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Setting the summer agenda for Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame football

There will be no self-imposed culture shock assignment on an aircraft carrier this May for Marcus Freeman, a year after spending 36 hours on the USS Abraham Lincoln, with a bunkmate and a communal bathroom as necessary speed bumps in his unconventional-but-triumphant offseason search for ideas and inspiration.

And his typical spring deluge of speaking engagements at Notre Dame clubs across the country has been reined in and consolidated in his fourth offseason as Irish head football coach.

There is still a May to-do list beyond football, like an upcoming Monday meeting with Under Armour — the school’s apparel partner — but mostly Freeman’s runway to summer school and summer workouts for his 2025 team is all about football.

That includes general game-planning, and meeting with special teams coordinator Marty Biagi extensively, which includes cooking up some of those creative curveballs like the Irish employed on fourth downs this past season.

It also means being there to connect and talk with the Irish players as they head into final exam week this coming week and then leading into graduation weekend (May 17-18) before the last of the players are free to take a quick break.

Twelve members of the freshman class enroll for the first time in June, with classes starting on June 9. The two transfers with academic commitments at their former schools that kept them out of spring practice — Malachi Fields (Virginia) and Ty Washington (Arkansas) — and ND’s roster of returning players — including the 13 early enrolled freshmen — will start their summer commitment the week before on June 2.

And that brings on a whole new, bigger-picture to-do list for Freeman. Here’s a sampling of what it might look like:

► Setting the agenda for the quarterbacks

Actually, when it comes to the two remaining contenders to be the starter when the Irish open the season Aug. 31 at Miami, Freeman’s plan to set their agenda includes seeing how they go about showing the leadership to set some of that agenda for themselves and their teammates.

Freeman has been down this road before, when there’s been ambiguity in the summer when it comes to the top of the QB depth chart, including his first season as head coach when both options involved no prior college starting experience.

And setting the agenda goes beyond just sophomore CJ Carr and junior Kenny Minchey, 1 and 2, or 2 and 1 at the moment. Now that freshman Blake Hebert is the presumed No. 3, how much work should he get both this summer and in the first couple of weeks of training camp?

And then what of Tyler Buchner, the opening night starter at QB under Freeman back in 2022, and a walk-on wide receiver/scout-team QB in 2024 after transferring back to ND? Once lacrosse season ends later this month for the two-sport participant, it’s important to put a finer point on his 2025 role — including how a move back to QB full time — should look.

► Continuing to recalibrate in GM Mike Martin’s ever-evolving world

Perhaps on Wednesday, federal judge Claudia Wilken’s name will begin to fade from being a necessary qualifier in all discussions about the vast gray area that exists in college football’s immediate and distant future, including roster/scholarship limits.

Wednesday is the deadline day the 75-year-old retiring judge has set for the two sides in the landmark House v. NCAA case to satisfy her condition of grandfathering in existing roster spots — namely walk-ons — into the proposed roster reductions to 105. And if those conditions aren’t met, the settlement for the rest of the previously approved conditions is off.

Assuming common sense prevails here — and perhaps it’s a risky assumption — the focus moves away from scholarships and roster spots for 2025, where ND has long planned for either scenario to play out, and into the new economics of doing business.

That entails a growing number of player agents, and direct revenue-sharing from the schools, and budgeting and allotting money to account for the new layer of math involved in building a roster while details and guardrails are still in motion.

Kind of like drawing up plans to renovate an airplane while it’s already in the sky.

This is where first-year general manager Mike Martin’s extensive NFL background, though, should shine.

Beyond the accounting numbers is dealing with the staffing around Martin, himself a new hire in February. An uncomplicated personnel transaction is replacing Deland McCullough II, the son of former Irish running backs coach Deland McCullough and who recently left his position under Martin as analyst/high school relations.

But the existing staff members have to be nimble in their roles to be able to adjust to sudden needs brought on by changes in the college sports model.

► Recruiting, recruiting, and more recruiting

Always a priority, no matter what time of year.

And, no, NCAA “dead periods” do not entail a vacation from planning for it, working on it, prioritizing needs, etc.

Notre Dame, currently with 14 commitments in the 2026 class after Saturday’s pledge from four-star running back Javian Osborne, already has 30 official visits set up for June, including nine of its committed recruits.

The Irish stand at No. 2 in the Rivals 2026 team rankings, hopping back over LSU and leapfrogging Clemson with Osborne’s commitment, and behind only USC.

The 2027 cycle, with no commitments yet for the Irish in that class, is already a burgeoning priority, and that includes evaluating players at Notre Dame’s June camps. And prospects in the 2028 class as well.

► Keep leaning into sports science

Get used to this recurring theme.

Even if Notre Dame’s 2024 season had actually ended sometime in calendar year 2024 with a game 13, Freeman’s performance team would still be evaluating whether it got things right in the summer of 2024 when it comes to the balance between preparation and physical and mental recovery.

But since the Irish played an unprecedented 16th game and last played on Jan. 20, the recalibration via Loren Landow and John Wagle and others became more necessary — for winter conditioning, for spring football and even still for summer activities in 2025.

“As I look to this summer, you can’t cheat the preparation,” Freeman said a week and a half ago during his post-spring football wrap-up with the media. “There is a physical preparation into making sure your team is ready to go week 1.

“You guys heard me say this enough: The future is uncertain. So, for us to preserve for an uncertain future [by being overly cautious] is crazy — a future that you might not ever get. We have to make sure we are ready to go the minute that first game, and there’s a physical preparation that you have to go through to make sure you’re ready. We have a great team to come up with our plan. We have a foundation of a couple years of this is what our plan was, and how do we make it better?

He’s not the only one asking that question. Landow, Notre Dame’s director of football performance, is. Wagle, the associate athletics director for sports performance, is. Also, head football trainer Rob Hunt, associate director of sports nutrition Alexa Appelman, team physician Dr. Matt Leiszler and sports psychology program director Joey Ramaeker, among others.

“I’m not a guy who just says, ‘This is what we do.’” Freeman continued. “Challenge everything. Is there a better way to do it? We’ve done that this year in the spring and we’re going to do it this year in the summer. Is there a better way to do it?

“If there is, we’re going to try it and figure it out. Our guys are going to work their tails off. They have to. You can’t be ready to play this physical, demanding game of football without being prepared the right way.”

► Taking care of the seemingly little things

If Judge Aiken forces the attorneys’ hand of grandfathering in existing roster spots to the proposed reductions — and she talks like she means business — the takes a big heartache and headache off Freeman’s plate.

No roster cuts.

But it’s also a good time to review if some of the pieces of the roster need to move around via position switches.

There’s also the commitment to bump up scholarships to ideally 95 if the House v. NCAA settlement is approved and implemented. So, there may be a couple of walk-ons who may get elevated to not having to pay tuition themselves.

It is not a time to micromanage. The NCAA still restricts how much involvement the coaching staff can have between the start of summer school and the start of training camp and what it may look like.

And some of that’s a hidden blessing, because that’s another step toward finding out who your leaders are: Who rises to the occasion when nobody’s watching, or at least no one’s mandating and directing.

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