When Notre Dame general manager Chad Bowden bolted for rival USC three weeks ago, it created both a problem for Marcus Freeman and an opportunity.
Bowden had been Freeman’s professional little brother dating back to Cincinnati, tagging along when Freeman accepted the defensive coordinator post at Notre Dame, then taking over the recruiting department after Freeman became head coach. In terms of modern college football, that was a long time ago.
The transfer portal was in its early days, with Notre Dame merely a bit player. Seasons didn’t go longer than 14 games. Name, image and likeness was more concept than practice, before collectives became the norm, before the House settlement and revenue sharing became inevitabilities. And even Freeman was different back then: new to Notre Dame, then new to being a head coach. Now he’s coming off a contract extension and a run to the national championship game.
That’s all to say the goalposts have moved on what Notre Dame needs in a general manager.
The head coach is no longer a 35-year-old gamble. Roster compensation has gone from Notre Dame’s idealized view of NIL to an acceptance of how it actually functions. And that’s about to change again when schools can share an expected $20.5 million with their athletes because of the House settlement.
Yes, Notre Dame is hiring a general manager. But what does Notre Dame need in a general manager?
The Athletic spoke to three general managers at the Power 4 level — two current, one former — to understand both where the position is headed in this new era of college football and what Notre Dame might need in a GM. All three spoke anonymously to allow for candor. Here’s their unsolicited advice on what Notre Dame needs.
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The job starts with player evaluation
Bowden’s biggest strengths were relationship building and program marketing.
He was once thrown out of South Bend International Airport after showing up with a boombox to welcome recruits. He dressed up as a leprechaun, referee and secret service agent to welcome prospects to campus. When Notre Dame wanted recruits to feel a media crush around campus, Bowden helped make sure there were cameras flanking the sidewalks. Notre Dame’s players swore by Bowden, seeing him as much as a friend as any kind of coach.
There’s still room for all this. Every program needs a walking icebreaker. It just doesn’t need to be the general manager. In fact, it probably shouldn’t be.
“No matter what, you have to be a skilled evaluator. That’s the first thing,” said one current general manager of a Power 4 school. “When it all comes down to it, can the kid play for Notre Dame or not?”
The Irish didn’t put that decision on their former general manager. They might put it on their next one based on Freeman’s pursuit of James Blanchard, who turned down Notre Dame to stay at Texas Tech on a new three-year contract valued at $1.575 million.
Blanchard has more autonomy in Lubbock than some NFL general managers. If he wants to offer a high school prospect, Texas Tech makes that offer. Then it was up to the position coaches to do the recruiting. During Notre Dame’s courtship, Blanchard and Freeman came to terms on the autonomy point, with Freeman assuring Blanchard the two of them would run the program’s roster management together.
That level of autonomy would be a shock to Notre Dame’s personnel system, but with every player a free agent twice every year on top of needing to organize a high school recruiting board, roster management has become an overwhelming job.
“Everybody’s gonna have money now, so it’s the other stuff that matters,” said a second current general manager at the Power 4 level. “You’d better be good evaluators. People say you don’t need to be as good of recruiters because you’re paying them, but, well, you’d better be good evaluators. When you put a grade on a guy, that’s a dollar amount. It’s his ability and how much we’re going to pay the guy.”
Before, a bad evaluation simply turned into a dead roster spot. Now it might blow a hole in your roster budget.
“You make an evaluation mistake before, maybe the kid helps you on special teams and is a role player on offense or defense. Now that same guy is covering kickoffs and it’s, ‘Hey man, what’s the money being spent on?’” said the former general manager. “That’s harder to swallow.”
Added the first GM: “Now more than ever, if you have a lot of money and you take a bad player and pay him a lot, there needs to be very big consequences for doing that. Because it’s money, it means more. The AD’s going to be signing those checks. You’d better be damn sure he’s good.”
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Those evaluations go beyond the portal and recruiting
Regardless of how Freeman structures his next personnel department, the most important evaluations will be on Notre Dame’s own roster. Scouting director Matt Jansen handled that in the previous set-up, attempting to rate the talent (or lack thereof). He had eight categories of players, from All-Americans down to those who aren’t good enough. Jansen shared the evaluations with the coaching staff, which usually aligned with how players were viewed by Notre Dame’s assistants.
For a general manager to make a modern personnel department work, that information is critical. If he doesn’t do the scouting himself, he needs somebody like Jansen to handle it. Because if a program wants to function at a high level, it needs to know where it must improve and have a grasp on the money required to do it.
