In what should be one of the top national stories of the off-season, Notre Dame swatted away Louisiana State for the services of rising superstar defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. The Huber Heights, Ohio native who was once a blue-chip recruit and very good player at Ohio State has risen steadily over his first 10 years as a coach and is now coming off the award as the 247Sports Defensive Coordinator of the Year following an impressive 9-1 season with Cincinnati where only 1 opponent scored more than 24 points against his defense.

This article today will take a look at Freeman’s base philosophy, some of the the things he likes to do with his defense, where Notre Dame’s personnel fits nicely, and where some problems may arise given some of the restrains of the Irish roster.

Philosophy & Scheme

Years Coordinating: 4
Base Defense: 3-3-5 Multiple
Coverages: Cover-1 or Cover-3
Philosophy: Aggressive/Stop the Run/Contest Everything

Freeman just finished up his 4th season as defensive coordinator at Cincinnati capping off an incredibly strong run taking the Bearcats from 117th, to 14th, to 17th, and finishing 3rd in FEI defense in 2020. Upon arrival in the Queen City, Freeman mostly relied upon a 4-2-5 spread-stopping defense but switched to a 3-man front against UCF in 2019 to great success and has leaned on this scheme much more heavily over his final 20 games with Cincinnati.

We’ll start with this 3-man front as the basis for Freeman’s defense and eventually get to the tweaks he may have to make at Notre Dame.

The Tite Front

No matter the front, there are a few things that are woven into Freeman’s style of play. I think people will see a 3-man front and get scared about drastic changes that have to be made but as with any coordinator there will be a fluidity to the system and making things work with the roster at his disposal. Here are some core things I’ve noticed with Freeman’s defense:

  • He prefers a 5-man box with versatile overhangs
  • The nose tackle is heads up on the center or slightly shaded
  • Freeman uses a jumbo end
  • The A and B-gaps are clogged
  • Freeman dares teams to attack the C-gap
  • The top edge rusher stands up quite often in a 4-man front
  • Linebackers are *extremely* active
  • Corners need to win one-on-one battles with minimal safety help

Most people covering Notre Dame think Freeman will use more 4-man fronts, whether he does or not these core philosophies will largely stay the same.

For nearly 2 years, Freeman has relied upon what is called a Tite Front with a lot of his own little tweaks and changes that make him different from the other coordinators who have embraced this look over the last half dozen years or so. Here’s the basic layout:

The basic Tite front.

Starting up front, you’ll see the nose tackle directly over the center with the defensive ends playing a 4i technique which means they are shaded to the inside of each offensive tackle. It’s not uncommon for his best pass-rushing end to be shaded on the outside shoulder of the tackle, though. Freeman virtually always keeps a Mike and Will linebacker in the middle of the field to create a 5-man box.

*Fundamentals of the Tite Front Defense*

If you’re an offense trying to run the ball where does it look advantageous to attack? It is off the edges around your tackles in the C-gap, which is exactly where Freeman prefers the ball carrier to go in this scheme. This defense was designed to prevent spread offenses from hammering the B-gap and getting quickly up the field into the second-level.

Freeman wants to clog up the middle, force the ball outside, and allow his “overhang” players (listed above as OB for outside linebacker) the ability to contain this threat. Most people who deal with this defense mention how difficult it is to handle these overhang players. They are typically 4 to 5 yards off the line of scrimmage–close enough to worry linemen who may need to block them–and further enough away that the offense thinks they have good numbers to run the ball but can’t quickly get to the second level and block them.

One of Freeman’s tweaks at Cincinnati compared to other Tite front defenses was that his outside linebacker “Sniper” position was played by Jarell White who stands 5’10” and 205 pounds. This is where the 3-3-5 comes into play. On paper, there are 4 “linebackers” on the field (resembling a traditional 3-4 scheme) in this base defense but the Sniper is essentially a 3rd safety on the field.

From here, the defense can utilize another Sam linebacker on the outside or put an additional defensive back on the field if you’re facing more pass-happy teams who aren’t using a lot of blockers in the box.

