Could Texas A&M football steal away a big name?
This is the definition of a long shot, but I don’t think it is completely out of the question for Texas A&M football to make a run at a guy like Marcus Freeman. This is total speculation, but I think there’s potential for something to happen here. Let’s talk about why.
I wrote recently about the contrast between Texas A&M football and certain other jobs as people talk about why A&M might should lower their expectations in a coaching search. I don’t think I have to do a lot of heavy lifting to get agreement that Notre Dame is a program with a very high opinion of itself. They would rather lean on their reputation and history than dedicate a lot of resources to their football program—after all, they are the Irish… why would they have to pay a coach a lot of money to produce a high-level product? It’s their birthright!
The way this plays out is that a guy like Brian Kelly leaves for the SEC because of a lack of institutional support, and they promote the uber-popular DC Freeman as a sort of stopgap measure. When his OC, Tommy Rees, leaves after one year and he identifies a guy that they need to hire—but that the ND administration might need to shell out for—the brass for the Irish laugh in his face.
He would not have such an issue at Texas A&M football. They’d get him the assistants he wants. He’d inherit a roster that is among the best in the nation—something that, for all their tradition, is hard to build at ND (see Brian Kelly’s results vs Alabama at ND and at LSU). He’d immediately have an absolute recruiting machine if he were able to keep Robinson on staff. Is it that crazy to think he might take up this opportunity?
Maybe. But then again, maybe not.