Notre Dame Embraces Marcus Freeman With Unanimous Excitement After Transformative Week

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The door to Notre Dame’s spectacular indoor football facility opened, and Joanna Freeman led her brood out the door and into the bracing cold. Behind her trailed Vinny, Siena, Gino, Nico, Capri and Rocco, dressed in varying elements of tartan plaid, all bustling across the street as the wind howled at them from the west.

“Look at the ducklings!” Called out Pat Terrell, one of the stars of the last team to win a football national championship here. The Freemans turned, laughed, and kept scurrying in duckling formation.

Minutes earlier, the kids had been chasing each other in the end zone on the artificial turf. And minutes before that, they had watched their father, Marcus,…