Mentor Turned Rival: Fickell's Former Pupil Freeman Leads Notre Dame Into Wisconsin Clash
No. 4 Notre Dame opens its season against Wisconsin on Sunday night at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, pitting head coach Marcus Freeman against Luke Fickell, the man who once coached him as a player and later hired him as an assistant. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
The relationship dates to Freeman's playing days at Ohio State, where he played linebacker from 2004 to 2008 under Fickell, then the Buckeyes' position coach. Nearly a decade later, Fickell brought Freeman onto his staff at Cincinnati, where Freeman served as linebackers coach and defensive coordinator from 2017 through 2020, helping build one of the sport's more respected defenses before Notre Dame hired him in 2021. american football bet
The two have already met as opposing coaches. In 2021, Fickell's Cincinnati team beat Notre Dame 24-13 at Notre Dame Stadium during the Bearcats' run to the College Football Playoff. Freeman was Notre Dame's defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly at the time, and took over as head coach when Kelly left for LSU later that season. The coaching ties extend further: Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph spent six seasons as Wisconsin's offensive coordinator under Paul Chryst, while Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli and receivers coach Mike Brown all worked on Fickell's 2021 Cincinnati staff.
The programs enter Sunday from sharply different places. Notre Dame is favored by three touchdowns after going 24-4 over its past two seasons, including a run to the 2024 College Football Playoff championship game. Quarterback CJ Carr, who threw for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns as a first-year starter in 2025, leads an Irish roster that also features preseason All-America picks Leonard Moore, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and Brauntae Johnson on defense. Wisconsin, in Fickell's fourth season, is seeking stability after back-to-back losing years - 5-7 in 2024 and 4-8 in 2025 - that snapped a 22-year streak of winning seasons for the program.
