The weekly ritual of football game planning is hard enough—and then, sometimes, circumstances add a fourth layer to the three-dimensional chess match of scheming for an opponent.
What happens when you don’t just know the opposing coordinator, but you know him? You know how he coaches and how he thinks. You know his situational proclivities and the rhythms of his play-calling. And you know that he knows the same things about you. That is the challenge for Cincinnati’s coaching staff as it prepares to face Notre Dame on Saturday, because Irish defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman spent four years as an architect of the Bearcats’ Blackcat defense.