You hear about the brotherhood that current and former Ohio State football players feel during and after their days of playing in the scarlet and gray. There appears to be something to it and the family atmosphere around the program helps with culture and recruiting.
However, many questioned whether Notre Dame head coach and former OSU linebacker Marcus Freeman was a part of that brotherhood after some eyebrow-raising comments he made about his alma mater on a couple of occasions last season, his first as the head coach of a major FBS football program.
You likely know the story well. Freeman penned a piece in the “Players’ Tribune” about being recruited by Notre Dame and Ohio State when he was deciding where to play his college football and seemed to make a dig at the Buckeyes by saying he wanted “to thank God that I didn’t make the wrong decision twice.”
If that wasn’t enough, just a few months later, Freeman seemed to throw shade at the academic standards at Ohio State and Cincinnati, where he was the defensive coordinator under Luke Fickell in an interview with CBS Sports. “You don’t go to class (at places like that)?” Freeman said quoted as saying. “OK, take some online classes, show up for your appointments. At Notre Dame, you’re forced every day to go to class.”
Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman explains critical comments toward Ohio State https://t.co/a71rLsymt1
— BuckeyeXtra.com (@BuckeyeXtra) July 6, 2023
Freeman walked those comments back a little bit, but he went even further recently on “The Pivot” podcast, digging even deeper into some lessons and intentions of those comments.
“That was an eye-opening experience for me, but I needed it,” Freeman said shortly after the 42:00 mark of the podcast. “You need to learn. You need those lessons to learn. I think about that article in The Player’s Tribune. You kind of do it that they interview you, and they write it for you. You think that you are talking to Notre Dame fans. You are not thinking about anything else other than Notre Dame fans. And they asked, ‘Why did you choose Notre Dame?’
“And I was like, ‘Oh, I made a mistake — I don’t want to say no to Notre Dame twice.’ And poor choice of words because that’s all the people at Ohio State read was, ‘You regret your decision to choose Ohio State.’ No. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without those years in Columbus, Ohio, and I value every part of that. It was a great lesson that you have to be careful of the things you say — the things you write and your interviews because it’s not just talking to a certain group. Everyone sees it, and everyone can take it a certain way.”
Yep, that’s how it works. We have no doubt Freeman was just giving Notre Dame fans what they wanted to hear, but as the head coach of a major, major football power like the Fighting Irish and all the media coverage that comes with it, there’s really no way to win by making comments that are anywhere near critical of a place that you may have to cross paths with again, whether against or on staff again in the future (wink, wink).
Remember, Ohio State and Notre Dame will do battle again in 2023, this time in South Bend on Saturday, September 23. It should be fun.
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