Here’s a great screenshot of the Tite front in the Peach Bowl against Georgia with technically 6 defensive backs on the field:

Sniper is an elite positional name, let’s hope it stays.

In this specific play, the Bearcats took off a heavier SLB linebacker in favor of another corner–something they did a ton against most offenses. Do you see the corner in the bottom right corner of the screen? Keep that set up in the back of your mind, we’ll return to him later.

Let’s think about those linemen again. It’s important to remember that this defense was born from trying to stop spread offenses from running the ball. In most 3-man fronts taking on 2-gaps and double-teams (think Bob Diaco’s huge linemen) has been the common move but with the Tite front under Freeman the 3 linemen are far more aggressive and attempting to penetrate through the line. This is immediately noticeable when watching Cincinnati’s defense this past year.

The linemen are rarely eating blocks, instead they are trying to penetrate and slant into the A and B gaps with the linebackers and safeties coming down to help contain the edges.

Check out this run stuff against Georgia from the Tite front, for example:

Cincinnati should’ve won this game.

Watch the nose tackle #99 over the center. His immediate instinct was to slant upfield to the boundary but feels the left guard move away and then quickly gets upfield. However, this snap also highlights perhaps the main feature of Marcus Freeman’s defense: “Mugging” linebackers.

Freeman loves to use his linebackers, plus many other defenders, to move close to the line of scrimmage and further help to attack the A and B gaps while sowing confusion for offensive linemen. At the snap, the middle linebacker #41 is attacking the center, essentially switching Cincinnati from a 3-man to a 4-man surface at the last minute. Freeman does this all the time and you can see how it confuses the Georgia left guard who hesitates at the snap when the linebacker attacks the center.

The best part is that this type of aggressive penetration prevents Georgia from getting any linemen to the second level on a running play, it’s like they are entirely on defense. This is the whole point! This allows the Sniper #8 White (standing at the 1st down marker over the Chick-fil-A logo) to come in completely unblocked and attack the ball-carrier. Plus, the middle linebacker did a great job getting off his block to stop the ball too.

4-Man Front

Okay, so how will things change with a 4-man front? My initial feeling is it won’t be too different. The fundamentals of the defense mentioned above will largely remain, while a 4-man front gives you some additional flexibility to do some different things like get into more traditional pass-rushing roles for edge players.

Here’s a screenshot of Cincinnati in a 4-man front in the Peach Bowl:

A more traditional 4-man front from Freeman.

This is a similar 4-man front to the one Notre Dame fans have been used to during the Clark Lea era. However, notice the defensive tackle is just slightly shaded off the center and the strong-side defensive end shaded well inside the left tackle. Very rarely does Freeman roll out a front with both ends playing a 5-technique on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle–his core philosophy of clogging up the A and B-gaps remains steady even in pass-rushing situations. You also still have the boundary corner in press coverage.

The one change that is noticeable in Freeman’s 4-man front is that quite often the pass-rushing end stands up and does kick out a little wider off the tackle’s outside shoulder. This is the role played by #21 Myjai Sanders who led Cincinnati in sacks and tackles for loss in 2020.

As always, Freeman can be versatile in either front. However, I noticed he tends to be a little more traditional with 4-man fronts, meaning you’ll see 3 heavier linebackers (as seen above) or he’ll go back to his 4-2-5 look with a 3rd defensive back replacing a linebacker.

How often Notre Dame under Freeman will play in a 4-man front is going to be interesting to see. I tracked every snap in their 2020 games against UCF and Georgia to get an idea of what he likes to do. Against the Knights, the Bearcats lined up in a 3-man front on 72 out of 87 snaps, basically only switching to a 4-man front in goal line or obvious 3rd down passing situations. Against the Dawgs, the Bearcats were in a 3-man front on 35 out of 59 snaps, or 59.3% of the time.

I’ll dive into what I anticipate happening a little further down while discussing Notre Dame’s personnel.

