Marcus Freeman now has four preseason camps in South Bend, Indiana -- the last three of them as Notre Dame's charismatic, popular young head coach.
But Freeman, a former Ohio State linebacker and devout student of the game, is dipping back more than a decade -- in fact, back to his brief NFL stint with the Houston Texans -- for perspective.
No. 7 Notre Dame, three-point underdogs this weekend at No. 20 Texas A&M but a trendy College Football Playoff pick, enters this season of definition in a perhaps uniquely Fighting Irish position:
With a heavier workload distributed among a deeper roster with Freeman and General Manager Chad Bowden's fingerprints all over somehow resulting in an overall healthier roster.
Allow Freeman to explain.
"This has been the healthiest fall camp since I’ve been head coach, but as we’ve really taken data, probably from the last 12 to 15 years, we’ve had the fewest injuries in, I think, 15 years," says Freeman, referencing a timeline that begins around the onset of his predecessor beneath the Golden Dome, current LSU coach Brian Kelly. "We practiced 15-percent more this fall camp than we had previously. We only had one concussion, and we’re down 30-percent overall in concussions, strains and sprains.
"So, just wanted to say I’d like to give credit to our sports performance team and the way they’ve supported our players outside of practice and to our coaches that have bought into the adjustments we’ve had to make going into each practice. The way we’ve structured practice, the results have shown and it’s been really good. We’ve practiced more and had less injuries and that’s a great statistic."
New to Notre Dame's overall sports performance and nutrition landscape under Freeman are Director of Football Performance Loren Landow and Associate Director of Sports Nutrition, Alexa Appelman.
The Irish are entering their first season with Landow in charge of the team's strength and conditioning program, with the former NFL and Olympic veteran Landow marrying Freeman's vision to drive greater sports science into Notre Dame's preparations.
Landow's now the head of the Irish's football strength program following Freeman's in-depth search and aggressive pursuit of Landow, the recipient of a multi-year deal that sources tell FootballScoop pays Landow among college football's top-three strength coaches.
Notre Dame enters this season without projected starting left tackle Charles Jagusah, out due to a torn pectoralis muscle, and without reserve defensive back Chance Tucker.
Otherwise, a short-term injury to second-team defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio thus far is the only notable ill-fortune for Notre Dame, which is seeking a return to the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2020.
Better depth is at the center of Notre Dame's ability throughout camp to "two-spot" practices -- essentially conducting two concurrent practices on parallel fields to maximize reps.
"It was intentional. It was intentional to make sure we don’t cut back on practices," Freeman says of the program's approach. "Part of that was through me kind of going and visiting some other teams and programs and NFL teams. You can’t cheat practice. You have to practice. You’ve got to get the reps you believe you need to have a team prepared. So, it was intentional to make sure that we practiced more, but the changes came in how we structured practice. How we structured it and the flows of practice.
“But another key element was the health. So, what happens sometimes is that in the spring, we had somebody go down and now all of a sudden, it’s added loads to everybody else. To be able to keep the majority of your team healthy, helped with being able to continue to have two-spot team periods and really getting all of those periods accomplished.”
That component ties the prowess of the Bowden-Freeman roster reconstruction directly with the continually elevating depth and overall health of the team.
The Irish aren't just recruiting well overall but also consistently hitting on key evaluations. The entire new-look starting offensive line comes to mind -- no player is older than a sophomore; so, too, do sterling assessments of cornerbacks Ben Morrison and Christian Gray, as well as running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, among others.
"We’ve continued to improve the depth of all positions," Freeman, whose current Notre Dame 2025 recruiting class is 247Sports's No. 10 group. "It’s not very often that you can replace Joe Alt at left tackle [after Alt was taken No. 6 in the NFL Draft] and then you lose the (new) starting left tackle (Jagusah) and still feel very confident about the left tackle (true freshman Anthonie Knapp) that’s going into the game. And we do.
“I think our coaching staff has done a great job, our recruiting staff, of developing depth at all positions. Each year, it’s different. That’s the great challenge of a coach is that you don’t just reload. You have to start over with this new group of talent and build it the right way and have a process that going to have an output that you want on these 12-guaranteed opportunities.
“I’m really pleased with the depth of this football team and how our coaches and staff have recruited.”
Happy enough to be happy about extra work and better health.
The Fighting Irish find out Saturday night at Texas A&M just how much it all means.