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Maxwell Football Club Executive Director Mark Wolpert announced that Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman has been named as the recipient of the 36th George Munger Award as the Collegiate Coach of the Year.
CollegeFootballPoll.com's Dave Congrove is a voting member of the award.
The announcements ends the 2024 awards season.
Leading Notre Dame to a remarkable 13-1 season and College Football Playoff wins over Indiana and Georgia, Freeman joins Tyrone Willingham (2002) as the second Fighting Irish coach to win the Munger Award. The Irish, currently on a 12-game winning streak, move on in the College Football Playoff to face No. 6 Penn State in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Jan. 9, 2025.
Freeman has led Notre Dame to six victories over opponents ranked in the AP Poll at the time of the game this season: No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 15 Louisville, No. 24 Navy, No. 18 Army, No. 9 Indiana, and No. 2 Georgia. The CFP victory over Georgia was the 13th ranked win of the Freeman era at Notre Dame, more than any other Irish head coach in the first three years of his tenure.
The Maxwell Football Club asked 1988 National Champion and Hall of Fame Coach Lou Holtz to personally call the 36th recipient of the George Munger Award, Marcus Freeman, to deliver the exciting news. Lou Holtz, a beloved figure in the football world, is also part of the Maxwell Football Club fraternity, having received the prestigious Reds Bagnell Award for Contributions to the Game of Football in 2014.
The other finalists were Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham, Boise State's Spencer Danielson, Georgia's Kirby Smart, Indiana's Curt Cignetti, Iowa State's Matt Campbell, Ohio's Tim Albin (now Charlotte), Ohio State's Ryan Day, Oregon's Dan Lanning, Penn State's James Franklin, SMU's Rhett Lashlee, and South Carolina's Shane Beamer.
Congrove said, "I congratulate Freeman and voted him 3rd, but I couldn't deny Cignetti as Coach of the Year when he took a school with the worst historical performance in history and turned it into a double-digit win program in his very first year. In my humble opinion, nothing trumps that. Along that same line, it's also shocking to me that Jeff Monken of Army and Ohio's Tim Albin were eliminated on the semifinal ballot?"
The Maxwell Football Club and Notre Dame Football Department collaborated to produce a behind-the-scenes look at the award notification, capturing this historic moment for Coach Freeman and the Fighting Irish.
The formal presentation of the George Munger Coach of the Year Award will be held on Friday March 14, 2025 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. The Maxwell Football Club will also be presenting its other national awards from high school through the professional ranks at the event.
The Maxwell Football Club was founded in 1935 and is the oldest football organization of its kind in America. The Club recognizes excellence in performance at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of the game. The Maxwell Club is also deeply involved and fully vested in the community through programs to promote academic excellence, community volunteerism, and leadership. High school student-athletes around the country have an opportunity to participate in MFC Showcase events, free of charge, through the generosity of our corporate partners, the NFL Foundation, College Football Dawgs, Raymond James, College Sports Communicators, DCH Health System, SRA Inc, the ETC Foundation and the BABC Law Firm.