Marcus Freeman shares he played as Texas A&M against his son in College Football 25
Week 1 of the college football season starts this week, but fans got an early start on the season in July when EA Sports released College Football 25. Marking the exciting return of a college football video game for the first time in a decade.
Notre Dame plays a crucial role in the official kickoff to the college football season, traveling to Texas A&M for a Week 1 matchup against the Aggies that will be the site for ESPN’s College GameDay and the marquee nighttime matchup of Saturday. And in a recent appearance on the Pardon My Take podcast, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman revealed he got his own preview of the matchup through College Football 25 when asked if he’s ever played the video game.
“Oh, absolutely,” Freeman said. “We have four boys at the house and two girls. So all four boys play College Football (25) and so I played it a few times with the kids for sure.”
Freeman was asked if he always plays with his own team, but his son calling dibs on the Fighting Irish allowed him to change his perspective in a unique way.
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“Most of the time. Funny story, last night I was telling somebody that I get home late, the kids are playing. One of them’s using Notre Dame, he was like, ‘Dad, you want to play?’ And I’m like sure, and he was like, ‘Okay, I’m Notre Dame. You can’t use Notre Dame.’ So I’m like alright, so I end up getting Texas A&M, and after I’m playing with them I’m like you know what? This is a good way to scout your opponent,” Freeman admitted.
“I want to see who the stars are and all those different things and how they work. So I don’t know if I’ll continue to do that, but most of the time, I’m Notre Dame. But maybe during the week we play a new opponent I’ll start using them on College Football.”
The topic of Freeman’s new scouting strategy came about when his former Ohio State teammate and current Buckeyes linebackers coach James Laurinaitis talked some smack about his gaming skills. Saying last month that Freeman used to be bothered that Laurinaitis had a higher player rating than him in a previous iteration of the game and was terrible at the game.
“Listen man, I don’t think it was as bad as he tried to portray, but I know he won probably more than than I did for sure,” Freeman said. “But my point is you need to spend more time preparing, studying, getting ready for whatever we’re getting ready for and less time playing that game.”
Regardless of how skilled Freeman is at College Football 25 or past versions of the game, it sounds like it’s a game he’ll keep coming back to. An avenue that allows him to balance spending time with his six children while also getting some intel on Notre Dame’s future opponents.
“I’m like this is genius man,” Freeman said. “You can play a game play with your kids, but also be able to say okay, we’re scouting our opponent.”
Freeman’s virtual matchup with Texas A&M comes to life on Saturday when the Fighting Irish face the Aggies at 7:30 p.m. ET in a game airing on ABC.