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Buckskin86
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Purdue assistant Marcus Freeman had former Ohio State teammate James Laurinaitis sign a wall in his house, and Laurinaitis wrote 'Go Bucks'
One of my favorite Ohio State photos from our photo shoot from before the 2008 season of five returning seniors - Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Robiskie, Marcus Freeman, Alex Boone and James Laurinaitis. Four of them are in the NFL, while Freeman is the linebackers coach at Purdue. (Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)
By Doug Lesmerises, Northeast Ohio Media Group
October 29, 2013
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis were a great linebacker duo at Ohio State, among the smartest yet most relaxed Buckeyes I've covered in my time on the beat. They knew who they were as players and people and weren't afraid to show it. And they were great friends.
We'll have a lot of old Ohio State talk this week with former OSU assistant Darrell Hazell the head coach at Purdue and Freeman his linebackers coach. Here's a story from Freeman after I asked him on a conference call today if he had converted Laurinaitis into a Purdue fan yet.
"Laurinaitis came to my house this summer on his way back from Columbus to St. Louis and we had just finished a wall in our house that you're able to write on in chalk," Freeman said. "And I said make sure anybody that comes to visit our house, you've got to sign the wall. And he put, "James Laurinaitis, Go Bucks."
"So I wasn't able to convert him yet to be a Boiler guy, but he's still a fan of Coach Hazell and mine and Ohio State. Obviously, we're all fans of Ohio State. I'm a fan of Ohio State. When I'm not playing them, I'm the biggest fan there is. That's not something I think I'll be able to do, convert James from being a Buckeye fan."
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2013/10/purdue_assistant_marcus_freema.html
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Buckskin86
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Purdue assistant Marcus Freeman still Ohio State fan when not an opponent
By Todd Jones
The Columbus Dispatch Friday November 1, 2013
Marcus Freeman will be wearing black and gold on Saturday and trying to do what he can as Purdue linebackers coach to end Ohio State’s 20-game winning streak.
After the game, however, Freeman will root for the Buckeyes the rest of the season, and for the rest of his life whenever Ohio State is not matched up on the football field against a school that signs his paychecks.
“I’m a fan of Ohio State when I’m not playing them,” said Freeman, who is in his first year as Purdue’s linebackers coach. “I’m the biggest fan there is.”
Freeman was a three-year starter at linebacker for Ohio State. Including a redshirt year, he was a Buckeye from 2004 to 2008, a period in which Ohio State won four Big Ten championships and played in three Bowl Championship Series games, including two national-title games. Three years ago, he spent a season as an OSU graduate-assistant coach under Jim Tressel.
That 2010 season on Tressel’s final Ohio State staff convinced Freeman that coaching was what he wanted to do with his life. His NFL career had been cut short earlier that year at age 24 when he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart valve.
“It’s almost like I’ve got a passion for coaching more than I did for playing,” Freeman said. “I get more excited to coach, and I think it’s different because, yeah, it’s football, but you live through young men, and you get fulfilled when you see a young man that you work with and you coached hard go out and be successful. That, to me, is more satisfying than anything I could’ve done on the field.”
Freeman is in his third year as linebackers coach under Darrell Hazell, a former OSU assistant. The two were in the same roles the past two years at Kent State before Hazell took over as Purdue head coach prior to this season.
“He’ll be bouncing off the walls (on Saturday), as he always is,” Hazell said.
cont...
http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/con...till-ohio-state-fan-when-not-an-opponent.html
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Buckskin86
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Freeman not scared of coaching
Ex-Buckeye ignores Fickell’s job warning
BY DAVID BRIGGS
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — So Marcus Freeman thought he wanted to be a coach, huh?
Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell shook his head.
It was February of 2010, and Freeman suddenly — and unimaginably — faced a life without football. The former Buckeyes linebacker had been set to sign with the Indianapolis Colts when a routine physical revealed an enlarged heart valve in his left ventricle that made it unsafe to play.
Freeman’s first call was to Fickell.
He wanted in on a life of darkness-to-darkness hours, sleepless nights, and low pay. He wanted to be a college coach.
“First thing [Fickell] said was, ‘Don’t do it. You’re crazy, and you don’t want to do this,’ ” Freeman said. “He tried to change my mind.”
It was no use.
When the fourth-ranked Buckeyes (8-0, 4-0 Big Ten) travel to Purdue today, they will find a couple of familiar faces on the home sideline.
Former OSU receivers coach Darrell Hazell turned a two-year stay at Kent State into the top job at Purdue, and he took one of his most trusted young assistants along with him. Freeman, the same player OSU’s seniors once watched from the stands on their recruiting visits to Columbus, is now in his first year as the Boilermakers’ linebackers coach.
The 27-year-old Freeman has transformed from an All-Big Ten linebacker who loved being around the film room to one of the youngest full-time assistants at a BCS program.
Hazell said he expects Freeman to be “bouncing off the walls [today], as he always is.”
Added Freeman: “I would be lying if I said it’s just another game,” Freeman said.
cont...
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Ohio-Sta...t-scared-of-coaching.html#fekA8VXB6dIG8DdW.99
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