Notre Dame is staying in-house to replace Brian Kelly as their next head football coach.
The Fighting Irish are planning to promote defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to head coach, according to multiple reports.
Freeman, 35, joined Notre Dame as defensive coordinator this past season after spending four years in that job for Cincinnati.
He played linebacker at Ohio State, spent the 2009 football season on several NFL practice squads and then began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2010. Kelly had reportedly sought to recruit Freeman to join his staff at LSU.
Kelly had also tried to lure offensive coordinator Tommy Rees to Baton Rouge. Rees, too, is remaining at Notre Dame. He tweeted a clip from “Wolf of Wall Street” where the antihero main character Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, yelled to everyone in the office that he was “not f–king leaving”.
Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU after 12 seasons in South Bend. Not that there is ever a great way for a coach to leave a job, but Kelly really seemed to rub people the wrong way with his exit.
Notre Dame is still in plausible contention for the college football playoffs — but might have had their candidacy upended by his departure. The news leaked while one of his assistants was leaving a recruit’s house. Kelly addressed the team at a 7 a.m. meeting, for about four minutes.