Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman Claims Comments About Ohio State Were Misquoted

"I would never say that and never disrespect my alma mater.”

Author:
Andrew Lind
Jun 15, 2022 11:30 AM EDT

In this story:

In an appearance on 97.1 The Fan on Wednesday morning, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman claimed he was misquoted in an article where he appeared to take a shot at Ohio State’s academics.

“I wanted to set the record straight – I was misquoted by (CBS Sports’) Dennis Dodd in this article, and key words and context were missing from the quote that upset a lot of people that I care about,” Freeman said while speaking with show's host, former Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter. “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 really talking about the academic rigors of Notre Dame.

“Notre Dame has 8,500 students and 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 its rounds yesterday in a negative way, I was surprised because I walked away from that interview with Dennis Dodd and had no sense of anything that I said would offend anybody.

“I asked him to share with me the audio so I could share exactly what was said. So, I wrote it down. Here’s exactly what was said: ‘Their 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, OK, 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.’

“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.”

Freeman contends his use of the word “if,” which Dodd not include in his article, changes the entire meaning of the quote. He also took issue with Dodd adding “at places like that” in parentheses, which suggested Freeman was calling out Ohio State and Cincinnati, specifically.

“When you see a quote that says, ‘You don’t go to classes at places,’ that Marcus Freeman says, ‘You don’t go to class at a place like that,' that changes the entire narrative,” Freeman said. “When you really look at what exactly I said, I was talking about if you don't go to class at these big schools that have 60,000, 40,000 students, OK, you can take online classes. The majority of our kids can't take online classes here because it's a smaller school and you're forced to have in-class attendance.

“So, that's what I wanted to make sure that I get cleared up that. That listen, I would never disrespect Ohio State. I would never say you don't go to class. I went to class. I'm sure you did. We had classes. We made sure we went to class. I would never say that and never disrespect my alma mater.”

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