The 2025 College Football National Championship will be held tonight at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta and will feature a showdown between powerhouses Notre Dame and Ohio State.  Notre Dame is led by Marcus Freeman, the 39-year-old head coach who has taken the storied institution to new heights while making history as the first Black and Asian American to coach in a College Football National Championship. A victory could come on MLK Day.  Freeman’s journey to becoming head coach, interestingly, began at Ohio State University where he served as a graduate assistant in 2010 after playing football at the school and a few stops in the NFL.  He would coach as an assistant at other schools including Kent State, Purdue, and Cincinnati before landing a spot as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2021. Freeman would become head coach at the end of the season, taking over for Brian Kelly.  Three seasons later, Freeman aims to the lead the Fighting Irish back to championship glory. Days before the big game, Freeman spoke in Atlanta about the importance of coaching on MLK Day.  “The whole point of me continuing to take the attention off of me, though, and putting it on the team but also putting it on Dr. King — like Martin Luther King Day is about the great legacy that Dr. King has left in our country, and I don’t want to take any of that light and put it on myself but also the National Championship game because what Dr. King has done for our country has been tremendous,” Freeman said. “The ability not just to talk about change, but to have actions that incorporate change. He made change through his actions and his words, and the courage he has as a leader is something that I still am impacted by, as I study his life. And to do it in 38 years, that’s just — the impact that man made in 38 years is just humbling to even think about.” Freeman continued by saying that he hopes the world takes the moment to study the truth of Dr. King and his advocacy for non-violence and equal rights.  “That’s what I want to make sure,” Freeman said. “Anybody that talks about me on this day, on Dr. King’s Day, let’s point the attention at Dr. King, the person who really made change in our country.” While Freeman wants to honor the legacy of King, he also knows that he represents the hope to youth who can see his achievements and be inspired by his path to success.  “I do not take for granted that I am a representation for many guys on this team that look like me,” Freeman said. “I hope they can look at me and say, okay, work hard, try to do things the right way, and you’re not going to be judged by the color of your skin. It’s going to be by the way you work and how you treat people.”   The post Exclusive: Coach Marcus Freeman Leads Notre Dame To College Football National Championship In Atlanta, Aims To Make History On MLK Day appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.