Notre Dame is ranked 16th in the AP Top 25, owns a quality road-win to open this season at Texas A&M as well as a damaging home defeat to Northern Illinois, as it prepares to host No. 15 Louisville Saturday afternoon inside Notre Dame Stadium.
It's a big game for the Fighting Irish, and it's also a contest that's microcosm for the current environment of college football.
Both the Irish (3-1) and Jeff Brohm's Cardinals (3-0) deploy offenses with first-year starting quarters in their programs after signing Duke's Riley Leonard and Texas Tech's Tyler Shough, respectively.
And both programs are operating with signal-callers via the NCAA Transfer Portal for the second year in a row, after the Irish nabbed former Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman after the '22 season and Louisville inked Jack Plummer for Brohm's debut season in his return home.
How do Freeman and Bowden try to ensure that Notre Dame doesn't encounter a Matthew Sluka situation, with UNLV's offseason Portal acquisition now electing to sit out the remainder of the 2024 season due to an a monetary dispute regarding Name, Image and Likeness discrepancies?
“I think there's a lot of great players in college football," Freeman said Thursday when asked by FootballScoop about Notre Dame's approach in light of UNLV's messy situation. "There'll be a lot of great players that are in the Portal, but the most important thing is going to be the fit in our locker room.
"That's something that I've had a strong stance about since the beginning when the transfer portal started."
Freeman points to what he believes is a player-led culture in helping set the tone -- for players who arrive via the Portal and in general within the Irish program.
"You have to make sure you're bringing in the right type of people to fit into your locker room," said Freeman, who earlier this week allowed Notre Dame team captains to vote as to whether or not the Irish would wear their green jerseys this week in the university-marketed 'Irish Wear Green' contest. "We have a strong culture here that is led by our players, and you have to make sure those guys that are coming in here buy into the culture that's already been set.”
Notre Dame is operating with a quarterback via the Portal for the third time in four seasons -- and with three different offensive coordinators in each of those instances.
Jack Coan signed from Wisconsin for the 2021 season, Freeman's first as defensive coordinator and Brian Kelly's last as Notre Dame's coach. Tommy Rees was the offensive coordinator.
Hartman worked last season under first-year offensive coordinator Gerad Parker, now the head coach at Troy, and Leonard is running the Irish show with Mike Denbrock back in his first year as Notre Dame's offensive play-caller.