Greg McElroy compares Marcus Freeman to Georgia coach Kirby Smart: ‘His best times are in front of him’

Greg McElroy isn’t worried about Marcus Freeman’s status as Notre Dame’s head coach.

Freeman is off to a rough start in his second year at the helm. Notre Dame has lost two of its last three games, including a double-digit loss to Louisville over the weekend that snapped the program’s 30-game win streak vs. ACC opponents in the regular season.

Notre Dame also had an up-and-down season in 2022 that included losses to Marshall and Stanford. The Irish won 9 games last season, ending a string of five consecutive double-digit win seasons.

However, McElroy compared Freeman’s start at Notre Dame to Kirby Smart’s first season in charge at Georgia.

But I’m still optimistic about Marcus Freeman,” McElroy said

Wednesday on Always College Football. “Because all the things that people are saying about Marcus Freeman, all the things they’re saying about him, are the same things they said about Kirby Smart five years ago. ‘He can recruit great. He’s a good defensive mind. But, you know, he’s messed up the quarterback spot. Or in-game, situatio

nally, hasn’t been great.’ All those things were said about Kirby Smart a handful of years ago.”

McElroy pointed out that Freeman, like Smart, didn’t have the opportunity to be the head coach at a “stepping-stone job” before taking over one of the top programs in college football.

“He’s a young coach that unfortunately, for him, is learning on the job,” McElroy said. “He didn’t have a training-wheel run at a stepping-stone program.He went from coordinator at Cincinnati to coordinator at Notre Dame to the head coach at one of the most heavily-scrutinized places in college football. He’s going to be fine. I’m not at all concerned about him. I think he’s a great coach and I think his best times are in front of him.”

Smart took a similar path to Georgia’s head coaching role. He was Alabama’s defensive coordinator from 2008-2015 and didn’t have any prior head coaching experience before taking over in Athens.

To McElroy’s point, Smart’s first season in Athens was far from perfect. The Bulldogs went 8-5 in 2016, which included home losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech. It wasn’t until Year 6 of Smart’s tenure that the Bulldogs got over the hump and won the national championship.

Notre Dame will try to get back on track this weekend against USC.