Not a lot have achieved what Marcus Freeman has with Notre Dame football in just 3 years of him taking the reins. He returns for year 4 with a starting-from-scratch mindset. “2024 has nothing to do with this team. This team has to write its own story,” he told the press after the first fall camp practice. Some new faces join his side this year, who echo that same mindset. One of them made the risky move from Penn State, leaving a long-standing relationship with James Franklin behind.

The fiercest element that will impact Penn State this season is the RB duo of Kaytron Allen and Nic Singleton. They comprise one of the best rushing attacks this season. But the man who helped develop them is no longer with Penn State. Franklin lost one of his most crucial assistants, Ja’Juan Seider, to Notre Dame earlier in the year. The move was surprising because the RB room of the Lions is one of the most elite in FBS at the moment. In 2023, Seider said, “It would have to make a lot of sense for me to leave this place.” That seemed to be the case two years later, when the coach signed with Notre Dame football.

At Notre Dame, he will be in charge of leading an equally elite RB room, headlined by Jeremiyah Love, who is also expected to be in the run-up to the Heisman this year. But his leaving his best recruits and coaching another equally phenomenal one turned some heads. After all, Allen and Singleton had one more year to go. But for Seider, this was it. “I was gone,” Seider said in a July 31 episode of Flo Factory. “It wasn’t even college. Like, I was gone. It was just time. I just felt like it was time for a change,” he added.

But there was no bad blood between him and Franklin to end the Penn State chapter. “Nothing against the place, man. It was a he-k of a run. You just get to the point like I just need a new challenge. I need to feel something different, you know?” Seider said. “I just need to get away because man, that was a long season. I just need—that was the first time we had a break, man. It was long, bro. And I knew once we [Seider and Freeman] talked where I was going, I looked at my wife, she looked at me said, ‘We going to the Midwest, huh?’ I said, Yep, yep,’ I said ‘We going to Notre Dame.” I say, ‘It’s time.’”

For seven years, he shaped a PSU rushing attack that has developed into the country’s most elite. That is what Seider will be missing the most. “The hardest part was not leaving Penn State, the job, man. It was leaving the kids, man. ‘Cause half of that team, he-l, I done recruited. Our best players, I recruited most of them. You know what I mean?” So, like, everybody just talking about running backs is – Yeah, it’s my room. Like, I raised those kids,” he said wistfully. Seider has moved about quite a bit throughout his career, but his Penn State stint was his most prolific. In his first season at Happy Valley, a Seider-helmed RB room rushed for 204.9 yards per game, the highest since 2008.

Freeman’s RB room will now get a taste of what made Singleton and Allen heroes of the Penn State offense. Another reason why Notre Dame seemed like the next best stop in Seider’s career was because of the decades-long friendship they shared.

How Ja’Juan Seider’s Notre Dame role came to be his

When someone you’ve been friends with for more than a decade, it is extremely difficult to pass up their most heartfelt demands. Seider revealed that Marcus Freeman and he go back to their school days, both being Belle Glade, Florida, natives. “We always said if one of us got a certain job where we can win at, we going to work for each other,” Seider said. Freeman and Seider set the stage for his move to South Bend during last year’s Orange Bowl, where Notre Dame defeated the Lions by just 3 points and advanced to the National Championship.

“We text a little bit that night and he said, ‘Look, I don’t know when, but I’m coming to get you.’ And I said, ‘Listen, man. The next time you won’t have to ask, man. I promise you I’m coming,” Seider noted. And with all the cards lining up, Freeman was right there when news of the RB coach’s departure broke. “Matter of fact, I’m talking to one NFL team in New York… He called. He’s like, ‘Hey bro. Remember we had that conversation and you said, hey when it’s coming, I ain’t gotta ask?’” Seider knew what was in store for him then and there. He was replacing Delland McCullough, who left for the Raiders.

With a top-draft-pick-worthy Love under Seider, the ceiling is through the roof for the Fighting Irish’s rushing attack. The coach made a lot of noise with his best players in PSU, and he’s going to do just the same with those at Notre Dame.