There’s a history of Cincinnati influence in South Bend, including Kelly, who spent three seasons with the Bearcats before taking the Notre Dame job. A year before Kelly poached Freeman, he hired Bearcats defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, a Cincinnati alum who was a teammate of Freeman’s at Wayne High School outside of Dayton.

Never mind that coaching salaries soar into the eight figures for guys who’ve never won a national championship or that exorbitant buyouts protect some failing coaches. Yes, indeedy, the echo chamber says coaching college football is a fool’s errand nowadays.