Marcus Freeman has a history with Ohio State. What we know about the Notre Dame coach
The saga between Marcus Freeman and Ohio State will continue Saturday night in South Bend.
After he began his head coaching career at Notre Dame with a loss to Ohio State in Columbus, Freeman, a former Ohio State linebacker will get another shot at beating the Buckeyes at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.
"We got two good teams. That's the focus," Freeman said Thursday. "It's not about where I was or where I went to school or anybody else. It's about preparing your team to face a really good Ohio State team. I'm sure, on the other hand, Ohio State has the same mentality. That's where the focus should be and that's where I think it will stay."
Here's what you need to know about Freeman's relationship with Ohio State.
Marcus Freeman chose Ohio State over Notre Dame in high school
Freeman has his choice of schools in the 2004 recruiting class.
According to 247Sports, Freeman was the No. 66 player and No. 5 inside linebacker in the country out of Wayne High School in Dayton.
Holding offers from schools such as Florida, Miami, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Notre Dame, Freeman joined Ohio State's recruiting class, playing five years for the Buckeyes from 2004-08.
After being hired as the Fighting Irish head coach in December 2021, Freeman said he regressed his decision to sign with Ohio State over Notre Dame.
"I just thank God that I didn’t make the wrong decision twice," he wrote.
Marcus Freeman played for two national championships with Ohio State
Freeman's Ohio State career included two chances at a national championship.
Both of Freeman's BCS National Championship Game appearances ended in losses, as the Buckeyes fell to Florida to end the 2006 season and LSU to end 2007.
In 51 games for the Buckeyes, Freeman had 268 tackles, 21.5 tackles-for-loss and six sacks, finishing as a second-team All-Big Ten member in 2008.
Freeman helped Ohio State to four conference titles and three BCS bowls.
Freeman was a fifth-round pick of the Chicago Bears in the 2009 NFL draft, spending time with the Bears, Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans before ending his career due to a medical condition.
Marcus Freeman started his coaching career at Ohio State
Freeman's coaching career started in Columbus, joining Jim Tressel's coaching staff in 2010 as a graduate assistant, helping lead the Buckeyes to a Sugar Bowl win against Arkansas.
From Ohio State, Freeman coached linebackers at Kent State and Purdue before becoming the Boilermakers' co-defensive coordinator in 2016. Freeman went on to become the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Cincinnati from 2017-20 before joining Brian Kelly's staff at Notre Dame in 2021 as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
Freeman was the Fighting Irish's interim head coach in their Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State before becoming the team's permanent head coach in 2022.
Heading into his first trip to Ohio Stadium as Notre Dame's head coach in 2022, Freeman said he as "emotionless" about his return to Columbus.
"We get to play a great team," Freeman said. "We get to play in a hostile environment. To me, that's where the emotions lie.
Marcus Freeman has been critical of Ohio State with Notre Dame
Before Notre Dame's season opener against Ohio State in 2022, Freeman was quoted as dismissing Ohio State University and University of Cincinnati academics, telling CBS Sports, "You don't go to class (at places like that)," which he later walked back publicly and told former Ohio State teammates Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel on 97.1 The Fan that he was misquoted.
"I wanted to set the record straight in that I was misquoted by Dennis Dodd in this article, and key words and context were missing from the quote that upset a lot of people that I care about," Freeman said. "I'm very proud of my two degrees from Ohio State. I would never discredit the quality of education those degrees represented."
2024 4-star linebacker and Notre Dame commit Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, in an interview with Rivals, said Freeman has fixated his recruiting pitch on Notre Dame's academics over Ohio State.
“The major thing (Freeman) touched on was how much Notre Dame offers off the field and the difference between an Ohio State degree and a Notre Dame degree," Viliamu-Asa said according to Rivals.com. "It was important for me and my mom to see it because my mom is big on academics so what he touched on was school, the connections and what a Notre Dame degree means after football.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What to know about Marcus Freeman history with Ohio State
