There’s a history of Cincinnati influence in South Bend, including Kelly, who spent three seasons with the Bearcats before taking the Notre Dame job. A year before Kelly poached Freeman, he hired Bearcats defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, a Cincinnati alum who was a teammate of Freeman’s at Wayne High School outside of Dayton.

Marcus Freeman is one of the biggest names in college football right now — not just because the Notre Dame head coach has led the Fighting Irish to the brink of its first national championship since 1988, but because of how he has done it.