“You have to be able to rate your own roster because that’s where people make mistakes,” said the second GM. “They overvalue or undervalue guys on your team and don’t know their needs. If you overpay your right tackle and he’s not good, that’s bad. But if you underpay your skill guy and he leaves, that’s not good either.”
All three GMs identified the self-scout as problematic for assistant coaches who have put in years recruiting and developing players. They’re less likely to give up on a player and more likely to overvalue keeping the talent on hand, even if it could be upgraded. Sometimes that might mean losing a talented player because there’s not enough money for top talent on the three-deep. That’s where the GM needs to have the harder conversation with both the head coach and sometimes the players themselves.
The potential root issue is a discipline problem. Basically, can the GM follow a budget when the program’s assistant coaches don’t have that capacity?
“Are you willing to admit a mistake?” said the former GM. “Can you tell a kid after a year that he’s out? That’s not in line with Notre Dame or places like it.”
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Will the NFL model work? Hard to say
North Carolina considers itself the “33rd NFL team” under Bill Belichick. Florida just hired a general manager from the Atlanta Falcons. Clemson just hired a lead evaluator from the Los Angeles Chargers. Will those NFL approaches work at the college level?
All three college general managers doubted whether the pro blueprint would translate to college as much as some schools think it might.
“Guys coming from the college ranks are more valuable,” said the former GM. “The NFL guys are good at judging value — basically a guy might not be a value in the second round but would be a value in the third. But you’re still picking them. In college, they pick you. You’ve still got to get guys to say yes.”
In the NFL, players sign binding, multi-year contracts. In college, everybody can enter the transfer portal twice a year. In the NFL, general managers negotiate with certified agents with a clear salary structure in place. In college, it’s a mess of wannabe agents where nobody is quite sure who’s making what.
“It’s the difference between talking to Scott Boras and talking to somebody who thinks he’s Scott Boras,” said the second GM. “The biggest misperception is that an NFL guy could just come in and do this.”
Still, there are parts of the NFL that do translate.
College GMs lean into how NFL teams divide their salary cap while also using formulas provided by Teamworks or Opendorse. The second GM studied the four NFL teams that made conference championship games: Philadelphia, Kansas City, Buffalo and Washington. He learned that those NFL teams put more money into their offensive lines than his program planned to invest. He also realizes the NFL salary structure doesn’t always translate to college.
“Maybe that can help me understand where we could be devoting more,” he said. “But NFL teams rarely pay top dollar for running backs. Colleges feel differently.”
It’s not clear if Freeman will hire from the NFL ranks after missing on Blanchard.
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The head coach better know what he wants
On one hand, Freeman doesn’t need to hire someone much different from Bowden. And yet the pursuit of Blanchard suggests Notre Dame doesn’t just want to replace its old general manager, it wants to upgrade. It’s just hard to know exactly what that means as the sport seems to shift by the week.
At some schools, the general manager ranks above the rest of the coaching staff. At others, the job is not much different than a classic recruiting coordinator. It depends on how the head coach and athletic director see it.
“It’s sexy for people to say they’re going to go hire a GM, but do they really know what they want the GM to do?” said the second GM. “People are trying to figure this out.”
If Freeman wants Notre Dame’s next GM to have more roster control, that may mean negotiating contracts and handling NIL payments. It probably means dealing with the Notre Dame admissions department, which adds a layer of complexity absent at many other schools. And the GM will have to know what Freeman is thinking without asking when it comes to acquisitions, especially in the portal.
It’s all a lot to learn in a short amount of time.
“The head coach puts the GM in place, the GM makes sure the roster is built in his vision,” said the first GM. “If it’s done perfectly, the GM doesn’t even have to ask the head coach. He knows exactly what we’re looking for in a linebacker, how much we’re gonna pay him, so if that’s $200,000, we can skip that conversation. In the portal season everything happens so quickly that you don’t have time to ask and ask and ask.”
After missing on Blanchard, Notre Dame doesn’t plan to rush this hire, although targeting Blanchard in the first place may be a tell for the empowerment Freeman will attach to this position. Regardless, just how much sway the next general manager has will be up to the head coach.
“If you’ve got a collection of good evaluators on staff, maybe that’s less important for the GM. But if you’ve got more inexperienced guys who are good with relationships, maybe you lean into the evaluator,” said the former GM. “Mike Denbrock knows what he’s looking for in an offensive player. Mike Mickens has good eyes. And Freeman is a good evaluator. But only they know what they need for this.
“And I’m not sure there’s a right or a wrong answer.”
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(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
