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‘Infectious’ Marcus Freeman’s Passion, Drive Inspire Those Around Him

The only time Jay Minton questioned Marcus Freeman was before he met him.

One day in 2000, Minton peered out a window of his house and saw a boy about, oh, 14, heading to fish at the nearby pond. Alongside him was Michael Freeman, a starting defensive back for Minton on the football team at Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio, near Dayton. Minton asked his daughter who he was.

Her response: “That’s Marcus Freeman.”

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Freeman’s ability to connect with players has propelled his coaching career.
Freeman’s ability to connect with players has propelled his coaching career. (UC Athletics)

Minton perked up. That’s Marcus Freeman? A name Minton had heard in passing because of his football skills was really this eighth-grader with little definition to him and a “roly-poly” body?

“I wasn’t sure he’d be able to play for us,” Minton said of his initial impression, laughing at the idea. “I’m glad I told that only to my daughter. I would’ve looked like a real turkey.”

Freeman, it turns out, showed up to practices that fall looking the part and forced his way onto the field. By midseason of his freshman year, he was a starting varsity defensive end. When his Wayne career ended, he was a top-40 recruit headed to Ohio State to play linebacker who also moonlighted at fullback and punted his senior year. An indispensable piece.

Once Minton finally met Freeman after that initial size-up, none of it was too surprising. Neither is everything that has happened since. He ponders an 11-season coaching career that has led Freeman, 35, to Notre Dame as the program’s new defensive coordinator and thinks, yes, that is about right.

“There’s no secret to the success he is having,” Minton said. “That’s Marcus. That’s who he was going to be, who he was destined to be.”

Freeman keeps raising his own stock because of his ability to elevate others. He has demonstrated a knack for milking the most out of his players and an allergy to underachieving. In four years as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator, he helped shape the Bearcats’ defense into one of the nation’s best all-around units that fueled a 31-6 record from 2018-20.

A sharp schematic mind and distinct teaching skills are two critical components of his rise. But Freeman is also here because he has simply been himself. “Infectious,” as Minton puts it when summing up the passion, competitiveness and drive he has observed for more than 20 years. Relationships with players and an ability to inspire them are a natural byproduct, just as they were when he roamed central Ohio’s high school football fields.

“When he’s on the field as a teammate, you’re going to play better and as good as you can play,” Minton said. “He just set the bar high as a leader for his group.”

“He’s so good at praising the people around him, whether it was a player, teammate, coach,” added Darrell Hazell, who gave Freeman his first full-time job at Kent State in 2011. “He’s always going to give positive reinforcement. That’s where infectious behavior comes in. He’s just so supportive.”

Paving His Path

Freeman’s mind was made up, no matter what mentor Luke Fickell tried to tell him. In 2010, his NFL career over after a year due to an enlarged heart condition, Freeman called Fickell — his position coach at Ohio State from 2004-08 — and said he wanted to break into coaching. They met in Fickell’s office early the next morning.

“I remember going in and the first thing he said was, ‘You don’t want to do this,’” Freeman said in a December interview with Cincinnati play-by-play announcer Dan Hoard.

Freeman wouldn’t hear it.

“You can’t talk me out of this,” he said. “It’s what I want to do.”

A competitor of Freeman’s level needed something where he could win. The door had closed on playing football. The entry to coaching was open, and he ran through it. He could lead. He could take people to new places — with a whistle and whiteboard instead of pads and a helmet.

“Marcus understood, ‘This is what has happened to me,’” Minton said. “‘I can’t control that. If I could, it would be different. It’s fate. This is the route I have to go.’”

After a year as Fickell’s graduate assistant, Hazell hired Freeman as linebackers coach when he became the head coach at Kent State. Hiring Freeman was neither a true decision nor risk for Hazell, who was around him all five years at Ohio State as the Buckeyes’ receivers coach. He also had Freeman on his kickoff return team. At nearly every turn coaching him and in six years working together, Freeman’s boundless enthusiasm and hunger struck Hazell.

“I’d had him over at my house and we’d battle if it was ping pong, the pool table, shuffleboard,” Hazell said. “We were going to compete. Whether he was dripping in sweat at the end of a ping pong game or whatever it might be, that’s what is in his fiber.”

