Florida State saw firsthand the quality of Notre Dame's defense in recent years, falling to the Fighting Irish in both 2018 and 2020.

Vanderbilt noticed, too, and hired Notre Dame's defensive coordinator, Clark Lea, to be their head coach.

In stepped Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, an up-and-coming 35-year-old who is quickly becoming one of the most respected names in the business. Freeman takes over what's left from a roster that made the College Football Playoff a season ago, and now he will get the chance to combine his own philosophies with the new talent around him.

Looking to attack that defense Sunday night will be FSU offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who already anticipates some variety from what Freeman ran at Cincinnati.

“Nobody will carbon copy what they do -- every good coach will adapt to their talent,” Dillingham said. “The dynamic gets even harder when you’re game-planning for a team that the personnel is not what you’re watching.”

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After he competed in two national title games as a linebacker at Ohio State and one season in the NFL, Freeman returned to Columbus as a graduate assistant. He coached linebackers at Kent State and Purdue before joining Cincinnati as defensive coordinator.

During his four seasons in that role, the Bearcats dropped to 93rd in total defense before jumping all the way to No. 8 in 2018. Statistics clearly show Freeman’s impact, as his unit finished 24th two years ago and then launched into the top 10 at No. 8 again in 2020.

Since Freeman is operating with a new group of players on a new team, it's impossible to predict exactly how they’ll mesh on game day. FSU's coaches say they are playing an educated guessing game of sorts when putting together their game plan.

“That takes a whole new dynamic when you have a new defensive coordinator somewhere," Dillingham said. "Then you have one tape for the scheme, another tape for the players. Then you have to say, ‘OK, what is this guy gonna do?'"

After watching a lot of tape of Freeman's defenses at Cincinnati, Dillingham said it's no wonder why so many other schools were trying to get involved when he signed on with the Irish.

“He’s a phenomenal football coach," Dillingham said. "There’s a reason he was the most sought-after defensive coordinator in the entire nation last year. It’s because he’s a phenomenal football coach.”

FSU coach Mike Norvell said Freeman is one of the best coordinators in all of college football, and he should know. When Norvell was head coach at Memphis, he matched wits with Freeman and Cincinnati in back-to-back weeks during the 2019 season.

ALSO SEE: Warchant’s Tom Lang breaks down the film from the 2018 and 2019 matchups

Norvell and Dillingham said it's not just the schemes that make Freeman's defenses so difficult to defeat, but also the effort he coaxes from his players.

“What stands out is his guys play super, super hard," Dillingham said. "They play aggressive. They don’t left offenses dictate to them. They try to do the dictating to. You can hear them talk about that.

“He wants to play defense like offense plays offense. He wants to be the guy who makes the calls. He wants to be the guy who imposes the will.”

“It’s a talented group," Norvell said of the Irish defense. "It definitely has experience sprinkled all throughout the defense. Guys that play hard, that play fast. He’s going to bring an attack-style mentality. It’s going to be a great challenge for our guys not totally knowing what to expect, but we’re going to have to adapt and adjust on the run as we get into the game.”

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