Coverages

Freeman’s defense is known for being exotic to a degree with the players in the box. As we covered, he uses his linemen to dominate the interior of the offense and bring linebackers and safeties behind them, at different points of attack and timing. When you watch Cincinnati play it’s immediately noticeable how swarming they look at the line of scrimmage.

Due to this, Freeman does not choose to do a bunch of complicated things in coverage. In fact, he relies on Cover-1 a majority of the time with a healthy dose of Cover-3 mixed in, as well. This means, most of the time there will be one safety playing the deep middle part of the field in zone coverage while the rest of the defenders play man-to-man against receivers, including the other safety who can drop down and man-cover a slot receiver or tight end. Even when Freeman mixes in Cover-3 (traditionally a zone coverage) he will thrown in modifications where players, especially corners, will play in man coverage.

The most important thing to take away is that Freeman puts a lot on the plate of his corners to beat their man. Although the 3-3-5 Tite front has its origins in the Big 12–and most football fans think of stopping excessive passing in that league–at its heart this defense is designed to stop the run. It’s a scheme that places a premium on speed and disruption near the line of scrimmage, while trusting your corners not to get beat–especially deep outside the hashes away from safety help.

Fitting the Scheme to Notre Dame

Now, we’ll get to the fun part where we’ll discuss more in depth how Freeman may use Notre Dame’s personnel in 2021 and beyond. Before we do that, the odds are that Freeman will not be long for South Bend. He’s apparently very ambitious about becoming a head coach and most in the media expect him to be at Notre Dame for 2 years, maybe 3 at the most.

With that in mind, he may not be around to reap the benefits of his recruiting. Therefore, the clay he will have to mold over the next couple of years is mostly already on campus.

Defensive Line

Freeman typically only keeps one pure pass-rusher on the field in either a 3-man or 4-man front. I’d be surprised if he deviates away too much from this philosophy while at Notre Dame. I think there’s a belief that Notre Dame has really good options for edge rushers but heading into 2021 it’s definitely more of a weakness. From returning players there are only 6.5 career sacks from defensive ends: Isaiah Foskey (4.5), Justin Ademilola (1), and Alexander Ehrensberg (1).

Even if Freeman tilts more towards a 4-man front with the Irish I’m not sure we’re going to see a pair of traditional 4-3-type of ends playing together. In other words, Isaiah Foskey and Jordan Botelho may not both be starters like projected if Clark Lea remained with Notre Dame.

Many people describe Freeman’s defense at Cincinnati as under-sized but that’s not really the case with the linemen. Their 3 main interior defensive linemen weigh 293, 295, and 297 pounds respectively, while their 4i defensive ends (even in a 4-man front) are both 275 pounds. Add in the pass-rushing Sanders at 258 pounds and this is plenty of size up front, especially given their overall speed and athleticism.

Where I’m headed with this is that Notre Dame has far more options that they trust from interior linemen and Freeman’s scheme actually suits them really well to utilize a jumbo end. I can see something like this working in 2021 (current weights in parentheses):

WDE: Foskey (257), Botelho (248), Justin Ademilola (248), Na-Na (249)
NT: Hinish (296), Lacey (293), Keanaaina (302)
SDE: MTA (282), Jayson Ademilola (279), Cross (275), Mills (273)

To me, this looks damn good. There’s really not very good pass-rushing depth at all from that traditional weak-side position while the bigger interiors guys have proven to be more productive and able to penetrate the line while rotating throughout a game.

Linebackers

A huge question that I have (and you may have been asking this yourself to this point) is what Freeman is thinking about doing with that Sniper linebacker position given Notre Dame’s personnel. Will he pull from the actual linebacker ranks or will he opt to stick with more of a safety body-type?

This is a major conundrum. Notre Dame has as many as 6 linebackers (White, Bauer, Liufau, Simon, Kiser, Moala) who have played quite a bit and all weigh at least 225 pounds so if Freeman follows his set up at Cincinnati all of these players would be exempt from playing Sniper. Freeman does put a heavier SLB on the field (like the 4-man front screenshot above) but it’s the least-used option from the 4 linebacker positions and often replaced with another defensive back.

