Marcus Freeman’s Wife: Meet Joanna Freeman

The College Football Playoff National Championship game is set for Monday, January 20 at 7:30pm EST between the Ohio State Buckeyes (who are 13-2) and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (14-1).

Both teams are considered among the best in the league, and for Notre Dame, a big part of that comes from their coach Marcus Freeman’s secret weapon: his wife, Joanna Freeman.

According to Marcus, Joanna is his “cut” and the reason he has been able to be so successful at Notre Dame, not only this year, but ever since he joined the coaching staff in 2021. But who is Joanna, really? And how did she and Marcus meet? We dive into all that and more below.

How Marcus Freeman met his wife Joanna Freeman

Marcus and Joanna met through a mutual friend while he was at Ohio State University and she was at Otterbein University.

“We fell hard. We fell fast,” Joanna said.We were really young When we met, and in many ways, we really grew and matured into adults together.”

She also said that they “had a lot of brides and makeup” in college.

Fortunately, everything worked out for the best, because in 2010 the two decided to get married, three years after the birth of their first child, Vinny.

Joanna Freeman: from reporter to coach’s wife

On 20 February 2010, Marcus and Joanna were married with their son Vinny in attendance,

During this time, Marcus coached with teams such as the Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, and Chicago Bears, but unfortunately, due to an enlarged heart condition, he never played in a real National Football League (NFL) game and was already beginning to retire , when he married Joanna.

Joanna, on the other hand, was on her way to becoming quite a successful journalist, working as a traffic and news reporter for a television station in Columbus, Ohio called WBNS. However, she would soon leave this career after Marcus was offered a coaching job at Kent State.

“If you want to do this,” Joanna told Marcus at the time. “we shall do this together.”

The family would stay in Kent for a year before moving to Purdue University in 2011.

Marcus and Joanna Freeman: Starting a family and moving to football

Between 2012 and 2020, Marcus and Joanna went on to welcome five more children together and had moved from Purdue – where they lived from 2011 to 2016 – to Cincinnati, Ohio.

They remained there until 2021 before moving to Notre Dame. They’ve been there ever since, with Marcus serving as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach before eventually becoming head coach.

“There is no balance,” Marcus said. “There is not a balance (between) being a head coach and being a husband and father.”

Fortunately, throughout his career, Marcus has had his loving wife Joanna, who has helped him through it all.

“To do what I do, you have to have most selfless wife in the world,” he said. “A lot of times she’s a single parent. And the other part is that I try to mix.”

“I try to mix my family with our football family as much as I can. My wife can take two kids and just let them run around in training. “I want our players to see me as a father and husband.”

Marcus and Joanna Freeman prepare for the championship match

Marcus and Joanna are currently preparing College Football Playoff National Championship game against his alma mater, Ohio State.

“It’s full circle” Marcus said. “This has nothing to do with the past and where I went to school. It’s about this opportunity that’s right in front of us.”

And as excited as he is for the game, Marcus is concerned that it will distance itself from Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day.

“To me, the focus should be on MLK Day and what he did for our country and the progress he made for equal rights and progress for all people, the courage he had as an individual to stand up for what he believed in,” he said. . “It was by his words and his actions.”

“Martin Luther King Day is about celebrating the man and the impact he has had on our country.”

Ohio is currently favored to win the championship game by 8.5 points, but Marcus won’t let that stop him.

“Obviously, this place (Notre Dame) hasn’t won a national championship since 1988, and every year the ambition is to win a national championship. That’s why all these players choose to come to Notre Dame; one of the the reasons are to be part of a program that can win a national championship,” he said.

“I think that’s something they’ll be able to say for the rest of their lives if they were part of a national football team. A lot of work goes into getting to that result and it is what we need to focus on, but it would be special for this university and for these actors who have put so much work into getting the results we have.”

You can watch Notre Dame play Ohio State on Monday 20 January at 7:30 PM EST on YouTubeTV.