Top 5 former Ohio State Football players who are coaching today
By Eric Boggs
Number Three: Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman
I am sure that there will be plenty of Ohio State football fans who disagree with me on having Freeman this high on the list. His recent comments about his alma mater over the past several seasons have definitely rubbed the Buckeye faithful the wrong way, and rightly so. But that doesn’t change the fact that Freeman is leading one of the country’s premier college programs while in his 30s.
Freeman is an Ohio kid. Played his high school ball in the Buckeye State, and then went on to have a five-year career at Ohio State under the leadership of Jim Tressel, who he counts as his mentor within the coaching ranks. After jumping around the NFL for a couple of seasons on practice squads, Freeman was forced to quit his playing career when doctors discovered a previously undiscovered heart condition. Freeman then called his old college coach up and was given a spot at Ohio State as a Graduate Assistant.
Freeman received his first position coach opportunity a season later at Kent State where he was charged with leading the linebackers room. Two seasons later he was back in the Big Ten, doing the same at Purdue. In 2016 he was promoted to defensive coordinator for the Boilermakers and then was quickly hired by friend Luke Fickell to do the same for him in Cincinnati.
Freeman could have returned to the Ohio State football program in 2020 to become the linebackers coach but stayed in Cincinnati for one more season before being named the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2021.
A season later Brian Kelly left South Bend, Indiana to become the head coach at LSU, opening the door for Freeman to step in as the Irish new head coach. Now the 38-year-old defensive-minded former Buckeye is learning on the job at one of the nation’s most followed programs.
He went 9-4 in his first season, which included an opening-game loss on the road at Ohio State. Freeman will get an opportunity to hurt the Buckeye fans once again but with more than just his words as Ohio State travels to Indiana to take on the Irish in their fourth game of the season.
If Freeman were to somehow pull off the upset, and if Day loses a third consecutive game to That Team Up North, there is a very real possibility that Freeman could become the main coaching target for Gene Smith if Day is fired or decides to move on to the NFL following the season.