Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman is on our radar as a Chicago Bears head coach candidate.
NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero has the scoop on the Bears’ interest in talking shop with the Fighting Irish’s coach:
The Bears are looking to interview Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman for their HC opening, per @TomPelissero. pic.twitter.com/fjujUFyVKW
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) January 12, 2025
More from Pelissero:
“I am told the team wants to interview Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman for the job. Freeman is in the midst of a magical run with the Fighting Irish to the national championship game. Obviously, unlikely that he would entertain NFL overtures prior to that game a week from tomorrow against Ohio State. But the Bears have done extensive research for months on Marcus Freeman. He’s only 39 years old. It would not be a shock if at some point he at least considers going to the NFL.”
The big takeaway here isn’t necessarily that the Bears are interested in Marcus Freeman, although that is a big part of the story. Chicago’s football team is in the midst of a search for a new head coach that would be best described as comprehensive, exhaustive, and expansive. At some point, I imagine it would get tedious. But perhaps that is a different post for another day. Instead, the big takeaway here is Pelissero hinting that the Bears would likely have to wait until after the national title game to interview Freeman.
For what it’s worth, I would be open to waiting as long as it takes to get the best coaching candidate possible. If you’ll recall, the Minnesota Vikings didn’t hire Kevin O’Connell (who very well could win the NFL’s Coach of the Year award for his efforts this season) until February 2022 because they had to wait out the conclusion of Super Bowl LVI. However, I don’t know if the Bears feel the same. If they do, then they’ll wait for an interview with Freeman. But if they don’t, then they might strike quickly to hire their preferred candidate.
In any case, this is a situation worth monitoring as the names keep piling up in Chicago’s search for a new head coach.
Is Marcus Freeman a fit for the Chicago Bears?
Shortly after the Bears fired Matt Eberflus and removed him as head coach, reports surfaced that the team was targeting a specific type of head coach. The “leader of men” trope has generated eye rolls from coast to coast. And yet, I had an understanding of what that meant for the forthcoming search. One name that stood out among the early batch of rumored candidates was Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman. And while I initially scoffed at the idea, I find myself more open to it now than I was before.
It hit me on Thursday night and still resonated enough with me on Friday morning to write this:
After watching Notre Dame beat Penn State to advance to the College Football Playoff final, I fully understand why Marcus Freeman was seen as a top target early in the Bears’ coaching search. In other years, the Fighting Irish would’ve folded after falling behind 10-0 to the Nittany Lions. Instead, Freeman has a team that is resilient and punches back when it gets knocked down. In an alternate universe, I’d be open to hearing out his plan as a head coach candidate. But after receiving an extension in December, I don’t see him leaving South Bend.
Marcus Freeman gives me Brad Stevens vibes in that, like Stevens, Freeman is a college coach who carries himself in a way that makes it believable that he could have success at the pro level. That Freeman has cultivated a culture that has elevated Notre Dame from where it was under Brian Kelly is an impressive feat. Hence, it makes sense that the Bears would want to kick the tires here.
With that being said, I still do not believe that Marcus Freeman will leave Notre Dame to pursue the Bears job. However, I can see how that might change if the Fighting Irish beat Ohio State in the national championship game. We just saw Jim Harbaugh win a national title at the University of Michigan, then leave for the Los Angeles Chargers job at this time last year. History has a weird way of repeating itself. All in all, I find this situation worth monitoring.
In an NFL world that zigs when you expect it to zag, I would get a chuckle out of this franchise being led by an undrafted free agent signing by the team in 2009 (Ryan Poles) as its GM and a fifth-round draft pick by the team from 2008 (Marcus Freeman). But we’ve got a long way to get to that bridge (if we get to it at all).