There won't be an Ohio State fan in the country pulling for Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame on Saturday. There are some who might want him and his team to find success every other week of the college football season, but Saturday's not that day.
That's when Freeman will lead the Fighting Irish against the Buckeyes in a clash of top-10 teams with College Football Playoff implications on the line. Notre Dame looks as well-rounded as it has in years, with the best quarterback the team has had in several seasons and a roster that could be primed to get revenge following a narrow loss in Columbus a season ago.
But it wasn't that long ago that Buckeye fans were cheering on Freeman and his team. No, not the Fighting Irish, but rather Ohio State. Just over a decade ago, Freeman was a standout linebacker on some dominant Buckeye teams that went to back-to-back BCS national championships and amassed only six losses, half of which didn't come until bowl games.
Freeman not only had his collegiate playing career in Columbus. He can also thank the Buckeyes for giving him his start as a coach, becoming a graduate assistant under Jim Tressel before he was hired for his first coaching gig at Kent State.
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How was Freeman when he wore a Buckeye jersey rather than coached against them? Sporting News takes a look back at his collegiate playing days.
Marcus Freeman's playing career at Ohio State
There was plenty of hype surrounding Freeman before he reached Columbus. As a high school player, he was ranked as the No. 66 national prospect in the 2004 recruiting class, per 247Sports composite rankings, and he was No. 4 in the state of Ohio.
When it came to make his pick, there was little question about where he'd be landing. On Sept. 24, 2003, Freeman sat behind a table in the gym at Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. Three hats rested on it: Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
There was never much of a question. "Freeman picks Ohio State" the front page of the sports section of the Dayton Daily News read the morning of Sept. 25, 2003.
"I wanted to have a little fun with it," Freeman said, per the Daily News. "I wanted to give Michigan and Notre Dame respect.
"Ohio State was the school for me in my heart," Freeman added. "You know when you go to Ohio State you're going to compete for a national championship every year."
There were other reasons beyond just competing for a title. Columbus was not far off from his hometown. He loved the coaching staff, led by Tressel. And Freeman's dad, Mike Freeman, was raised in Columbus and grew up an Ohio State fan.
Freeman might have been an exceptional high school talent, but he arrived in Columbus when linebacker was exceptionally loaded. The defense had future 2006 fifth overall pick A.J. Hawk and 2006 18th overall pick Bobby Carpenter at the position. Add in middle linebacker Anthony Schlegel, who would be a third-round pick in 2006, and it's no surprise Freeman saw limited playing time on defense and special teams as a true freshman in 2004.
"[Freeman is] real talented," defensive coordinator Jim Heacock said in 2005, per the Dayton Daily News. "He can play in space. He's got good speed. He's got quickness. He's strong. He's got a great attitude. He's the whole package.
"The main thing is to show [during fall camp], like he did in the spring, that he's coming to compete."
Per the Dayton Daily News, the defense had tried different looks, exploring putting Carpenter on the defensive line to allow Freeman to start as one of the outside linebackers.
Freeman, for his part, understood why he didn't play more in 2004.
"You want to say, man, I wish I could have played a lot more," Freeman said, per the Dayton Daily News. "But when I did get on the field, I realized these guys are great players.
"I'm just going to contribute as much as I can this year. Whatever the coaches want me to do, I'm going to do it."
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If you noticed the draft years on Hawk, Carpenter and Schlegel, it should be no surprise to hear that 2005 was another season of limited action for Freeman. The linebacking room was still too crowded for Freeman to make headway.
But in 2006, it was Freeman's time to shine. He began the season on a high note against Northern Illinois, finishing with eight tackles, second on the team only to defensive back Brandon Mitchell, who tallied 10.
Freeman established himself as a clear starting linebacker for the Buckeyes after the unit lost each member of their standout trio. He tallied 34 solo tackles and 37 assisted tackles, with 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack. He also picked off two passes during the season. It wasn't until the BCS championship that Ohio State lost its first game of the year, falling 41-14 to No. 2 Florida.
