Every Marcus Freeman stat makes Notre Dame fans realize how much better they are with Brian Kelly elsewhere

It’s not hard to agree that what Marcus Freeman is doing at Notre Dame, supersedes what Brian Kelly ever accomplished during his 12 seasons coaching the Fighting Irish. 

While Kelly may be the winningest coach in Notre Dame history and coached it to a national championship game appearance and a College Football Playoff appearance, his tenure was marred by his failure to show up in big games. 

It was one of the reasons his time at Notre Dame was done. He failed to win the most important game. His successor, well that’s been his strong suit early in his coaching tenure. 

According to Frank Vitovich, who writes and owns the site UHND, Freeman has more wins over top 5 teams in 2025 than Kelly and Penn State coach James Franklin combined in 23 years of coaching between Penn State and Notre Dame.

Marcus Freeman can cement himself as one of the best coaches in Notre Dame history with a miraculous national championship

Freeman not only knows how to beat the top teams but can do something his predecessor couldn’t do and that’s win a national championship. And he has a really good chance to do so too. 

The Fighting Irish might be underdogs coming into next Monday’s title game, but they’ve turned their season around since losing to Northern Illinois. They knocked off Indiana, Georgia and Penn State to reach the title game. 

They weren’t expected to beat Georgia and they needed a comeback effort to beat Penn State. Freeman has all the tools to lead this team to a national championship. 

Kelly couldn’t do it when he was at Notre Dame and is still struggling to do it at LSU. In both of his chances to win a title and reach the title game, he lost to Alabama. 

Freeman can remind Irish fans why they should be happy Kelly is no longer with the program. He did a lot of good things at Notre Dame. But as much success as he’s had, he never won a national championship. 

What Freeman has done since arriving as a defensive coordinator for a season before taking the head coaching position has proved he was the right person all along. He has a 33-9 record, has 10-plus wins in each of the last two seasons. 

And he has an undefeated record in the College Football Playoff. Notre Dame fans don’t need any more reminders they’re in good hands with Freeman. But he’s already accomplished more than Kelly did during his 12 seasons. A national championship would put him in among Notre Dame’s best.