Marcus Freeman opens up about former Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis' impact at Notre Dame

Marcus Freeman is already feeling the impact of bringing former Ohio State star linebacker James Laurinaitis to Notre Dame.

While the football world — specifically Ohio State and Cincinnati — were unhappy with Freeman’s perceived shots at their educational standards during an interview with CBS Sports, the Notre Dame leader leaned on Laurinaitis. The former Buckeyes linebacker joined Freeman’s staff as a graduate assistant on the defensive side of the football, but his friendship has meant just as much to the Fighting Irish coach.

On Wednesday, Freeman told The Fan 97.1 about the impact Laurinaitis has made thus far at Notre Dame.

“It’s been awesome, man. He’s great to have around and he was the first one that brought me that quote yesterday,” stated Freeman. “And I said, ‘OK,’ because at first I was just like, ‘I don’t remember saying that,’ and then after talking to [Laurinaitis] at length, I said: ‘OK, I’m going to have to address this.’ So, yeah, it’s been awesome to truly have a friend here in the office that you can bounce ideas off of.

“But he’s a heck of a football coach, and he’s done some great things with our players in terms of having instant credibility because he played in the NFL for nine years. And he really has a connection with these guys and obviously he’s easy to gravitate to and he’s done a great job for us.”

If the words of Marcus Freeman are any indication, James Laurinaitis has a long, promising career in coaching ahead of him. However, he’ll settle on just being there for his friend in the meantime.

Marcus Freeman clarifies comments to CBS Sports about Ohio State academics

Continuing, Freeman caught a lot of flack from Ohio State and Cincinnati faithful for his comments comparing the educational standards at his previous stops as opposed to Notre Dame.

“I’m not saying from top to bottom, but the majority of our kids, they — I want to say this the right way — are pushed to learn and their study habits are formulated every day,” said Freeman, discussing the high standards at the private school, per an interview with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. “You can’t cheat academics at Notre Dame.

“If you don’t go to class [at places like that], ok, take some online classes, show up for your appointments. At Notre Dame, you’re forced every day to go to class.”

However, Freeman cleared the air on Wednesday, claiming to be misquoted by Dodd in the interview.

“I wanted to set the record straight. I was misquoted by Dennis Dodd in this article, and key words were missing from the quote that upset a lot of people that I care about,” began Freeman. “I’m very proud of my two degrees from Ohio State. I would never discredit the quality of education those degrees represent. I was just specifically really talking about the academic rigors of Notre Dame.”

Continuing, Freeman explained his thought process, and even revealed the full quote from his interview.

“Notre Dame has 8,500 students. Online classes were not a part of the standard curriculum here. In fact, before COVID, they weren’t even offered. So, when I was first made aware of this quote making it’s rounds yesterday in a negative way, I was surprised,” explained Freeman. “I walked away from that interview with Dennis Dodd and had no sense of anything that I said would offend anybody. So, I asked him to share with me the audio so I could share exactly what was said.

“I wrote it down — here’s exactly what I said: ‘There study habits are formulated every day. You can’t cheat academics at Notre Dame. If I didn’t go to class at Ohio State, 60,000 students. Cincinnati, another big public school, there’s 40,000 students. If you don’t go to class, okay, take some online classes, show up at your final. At Notre Dame, you’re forced every day to go to class. But it formulates this work capacity, this learning capacity.’ So, the only reason Ohio State and Cincinnati were referenced was because they were large schools with large student bodies compared to Notre Dame, which is a small school at 8,500 students.”

“.. It wasn’t meant to say that you don’t go to class. When you see a quote that says you don’t go to class at places, that Marcus Freeman says you don’t go to class at a place like that, that changes the entire narrative. .. I would never say that and disrespect my alma mater.”

As you can see, Marcus Freeman was distraught over the way his comments were perceived by Ohio State and Cincinnati. While some feathers were ruffled, both universities will appreciate Freeman setting the record straight.