He produced, too. Kent State went 12-4 in the Mid-American Conference in Hazell and Freeman’s two years there and won the league’s East Division in 2012. A defense built on generating havoc leaned on linebackers Luke Batton and C.J. Malauulu, who became All-MAC selections in 2011 and 2012 after Freeman’s arrival. Per Hazell’s firsthand account, Freeman produces results because he’s honest, inspiring rather than intimidating, with a personal touch.

“He’s more of an encourage you coach as opposed to chew you out,” Hazell said. “He has no problem getting on you if you’re not hustling. But players will love him because they’ll feel that he’s always in their corner.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman during his time as a player at Ohio State
Freeman was a standout Ohio State linebacker from 2004-08 and a fifth-round draft pick. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)

“He’s good with the group, but really exceptional with the individual.”

The four years at Purdue from 2013‑16 produced dreary records but a few standout linebackers. One of Freeman’s first signees, Ja’Whaun Bentley, was a USA Today Freshman All-American in 2014 and later became a fifth-round draft pick. In Freeman’s final season, redshirt freshman linebacker Markus Bailey was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection and later turned into a seventh-rounder.

At Cincinnati, Freeman’s defense shifted from a 4-3 to a 4-2-5 to primarily a 3-3-5 alignment. It’s a multiple-front defense that was designed to be adaptable to the various styles of offenses in the American Athletic Conference. Whatever form it took, its identity was rooted in aggressiveness, creating confusion and generating turnovers.

The Bearcats had the talent to slow down the explosive offenses they faced, but in watching them, their assignment-soundness stands out. That’s a reflection of coaching, where players aren’t swimming in confusing terminology they can’t remember.

“The last guy understands it as well as the first guy,” Hazell said. “They’ll be simple for the defense, but complex for the offense.”

‘He Could Recruit Moss Off A Rock’

College football recruiting is a cauldron of self-absorption, inflated egos, phony personalities and snake oil sales. As a prospect, it’s best approached with skepticism and caution. Freeman, though, draws strong reviews because — this might sound familiar — he’s just himself, with a dentist-office-poster smile and youthful looseness.

“All conversations to this point have been nothing but genuine and real,” said Sebastian Cheeks, a top-100 class of 2022 recruit from Evanston, Ill. “What stands out about him is he won’t sugarcoat. He’s down to earth and is really able to connect with you.”

Freeman’s results at Cincinnati are undeniable. Before leaving, he had already landed a pair of national top-250 prospects in the 2022 class. The Bearcats signed the top Group of Five class in 2021, 2020 and 2018, with a quartet of four-star defensive signees in there. They routinely beat Power Five programs for recruits. Since his Jan. 8 hiring at Notre Dame, he has already sent out two linebacker offers.

“He has lived their lives a lot closer than a lot of people have with his age, playing ability, all the other things involved,” Hazell said.

Only recently, though, had Freeman begun to reach beyond the Midwest and into the top 250 with some frequency at Cincinnati. Now, with a Notre Dame logo on his chest when on the trail, he will be expected to sign top recruits who college football’s ruling class covets.

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Overall, Freeman is tasked with keeping the Irish’s defense performing at the level Lea brought it to while also adding a few more blue-chip recruits to its talent reserves.

It’d be unwise to doubt his player development ability, considering his rise is fueled by lifting up others to a previously unimagined level.

Meanwhile, discussion around his recruiting potential has the tune of excitable impatience, like kids daydreaming about their potential Christmas gifts. It’s less a question of if Freeman can advance Notre Dame’s recruiting operation, but how far.

“When those guys come in a room, do they have it or do they not?” Minton said, recalling Freeman’s first visit to Wayne as a recruiter. “Are they ordinary or are they a little above? Marcus was a lot above. I know he was walking into my office and his old high school, but I heard it from other [high school coaches] too. He could recruit moss off a rock.”

If it all works, Freeman may not be long for South Bend. He’s open about his ultimate goal of becoming a head coach. If he rises to that new level, it will likely be the result of pulling Notre Dame’s defense up with him. Should the chance come, he has one staffer already committed.

“I told him all the time that when you get a head job,” Minton said. “I want to come clean jock straps for you.”

Twenty years later, there’s only faith in him.

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