Growing up in Ohio, playing for Ohio State and later coaching at Cincinnati, it’s an understatement to say that new Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman has deep roots in the Buckeye state. According to a report from 247Sports Andrew Ivins, Freeman is going hard after Jyaire Brown, an instate Ohio State commit, who made his verbal pledge last April.
Brown told Ivins that although he is committed to the Buckeyes, that hasn’t stopped him from speaking to other schools. The five-foot-eleven-inch and 165-pound cornerback has continued contact with LSU, USC, and Georgia but the Irish have caught his attention more than the rest.
Freeman certainly has Brown thinking about flipping as “he was recruiting me at the University of Cincinnati and when he went to Notre Dame, he hit me up and said he’s not going to take his foot off the gas. So he’s going to keep recruiting me.”
Not only that, Ivins found out that Brown and Freeman had a virtual meeting one week ago. “Notre Dame is a great program. Like I said though, I’m just chilling. So I got to listen to what they got to say and see if the interest is really there and if they love is really there.” Brown did say that he is still solid to the Buckeyes, and if he was to change his mind, it would be in the coming months.
MEET HOLLYWOOD@jyairebrown13 pic.twitter.com/gAw7n9Rspl
— ARHODES (@anthonyrhodesjr) January 19, 2021
Even if he doesn’t ultimately flip to the Irish, Brown gave a glowing assessment of Freeman saying “I think he great coach man. I think he’s a great family man. With him it’s like love. You are going to get love out of him. He was obviously doing great things at UC and he’s about to go do great things at Notre Dame.”
Only time will tell if Freeman is able to get in Brown’s ear enough and get the Ohio State commit to flip to Notre Dame, but this is only good news going forward. Brian Kelly’s hiring of Freeman has turned out to be grand slam.