Marcus Freeman using Michigan, Michigan State incident as a teaching example

Marcus Freeman knows the tunnel at Michigan Stadium well. As a former Ohio State linebacker, the first-year Notre Dame head coach has been through that very tunnel himself, and understands how hard it can be to keep your emotions in check after such a charged game.

But that doesn’t excuse what Michigan State players did shortly after the game in the tunnel, apparently attacking Michigan’s Ja’Den McBurrows and Gemon Green. For Freeman, learning about that ugly scene made it worth taking a moment to step back and teach his team a valuable lesson about keeping their cool in critical moments.

“It’s tough, man. You’re going through that tunnel and everything’s condensed, after a game it’s a challenge. It’s an emotional game and but you have to control your emotions. You have to control your emotions because that’s a football lesson,” Freeman said, “a life lesson.” 

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And while what happened in Ann Arbor was a lapse from a number of individuals for MSU losing their control, Freeman sought to hammer home the other side with the Notre Dame players.

The human ability to control emotions is one of the most powerful strengths any of us have, Freeman said.

“I saw they suspended a couple guys. I think that’s one of those situations where an emotional moment can have repercussions way after that moment. And that could be as a husband, a father, it can be in society — it’s everything. And that’s probably, at some point, the lesson I’ll tell our team: The ability to control your emotions is one of mans greatest strengths.”

Broadly, Freeman knows that sort of incident is a mark, staining college football — fair or not. He doesn’t want that.

“Yeah, you don’t want to see that in the game of football,” Freeman said. “Not in this game that we love and we’ve grown up playing. Because it creates a narrative about maybe a group of kids, about a program, about your sport that isn’t what you want.”