Heading into his redshirt junior year, expectations were high for Freeman. With a roster that was short on captains, there was a belief he could be a rare junior captain, especially after he represented the Buckeyes at Big Ten Media Day.
"Being a captain is a senior thing," Freeman said, per the Dayton Daily News in 2006, "but if he opens it up to fourth-year juniors, I would love to be a captain. With the tradition at Ohio State, the responsibility of being a captain is something you always dream of."
Freeman did not wind up being a captain that season despite praise from Tressel on his leadership abilities, but that didn't stop Freeman from having his best season as a collegiate linebacker. He racked up 109 tackles, eighth in the Big Ten, including 66 solo tackles, 9.5 for a loss and 1.5 sacks. He also defended five passes and forced two fumbles. For the campaign, he was named a second-team All-Big Ten member, his first time earning the recognition.
And it was another big year for the Buckeyes, as well. Though No. 1 Ohio State lost to Illinois in its 11th game of the season, the Buckeyes bounced back the next week to beat Michigan and reach the BCS championship, where they again fell, this time to No. 2 LSU in a 38-24 defeat.
Following the 2007 campaign, Freeman had the opportunity to leave for the NFL. But he, along with other standouts like Malcolm Jenkins and James Laurinaitis, opted to stay in Columbus, due in part to the motivation that comes from falling in two straight national championships.
According to the Associated Press, Freeman said he would not worry about the potential for injuries heading into the season.
"When you make that decision to come back, you know there's always a chance that you can get hurt," Freeman said, per the AP. "You have to realize that if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. You can't play being cautious thinking, 'Man, if I get hurt I'm going to lose money, I'm going to lose my draft status.' You've got to go out there and give it your all."
The decision certainly appeared to pay off. Freeman had another big year in the Buckeyes' defense, tallying 84 total tackles and again notching 9.5 tackles for loss. He also recorded a career-best 3.5 sacks during the season.
Ohio State, however, had its worst season with Freeman as a starter. It was crushed 35-3 by No. 1 USC in its third game and later lost a close 13-6 contest to No. 3 Penn State, all but ending Ohio State's bid for a third straight trip to a national championship. The No. 10 Buckeyes reached the Fiesta Bowl against No. 3 Texas, and while the game was closer than its previous two bowl losses, Ohio State still came out on the wrong end of the game, falling 24-21.
Freeman's Ohio State eligibility expired at the end of that season, and he was off to the NFL. He wound up being selected in the fifth round by the Bears, but was waived before the start of the 2009 season. He bounced around on practice squads before he retired in May 2010 due to an enlarged heart condition.
But there was another opportunity for Freeman back at his alma mater. He returned to work as a graduate assistant under Tressel in 2010.
"You want to play football as long as you can, which is what I wanted to do, but it got cut short and it's time to turn the page to the next chapter," Freeman said, per the Port Clinton News Herald. "Luckily, that was at Ohio State. Coach Tressel always says when you come to Ohio State, you're a Buckeye forever. When my situation happened with the NFL, he was the first guy to welcome me back with open arms."
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Freeman's coaching career has taken him through several stops. He coached at Kent State and Purdue before reuniting with Luke Fickell, the defensive coordinator with whom Freeman worked at Ohio State, in Cincinnati for four years before taking the job to be the defensive coordinator in 2021 for Brian Kelly's Notre Dame team. When Kelly left for LSU before Notre Dame's Fiesta Bowl game, there was no interim tag needed; Notre Dame went ahead and named Freeman the head coach.
While Freeman might be looking to take down Ohio State on Saturday, he's made clear what his time with the Buckeyes meant to his career.
“I don’t know if I could say in one word what [Ohio State] means to me, but I know I wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for those five years that I spent in Columbus, Ohio,” Freeman told The Associated Press.
