Notre Dame didn’t feel any pressure to appoint an interim head coach in the wake of Brian Kelly’s departure. The program AD, Jack Swarbrick, said as much earlier this week. He wanted to wait.

Turns out, the guy they would have named interim is just going to get the full-time gig. According to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Marcus Freeman is expected to be named the school’s next head coach.

Freeman played linebacker for the Ohio State Buckeyes from 2004-08, and that’s where his coaching career began, albeit as a grad assistant. He coached linebackers for Purdue from 2013-16, taking on the co-defensive coordinator title his last year there. But then Luke Fickell hired him away from West Lafayette to be Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator in 2017. Kelly brought him aboard at Notre Dame this past offseason.

And Kelly tried to bring Freeman with him to LSU, but Freeman declined that invitation.

This will be his first head coaching opportunity, but he certainly isn’t without support. Freeman is regarded as one of the brightest up-and-coming coaches in college football. Notre Dame alumni and players even recently got the hashtag “Freeman Era” trending on Twitter.