Notre Dame was one of the big winners in the transfer portal last season. The addition of quarterback Riley Leonard, wide receiver Beaux Collins, and kicker Mitch Jeter helped power the Irish to an appearance in the national championship.
Transfer portal abuse, such as leaving a program multiple times in a college career and going to the highest bidder for an NIL paycheck has come under fire from multiple coaching icons such as Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney.
During an appearance on The Joe Klatt Show on Monday, Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman answered a question as to what college football needed to do to keep its best head coaches from running to the NFL for stability. In recent history, we saw Jeff Hafley leave the head coaching position at Boston College for a defensive coordinator job with the Green Bay Packers.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman dealt with adversity
Freeman thinks the current system is running assistants and head coaches ragged. He believes the college needs to change the transfer system so that players have to learn to overcome obstacles instead of fleeing for greener pastures each year, something he had to deal with during his time at Ohio State.
“But I think, how do we continue to have a college football structure that helps young people continuously become self-sufficient? I think back to my time at Ohio State,” Freeman said. “I was a pretty big recruit. And there was a thought in my head, ‘I’m gonna walk in here and start.’ Well, you got three linebackers. Two of them were first-round picks: AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter. Another one was a third-round pick, Anthony Schlegel.
“I wasn’t good enough to start, and I had to learn for two years to embrace my role, and to continue to work, even though I wasn’t playing as much as I wanted. How do I, as an individual, just take advantage of my opportunities to get better? That’s how you become self-sufficient. You overcome challenges.”
Freeman believes in overcoming obstacles
Freeman hinted that he believes it should be harder for players to transfer as freely and often as they do under the current system, and rules should be put in place to enforce that type of structure.
“There was no thought for me to get up and go somewhere else, and that’s the greatest thing that I had to learn to do. Stay there, overcome some adversity, take advantage of the opportunities that I got, graduate, get a degree.
“I just don’t want a structure that’s created, when things get hard, it’s just so easy to pick up and go somewhere else. I think it’s important that we create rules and some type of structure that continues to promote self-sufficiency for young people and overcome obstacles.”
Freeman joined the Buckeyes in 2004 but didn’t become a starter until 2006. His hard work and patience at OSU paid off when the Chicago Bears selected him in the fifth round of the 2009 draft.
Of course, there are other examples of players who needed to transfer to further their career, like when Troy Aikman transferred from Oklahoma to UCLA before becoming the No. 1 pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 1989.
The answer isn’t to do away with the transfer portal completely, but like the NIL, there needs to be regulation that can benefit student athletes in a complex era of college sports.
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Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman willing to join a conference
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