You’d be hard-pressed to find a profession in sports more heavily scrutinized than college football head coach. It comes with the territory, but all it takes is one loss and the pressure gets turned up pretty quickly.
So when Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman had the chance to turn the tables on a reporter during his press conference on Monday, he didn’t hesitate.
Freeman asked if it was his turn, as he was chomping at the bit to grill a reporter. You could tell the second-year head coach has been waiting for an opportunity like this one.
After finishing answering questions from reporters on Monday afternoon, Freeman had a few of his own. He turned his attention to Irish Illustarted’s (Rivals) Tim O’Malley, who happens to be a head coach himself. In fact, he coaches the flag football team that Freeman’s son, Nico, plays for.
O’Malley, who had just finished asking Freeman questions about the Fighting Irish, suddenly found himself fielding questions about a flag football championship game over the weekend.
Here's Marcus Freeman turning the tables on Irish Illustrated's @timomalleyND during Monday's press conference. O'Malley coaches Freeman's son's flag football team and Freeman had a couple hard hitting questions on some coaching decisions/mishaps. pic.twitter.com/jIKtJkuQKQ
— ND Football Discord (@NDF_Discord) October 23, 2023
“Second/third-grade championship game, two trips to the red zone, zero points. One play was a reverse pass that was intercepted in the red zone. You were the offense coordinator on there? Thoughts on the red zone play calling?” Freeman asked.
O’Malley gave a diplomatic answer filled with coach-speak.
The only thing that exchange was missing was a “talk about.”
“Last question. There was a Nico Freeman in that same game that had a long run that was negated by only having one flag on,” Freeman said. “Whose responsibility is it to make sure the young man has two flags on?”
O’Malley seemed to pass off blame to his assistant coach, with Freeman saying, “C’mon, Tim. You got to own it now.”
Tim did not own it, but he did own the fact that Freeman did not ask about the fourth and fifth-grade championship game over the weekend.
“I was going to finish with congratulations on your two championship wins yesterday,” Freeman said. “Head coaches get the credit sometimes when they deserve and don’t deserve, but congrats on two wins… You found a way to win. That’s important. I appreciate that. That was a lot of fun yesterday.”
Another reporter chimed in that he thought O’Malley had a good game plan, but the players didn’t execute. O’Malley gave himself a D-minus for his coaching performance, at least in the game that Freeman’s son was involved in. The bottom line, though, is they got the win.
What a strange sport. Give Freeman and O’Malley some credit, as this made for an entertaining exchange and took a lot of the seriousness out of the room. We need more, not less of this, in college football.
[ND Football Discord on Twitter]
