Heart and style: Marcus Freeman has made a statement with his actions (and wardrobe) and it hasn’t gone unnoticed

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Ten practices into his first fall camp at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman made a statement to Irish players past and present.

He had been here all of seven months. He had made just one in-person media appearance. Short of the evergreen hype machine that is a recruiting message board, Freeman was largely out of sight, his impact at Notre Dame to be determined by the upcoming season.

Then came Aug. 17, 2021, when Notre Dame’s new defensive coordinator walked out of the Guglielmino Athletics Complex and toward the Irish practice fields sporting a white T-shirt that read: “WOPU vs. Everybody,” with the green-and-orange color combination a nod to the infamous “Catholics vs. Convicts” shirts that had dominated discussion of the Irish’s old rivalry with Miami.

SOUTH BEND, IN - APRIL 23: Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players after the Notre Dame Blue-Gold Spring Football Game on April 23, 2022 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

WOPU, for the uninitiated, is Notre Dame’s walk-on players union, a prideful group that has developed something of a cult status over the years. It has produced its fair share of scholarship standouts, from Joe Schmidt to Chris Finke — “industry,” their fellow nationers would affectionately dub them for going big-time — but this has remained a largely anonymous circle to the rest of the college football public.

That a first-year defensive coordinator who had no previous ties to the school would choose to highlight them? Well, that was the first sign that the marriage between Notre Dame and Freeman might become something more than that of simply a school and a new assistant coach.

“We were extremely pumped,” former Irish walk-on running back Mick Assaf says. “It made us feel like he cares about every guy on the team. For WOPU, little things like that go a long way. We might not get a crazy amount of spotlight, so that meant a lot to us to have a coach repping the WOPU gear proudly.

“Lou Holtz had three rules for life. One of them was to show people that you care, and I think that shirt definitely made us believe he cared.”

The WOPU groupchat, still solid to this day, was ablaze with excitement.

“Wild,” says Schmidt, who couldn’t believe that a coach was repping them like that.

More than a year later, Freeman is a known commodity, much as a first-year head coach can be. The 36-year-old who was a Group of 5 coordinator only 20 months ago is now the leader of one of college football’s most iconic programs.

By Ruth

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