ATLANTA — Somewhere on the field Monday evening inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis will roam the field, searching for a fellow Buckeye legend. He’ll shake his best friend’s hand, embrace him with a hug and remind him how proud he is of his friend’s accomplishments.
Their exchange will be briefer than usual, but that’s the nature of the business when coaching opposite teams with a national championship trophy on the line — even if he was in your wedding party. Making matters more complicated? That former Buckeye and best bud is Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. He’ll lead the Irish (14-1) against the Buckeyes (13-2) in the College Football Playoff national championship Monday night.
“To be honest, you just want to get to the end of the game and move on,” Laurinaitis said. “There are real emotions you can’t avoid with it all but it’s also an awesome blessing.
“How many people get to say they’re going against their really good friend in the natty?”
Their journey to Atlanta is 20 years in the making. It’s filled with triumphs and heartbreaks on the field, a few video game sessions and at least two trips to WrestleMania. But before they were friends, they were just two fresh faces in a legendary room of linebackers led by All-Americans A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter.
“I just remember the randomness of the room,” Hawk said. “We were all very close. We lifted every day, every morning and after practice, and hung out when we weren’t at football. You don’t really realize it until you’re done and look back years later at how special that core group really was.”
That 2005 linebacker room featured several national champions from the 2002 season, a pair of future sports media personalities (Hawk and Carpenter), a future inventor in the gym equipment space (Anthony Schlegel), and Freeman and Laurinaitis, two future coaches now chasing a national title they fell short of securing as teammates two decades ago. They appeared in back-to-back title games after the 2006 and 2007 seasons, losing in a blowout against Florida and then by two touchdowns to LSU. It’s not entirely clear whether those losses still stick in their craw.
“That was then. This is now,” Freeman said Saturday. “There is nothing that I can use probably from that game that’s going to really resonate with this team. This team has to make sure we focus on preparation these last 48 hours, and when the game starts, we’ve got to do what we’ve done all year — but probably do it better than we ever have.”
Redemption awaits Freeman or Laurinaitis Monday, though if Notre Dame wins, it means more pain for Freeman’s alma mater — and the undesirable role as the man responsible for Ohio State’s heartbreak.
“Nobody walks through the hallways of the Woody Hayes facility talking about runners-up,” Laurinaitis said.
If you couldn’t tell by now, Freeman is a man with a laser-like focus. He’s fiery behind the scenes, his players at Notre Dame say, but might also be the most unfazed man in the room when in public. His level-headed demeanor is not a new development, nor is his wide smile whenever he hears an anecdote or statement that tickles his funny bone.
Former Ohio State center Jim Cordle recalled a get-together with Freeman and a few teammates outside an apartment in Columbus in the mid-2000s. College kids were, uh, doing what college kids do.
“We’re drinking a couple of pops, whatever, and hanging out and somehow this BB gun comes out. We’re just shooting a BB gun,” said Cordle. “Well, there’s an errant shot that hits the window of Marcus’ car and it shatters. We’re freaking out. But he was awesome about it. Like, ‘What are you idiots doing?’ He could have been really pissed about it but, no.”
That’s Freeman, never fazed and always direct, Cordle said.
“He’s still the same guy. I can read his body language on the sideline probably better than some,” Laurinaitis said.
In 2005, Laurinaitis arrived at Ohio State expecting to redshirt as a freshman. In the first game of the season, Freeman injured his knee. Assistant coach Luke Fickell pulled Laurinaitis to the side and asked if he was ready to play — and risk burning a year of eligibility. He ran on the field. One game turned into more playing time after Freeman’s surgically repaired meniscus became infected. Meanwhile, the friendship between Laurinaitis and Freeman developed as the linebacker room kept Freeman involved in meetings and in social settings off campus.
“When you’re young, everything seems like you’re climbing Everest every day,” Carpenter said. “We had to keep him ready.”
Wrestling roots
One day, Freeman mentioned to the group that he was a wrestling fan. Freeman didn’t know it, but one of his teammates was also the son of a wrestling legend.
Laurinaitis’ father, Joseph, was a WWE superstar in the 1990s, wrestling under the moniker Road Warrior Animal. His trademark look: spiked football shoulder pads, mohawk and red-and-black face paint.
Freeman came unglued.
“That’s really the only reason why he befriended me at first, because of my dad,” Laurinaitis chuckled. “I’m serious. Dead on. He was a wrestling fan and that’s why he befriended me, which I’m fine with. It ended up helping me out and we obviously became really good friends.”
Laurinaitis took his new friend backstage at WWE’s WrestleMania, where Freeman transformed into a wide-eyed fan boy — or a “mark,” in wrestling terminology.
“When I was young, everything was real,” Freeman said. “You ended up idolizing the Hulk Hogans and Ultimate Warriors and all those guys. And then as I got to go to some WrestleManias with James, you got to know some people. And now it’s about seeing your kids happy. And if my kids want to go see wrestling, as a father I try to do that.”
Ah, yes, fatherhood. Freeman and his wife, Joanna, met in college and have six children. Laurinaitis and his wife, Shelly, have four kids. Schlegel jokes that Freeman could start a flag football team with his crew. Earlier this year, Freeman took his children to a WWE event in Chicago to share his love for wrestling.
