiler alert, doesn't really.

And then we're going to once again talk about why the perception is the way that it is.

So, Brian, when we start talking about Marcus Freeman and some of the things that he still

has left to prove, despite coming out of a really spectacular 2024 season, where do you begin?

I think let us begin with where we wish that the national media would begin with, which is

fairness and honesty.

I think there is still a level of Marcus Freeman needs to prove some things before I put him on

the same level as a Davos Sweeney, who he's one and one against, as a Kirby Smart. Yes, he beat

Kirby Smart last year. This isn't a, what have you done for me lately discussion. This is,

in my opinion, to truly evaluate coaching rankings, you got to go back at least three seasons.

You have to look at history trends. Otherwise, you just kind of get caught up in the,

well, they did this last year, but let's ignore what they did in previous year. You have to

have some context. Like, I'm not going to look at Kenny Dillingham. Well, he's not that good of a coach.

They went three and nine his first year.

Went three and nine because he's inherited a terrible program.

And, Eric, so there's always got to be some context.

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