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Amid a run in the College Football Playoff in December, Notre Dame signed head coach Marcus Freeman to a four-year contract extension to keep him with the program through 2030 at a price of nearly $9 million per season. More News: College Football Program Fires Coach After 12-Point Loss That contract was a nice bump for Freeman, but it's not expected to keep rival programs from trying to steal the 39-year-old head coach who has the Irish ranked No. 12 entering their bye in Week 9. Indeed, Freeman's name has alrready been linked to Penn State after the Nittany Lions fired James Franklin on Oct. 12. On Sunday, CBS Sports suggested he'd be a potential candidate to repalce Billy Napier at Florida. More News: LSU’s Brian Kelly Issues Serious Warning to Team Amid Calls for His Firing During an appearance on "The Maggie and Perloff Show" on Monday morning, On3's Andy Staples suggested that Freeman will answer calls from programs like Penn State and Florida so that he could leverage a better contract from Notre Dame. Staples also thinks Freeman can get the Irish to give the football program more favorable conditions. "I do think they're (UF, PSU) going to both call Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman is gonna maybe take a phone call or two, get a couple extra zeros check for Notre Dame," Staples said. "Maybe, if there's some other stuff he needs at Notre Dame, maybe a little better food in the dining hall, anything like that he wants to add on there. "He makes sure that that happens. But you're not doing your job. If you are (athletic director) Pat Kraft at Penn State or (athletic director) Scott Strickland in Florida, if you don't call Marcus Freeman and at least make him tell you no." Besides money, it'll be interesting to see what concessions Freeman can get the Irish administration to make. Besides better food, the program's chances of winning a national title could benefit from loosening up on the academic restrictions a little bit and allow for more undergraduate transfers to join the program. Notre Dame will next travel to play Boston College on Nov. 1
