As a student and linebacker at Ohio State, Marcus Freeman thought he may have interest in one day working as an athletics director. He majored in sports management and had an internship with then-Buckeyes AD Gene Smith. But when Freeman was forced to retire in 2010 due to an enlarged heart, ending his dream of playing in the NFL, he accepted a job as a graduate assistant under then-Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.

Nearly 15 years later, Freeman is now Notre Dame’s head coach, one of the most prestigious jobs in sports, having long left behind any aspirations of becoming an AD. On Monday night in Atlanta, he will lead the Irish against Ohio State in the College Football Playoff championship, a game Tressel is scheduled to attend, supporting his former player as well as the program he coached to a national title in 2002.

“I figured out early in my career that coaching is about leading people,” Freeman said during Saturday’s media day. “It’s about serving others. That’s how you fall in love with it.”

Freeman has been a natural fit in his chosen profession. He moved his way up from a GA at Ohio State for a year to two years at Kent State as a linebackers coach to four years apiece at Purdue and Cincinnati as a linebackers coach and defensive coordinator. In January 2021, Notre Dame hired Freeman as defensive coordinator, a role he held for less than a year. When Irish coach Brian Kelly left for LSU in late November 2021, then-athletics director Jack Swarbrick chose Freeman, who had never been a head coach at any level.

Turns out, Swarbrick made the right hire, as Freeman has the Irish one game away from winning their first national title since 1988. Freeman is now a sought-after commodity. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported last week that the Chicago Bears have “done extensive research for months” on Freeman and are interested in interviewing him.

“To hear that the Bears have interest, it’s humbling,” Freeman said. “It’s the NFL, but it’s also a reminder of with team success comes individual success. I have put zero thought into coaching in the NFL. All my attention has just been on getting this team prepared for every opportunity we have in front of us.”

Freeman, who turned 39 on Jan. 10, may have other NFL teams calling over the next few years, but the Irish have done everything to keep him happy. Freeman agreed last month to a contract extension through the 2030 season, upping his annual salary from $7 million to more than $9 million, according to Football Scoop and Irish Illustrated writer John Brice. Freeman’s assistants received significant raises, too, and first-year AD Pete Bevacqua has said the school will invest significantly in football through revenue sharing, Name, Image and Likeness opportunities and facilities upgrades.

The University’s commitment to Freeman stems primarily from his success on the field. After going 9-4 and 10-3 in his first two seasons, Notre Dame opened this season with a 23-13 victory at Texas A&M in a hostile environment. A week later, the Irish lost, 16-14, at home to Northern Illinois, a four touchdown underdog, calling into question Freeman and his staff’s ability to keep its players focused on a weekly basis. But since then, Notre Dame has won 13 consecutive games and earned the No. 7 seed in the CFP, where it has victories over No. 10 seed Indiana, No. 2 seed Georgia and No. 6 seed Penn State.

Along the way, Freeman has won over fans, students, alumni, administrators and boosters not only for winning but for his calm and positive demeanor, deep faith and interactions in private and public settings.

“He is the same if he’s talking to a large group of people, small group of people, even one on one,” said Tom Mendoza, a 1973 Notre Dame graduate and former NetApp executive who endowed the University’s business school in 2000. “He’s authentic. I think that comes through to everybody. You’re not getting some polished guy trying to say, ‘OK, Who’s this audience? What do they want to hear?’”

Said quarterback Riley Leonard: “He’s just a players’ coach. Everywhere he goes, he’s kind of like one of us. You’ll see him today, he’s just wearing a jump suit, chilling with the boys, hanging out for media day. Then he knows how to flip the switch, and he has our respect, too.”

The matchup with Ohio State offers Freeman a chance to become the youngest coach since Clemson’s Danny Ford in 1981 to win a national title and seek revenge against his alma mater. In 2022, the No. 5 ranked Irish lost, 21-10, to the No. 2 Buckeyes in Freeman’s first regular season game. A year later, No. 9 Notre Dame lost, 17-14, to No. 6 Ohio State when running back Deamonte Trayanum scored on a 1-yard touchdown with one second remaining. The Irish only had 10 men on the field on that last play, a mistake that may have cost them the upset victory but one that Freeman no longer cares to relive.

“I’ve told the team all week, this isn’t about the past, this isn’t about where I went to school, this isn’t about the two previous games (against Ohio State),” Freeman said. “This is about the opportunity right in front of us.”

While Notre Dame (14-1) has had some major victories during its CFP run, Ohio State (13-2) presents its greatest challenge. The Buckeyes have lost two games by a combined four points, falling, 32-31, at Oregon and 13-10 to Michigan in the regular season finale. Since then, they have won their CFP games over No. 1 seed Oregon, No. 5 seed Texas and No. 9 seed Tennessee by nearly 19.7 points per game.

Ohio State is first in Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring margin (23.6 points per game), just ahead of Notre Dame, which is outscoring its opponents by 22.7 points per game. The Buckeyes are also first in FBS with 12.2 points allowed per game, 251.1 total yards allowed per game and 161.1 passing yards allowed per game and third with 89.9 rushing yards allowed per game. And they have five players projected to be selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler’s latest mock draft published on Wednesday. That doesn’t even include true freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, whom Brugler said would be the No. 1 overall pick if he were eligible.

All in all, it is a tall task for the Irish. Still, they have been impressive for more than four months, endured several season-ending injuries and seem confident heading into Monday. And in Freeman, they have a coach who is intent on building Notre Dame into a national title contender on a regular basis and someone who has the full faith of Bevacqua, University President Rev. Robert Dowd and others at the school.

“We’re perfectly aligned at the top around a coach that everybody believes represents this University incredibly well,” Mendoza said. “There’s people now who say to me, ‘I’ve never liked Notre Dame, but I can’t dislike them with this guy.’”