I have to imagine White and Bauer will remain at Mike as they both, particularly White, possess great qualities for this position and will do really well mugging at the line of scrimmage.

MLB: White, Bauer
WLB: Simon, Liufau
SLB: Kiser, Moala, Kollie

In this configuration, the MLB and WLB always stay on the field and will play a ton. The SLB would play maybe half as many snaps. Although, it is possible Freeman elects to play a true SLB much more than he did at Cincinnati given Notre Dame’s roster and schedule. This may be a good position for incoming freshman Prince Kollie to gradually get his feet wet, too.

Safety

Informing what to do with the Sniper position and the excess of available linebackers we find the exact opposite reality at safety for Notre Dame. And yet, Kyle Hamilton could be an absolutely devastating Sniper in Freeman’s defense. It’s just really hard at present to pick out 3 safety body-types from Notre Dame’s roster to keep on the field for the majority of snaps.

Still, it feels like Freeman has to find 3 safeties otherwise his scheme really starts to change and evolve away from the aggressive and dynamic defense that made it so effective at Cincinnati. I don’t think we need to get too caught up in the conversation between 3 and 4-man fronts as it relates to facing the heavier packaged offenses (Wisconsin, Stanford) or lighter packaged offenses (USC, UNC) this upcoming season but it’s really this 3-safety look and the Sniper position that is crucial to Freeman’s attack.

SNIPER: Hamilton, Pryor, Gee
FS: Brown, Riley
SS: Wallace, Barnes, Walters

For fun, let’s just say Hamilton ends up playing the premier Sniper position. I think Isaiah Pryor could be a decent backup (he comes down-hill pretty well) while incoming freshman Khari Gee is potentially the long-term solution at this spot as long as Freeman remains at Notre Dame.

Jarell White #8 wreaking havoc as the Sniper. 

However, it’s just so difficult to fill out the rest of the safety depth chart. We literally have no idea what we have beyond D.J. Brown so in this configuration I’ve moved 2 of the bigger freshmen corners (Riley & Barnes) to safety, both coming in for spring practice.

Also, I just wanted to point out that Prince Kollie is listed at 6’2″ and 210 pounds by Notre Dame. I mentioned him above with the linebackers but he’s potentially a fun player to use at Sniper if you can get him acclimated, although he’s not enrolling early and it may take a while.

Corner

FCB: Bracy, Offord, Johnson
BCB: Lewis, Hart, Henderson

There’s nothing more scary on the roster for Freeman as he steps on to campus than the situation at corner, at least safety has an All-American! The good news is that he’s proven to be an excellent developer of talent (not even one 4-star on his 2020 Cincinnati defense!) and his corners play with an edge that you absolutely love to see. The bad news is that he needs to develop the Notre Dame corners immediately, most of whom haven’t faced college-level competition.

For the most part, Freeman puts his boundary corner in press coverage against the receiver while the other corners will fluctuate between press and giving cushion depending on the down and distance. Go back to our first screenshot and look at the corner in press coverage. Unfortunately, on that snap the Cover-1 safety didn’t drop deep enough and the corner got beat for a long pass that was nearly a touchdown.

This has to be the biggest fear for Freeman’s new defense at Notre Dame. He asks so much out of his corners–and even while they can be successful most of the time with proper technique and coaching–a lot of this comes down to talent level. Look at the Peach Bowl where Cincinnati smothered Georgia’s running game for 45 yards on 24 carries but the Dawgs threw for 392 yards with long completions of 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 38, 42, 51, and 55 yards.

If there’s one major tweak that Freeman may have to make it’ll be to protect his corners and that may mean playing less press coverage.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Most of the time when a new coordinator comes in we have a tendency to spot our weaknesses and believe the coach is going to improve those areas and everything will be awesome.

