Former Ohio State Players Respond to Marcus Freeman’s Academics Claim

The Notre Dame coach appeared to take a dig at Ohio State’s academics, leading former Buckeyes to weigh in.

Compared to the verbal dust-up between Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher and Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Tuesday’s Twitter beef involving Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman and the educational reputation of Ohio State might appear to be pretty tame. That is, unless you call yourself a Buckeye alumnus.

Freeman drew the ire of the Ohio State community when he took a not-so-subtle dig at Ohio State’s academics. In an interview with CBS Sports, Freeman said the academic demands at his previous employer fell short of what is expected of his Notre Dame players.

“If you don’t go to class [at places like that]?” Freeman said rhetorically during the interview. “Okay, take some online classes, show up for your appointments. At Notre Dame, you’re forced every day to go to class.”

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Unsurprisingly, that comment did not go over well in Ohio State circles. In response, the athletic program’s official Twitter account shared an article touting the department’s success in Academic Progress Rate, in which 16 of the school’s programs reported perfect scores.

Ohio State football alumni also voiced their displeasure with Freeman’s remarks, defending their alma mater’s scholastic reputation in the process.

Not sure what they did back in the day, but we for sure had to go to class. DAILY! https://t.co/X9clmg76n1

— Tracy Sprinkle | CEO (@TSprinkle93) June 14, 2022

Love my man M Free… but the OSU shade for class has to stop.

I was a Business Econ Major and went to class… 15 years ago

JK Dobbins was a business major and I would see him every Monday and Wednesday walking out of the Biz school after I taught my finance class https://t.co/YLeuJwuTgz

— Bobby Carpenter (@Bcarp3) June 14, 2022

Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones might have won the award for best response to Freeman’s comments, though, with a callback to his famous tweet in which he said “We ain’t come to play SCHOOL”:

Yea man, we always went to class……. (speaking for everyone else) 😂 https://t.co/Cc9bPsI1zr

— Cardale Jones (@CJ1two) June 14, 2022

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