Three years after Brian Kelly left for LSU, Notre Dame is in the national championship game. Here's why the players think Marcus Freeman got them this far.

At the time, it was seen as a major downgrade. Notre Dame was going from Brian Kelly, a proven head coach with an extensive résumé and the school’s all-time leader in wins, to Marcus Freeman, who had been a defensive coordinator for only a few years and had spent only one season in South Bend,

Marcus Freeman once thought of becoming an athletics director before getting into coaching. On Monday, Freeman will coach Notre Dame in the CFP championship game.

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.

Somewhere on the field Monday evening inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis will roam the field, searching for a fellow Buckeye legend. He'll shake his best friend's hand,

In hindsight, Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey isn’t surprised that football coach Marcus Freeman was one step ahead. Knowing him as well as she does now, it tracks.