I’ll say this much, Notre Dame should be very good at stopping the run in 2021 and it will be a lot more fun watching them employ this scheme to attack runners. Freeman will be transitioning from a decent talent advantage in the AAC to a much more firm talent advantage (especially at DL & LB) with Notre Dame against their opponents, plus the Irish return a lot of players at defensive line and linebacker who fit really well with his scheme.

His defenses tackle extremely well, swarm to the ball, play with a nasty edge, and maybe best of all take it personal trying to be blocked. Their block destruction is amazing to watch. Especially up front, players do such a good job of playing fast, not being out-leveraged, and getting off blocks to make a play. The Clark Lea defenses were pretty good at this too but perhaps this will be a small upgrade.

Pass rushing from the edge and getting beat deep in the pass game will be worries, both due to the combination of scheme and talent level for Notre Dame.

On the former problem, Freeman uses multiple points of attack and an ever-changing surface to bring pressure from all over the field. Notre Dame doesn’t have a fast edge rusher as good as Myjai Sanders but we should expect the disruption to be spread out across the roster of the defense anyway.

We already mentioned corners having to play more off-coverage to protect against the deep ball. While he can certainly be deployed in several different spots it’s possible Kyle Hamilton is primarily the deep safety most of the time who scares quarterbacks away from throwing long. If the situation is really dire at corner, this may be the safe decision for Marcus Freeman.

Of course, if Hamilton doesn’t play primarily at Sniper then who will it be? If they are going to ask this position to be an aggressive overhang player who attacks the line of scrimmage then Marist Liufau could be a good choice. I really don’t love any of the other options at safety to come close to being as impactful of a Sniper as Freeman enjoyed at Cincinnati and that’s a problem.

I don’t think it’s possible to overrate how important Jarell White was for Freeman playing this Sniper position. His stats (77 tackles, 44 solo tackles, 8 TFL, 3 sacks) don’t do him enough justice. He is all over the place causing problems with excellent burst, play recognition, and block destruction. He’s lightning quick and aggressive and outside of Hamilton I just don’t see this type of player on the Irish roster. If Notre Dame can’t find a similar type of playmaker then Freeman’s defense may not be nearly as effective.

I think Freeman’s defense is a little susceptible to short and intermediate throws in the middle of the field, particularly as he’s so aggressive with his linebackers, but they always tackle really well and clean things up. Occasionally, they do get gashed on a run especially when the overhang players can’t flow fast enough through traffic. You would hope this problem should be even more limited with Notre Dame’s stout front.

It’s really difficult to pull guards and centers against the Tite front. They are clogging the interior offensive linemen so much and can latch on to their hips if they pull while being able to penetrate before the pulling becomes effective. I have seen some offenses have success pulling their tackles, though. Sometimes you’ll have issues where Cincinnati over-ran the ball-carrier and they are out-muscled at the second level with too many defensive backs on the field, but again, Freeman’s defenders typically punch above their weight when it comes to tackling.

Lastly, I noticed Cincinnati’s defense produces a ton of flags. The Bearcats finished 2020 with the 7th most penalty yards per game nationally and I have to think the vast majority of that came from Freeman’s defense. They are just so, so aggressive while jumping offsides and forcing their corners to be very physical while drawing holding and pass interference calls. Perhaps that is cost of doing business with Freeman’s style so be prepared for some frustration.

Taking a look at things today I would say I prefer a 3-man front for Notre Dame if they find a dynamic Sniper. It’s my belief Freeman can be more versatile with his linebackers, corners, and safeties out of the 3-man front and it adds more emphasis on playing with speed on the field. I would naturally expect him to title more towards a 4-man front at Notre Dame but I would shoot for something like a 70-30 or 60-40 split in favor of a 3-man front.

My worry is that things in the secondary will prove too much to sustain a lot of 3-man fronts with 5 and 6 defensive backs while Freeman ends up using a 230 pound linebacker as the Sniper without better options at his disposal. Of course, that can work but there will be a lot less speed on the field and a little bit different of a dynamic than what he experienced at Cincinnati. Therefore, as long as Freeman is the coordinator I would expect the Irish to target a lot more speedy safety-types in recruiting.