SOUTH BEND, Ind. — At 3:40 on a summer-like Saturday afternoon, Marcus Freeman double-checked his immediate schedule with a staffer — “We good?" — before stepping out of the Notre Dame Stadium interview room.
Outside the stadium gates, fans stood two and three deep. On a May-like day, it felt a lot like September. Football mattered around these parts. Really mattered.
Freeman exited that interview room and entered the next phase of his first season as the Notre Dame head football coach, when there always is something next waiting — a presser, a meeting, a conference.