Freeman and Laurinaitis shared plenty of interests off the field, but they became close through their trials as linebackers under the guidance of a young and passionate position coach, Fickell, who is now the coach at Wisconsin. Freeman was a superstar from nearby Huber Heights, Ohio, outside Dayton, where A.J. Hawk watched him terrorize his high school team at Centerville High School.
“I don’t know how many touchdowns he scored, but it felt like he scored all of them. And then he made like 100 tackles. It was like a movie,” Hawk said.
When Freeman arrived at Ohio State as a freshman, he weighed in at 260 pounds after spending the offseason bulking up in the weight room. Fickell was upset, but Freeman quickly shed the extra weight and earned early playing time. His discipline was undoubtedly shaped by his father, Michael Freeman Sr., who served 26 years in the Air Force. Freeman’s commitment extended to the weight room, where he routinely outperformed teammates, including linemen, by lifting more than 400 pounds in the hang clean.
“It would be frustrating working out with him. He was exceptional,” Laurinaitis said. “He was always stronger in squats, power cleans, and bench. The only thing I could get him on was conditioning.”
Moving into coaching
Freeman and Laurinaitis fell short of their national title goals at Ohio State and eventually went separate ways after their playing careers. Freeman pursued the NFL, but knee pain and bouncing between teams signaled it was time to move on. A 2010 health screening with the Indianapolis Colts uncovered an enlarged heart valve, which cemented his decision to step away from playing.
Undeterred, Freeman immediately pursued coaching, joining Ohio State’s staff as a graduate assistant during Jim Tressel’s final season leading the program.
“He was always quiet and wanted to learn as a player, and he was the same as a coach,” Tressel said. “He approached coaching just like he did playing: What does the team need? How can I help? How can I build relationships?”
Freeman’s most memorable moment as a graduate assistant came during a rivalry game against Michigan. Defensive tackle Cam Heyward celebrated a big play by leaping off the ground to bump chests with Freeman on the sideline. Instead, Heyward’s helmet collided with Freeman’s front teeth, knocking them out.
“My wife’s gonna kill me,” Freeman said after the game.
“That’s why his teeth look so good today,” Carpenter joked.
“I didn’t know what coaching was when I got into it,” Freeman admits. “I thought it was a chance to stay in football, be on the sidelines. But it’s so much more than that. I figured out early that coaching is about leading people. It’s about serving others. That’s how you fall in love with it.”
The sideline stoic
Look at Freeman today, and his demeanor may remind you of his old head coach. Like Tressel, Freeman is usually calm on the sideline, offering advice rather than criticism.
“They know the game is for the players, so why am I going to rip somebody’s ass on game day?” Anthony Schlegel said. “I’ve got to make an adjustment and make a correction because execution is the only thing that matters on Saturday.”
Freeman and Tressel are also committed to their faith and focused on developing teenagers into men. They bring intentionality to every move, whether it’s assigning “quiet time” for reflection or attending pregame Mass.
Consider the “goal sheets” Tressel assigned his players, which many initially saw as unnecessary homework. “I hated playing for Tress when I was there,” Carpenter joked.
The legendary coach asked players to write short- and long-term goals, then mailed the sheets back to them after their careers ended.
“Marcus has an authenticity about him — and it resonates with this generation of player,” Schlegel said. “These players crave discipline. It’s different. They want to know the why, the what, and the when versus when we grew up, and it was ‘when, what, why.'”
There’s only one key difference between mentor and mentee: Tressel’s signature sweater vest.
“Everybody’s got their own style,” Carpenter said. “Marcus has that quarter zip, the coat, and he gets his hair cut three times a day.”
Leaning on friendship
In 2020, Laurinaitis lost his father to a heart attack. Freeman, then the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati, reached out to his best friend every day for two weeks.
“Knowing our hours now, as you reflect, man, that’s a true friend right there,” Laurinaitis said. “When you go through one of the worst moments as a human, you find out who your friends really are.”
Laurinaitis eventually joined Notre Dame’s staff in 2022 as a graduate assistant at Freeman’s urging. After one season, he returned to Ohio State as a GA and was elevated in 2024 to linebackers coach.
Seizing an opportunity
Freeman, 39, and Laurinaitis, 38, are young for their profession, but Tressel often reminds them how quickly the years and opportunities pass.
“You never know how many of these you get, so you want to make sure you feel good about how you perform,” Tressel said. “That’s the hard part of coaching. You remember vividly when you didn’t do well, and sometimes you gloss over the times when it worked.”
Freeman and Laurinaitis know the pain of falling short. They experienced it when they lost back-to-back national championships in 2006–07.
“We suffered some big losses, but Marcus was always one of those guys that took the leadership role to get the team back together and focused,” former Ohio State defensive tackle Todd Denlinger said.
Freeman downplayed using his own playing experience as motivation for coaching Monday night inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“There’s zero motivation that is necessary to prepare for a national championship game,” Freeman said. “I was a kid. I can’t go back and remember what was going through my mind. But we were playing for the national championship, and I just wanted to do my job. We got beat.”
Forty-eight hours before facing his friend-turned-rival, Laurinaitis reflected on the moment but echoed Tressel’s advice:
“You won’t really look back on this moment until later,” he said. “You have so much to do. I’ve got two meetings to think about today, a couple walkthroughs.”
