A year ago, Marcus Freeman hadn't been head coach in a regular-season college football game.
Now, Notre Dame's second-year head man, who took over for Brian Kelly in December 2021, is readying a team widely seen as a College Football Playoff contender in 2023 and also continuing to shape the program in his vision, on and off the field.
Part of that's been a remake of the Fighting Irish football program's personnel and scouting departments.
Earlier this spring, Freeman added Butler Benton away from Arkansas into an assistant athletics director, player personnel role.
That left Freeman to fill a director of scouting position, most recently held by Bill Rees. He departed after former Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees joined Nick Saban's Alabama staff as its play-caller.
Sources tell FootballScoop that Notre Dame is close to finalizing the hiring of Matt Jansen away from West Virginia University as its new director of scouting.
Currently the Mountaineers' Director of Personnel and Scouting, Jansen has lengthy NFL experience and also college football coaching experience.
Jansen's previous stops include seven years across two stints with the Houston Texans and a trio of years with the Baltimore Ravens for his decade of NFL service. Additionally, Jansen has five years' experience from his undergraduate work as a student-coach at Texas Tech University.
Jansen worked at West Virginia with current Fighting Irish offensive coordinator Gerad Parker, who was on the Mountaineers' staff for two seasons from 2020-21 when Jansen served as the program's assistant director of scouting.
Buoyed by Wake Forest graduate-transfer quarterback Sam Hartman and a pair of projected NFL first-round Draft picks in tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher, as well as All-America cornerback Ben Morrison, among others, Notre Dame opens a 2023 campaign ripe with CFP aspirations Aug. 26 against Navy in Dublin, Ireland.
The Fighting Irish, who also are preparing to welcome in new athletics director Pete Bevacqua as Jack Swarbrick steps away across the coming year, also have key dates this fall with Ohio State and USC at home, as well as Clemson on the road.