Purdue football Q&A: Marcus Freeman

Marcus Freeman likes his linebackers.

Purdue's assistant coach hasn't been able to say that a lot during his three seasons under Darrell Hazell. Heading into the 2015 season, Freeman has experience in his starting group - Ja'Whaun Bentley, Jimmy Herman and Danny Ezechukwu - and he's seeing depth emerge from Andy James Garcia, Garrett Hudson, Dezwan Polk-Campbell and Evan Pulliam.

Freeman also has three freshmen - Wyatt Cook, Sawyer Dawson and Markus Bailey - who could see playing time this season.

Question: Ja'Whaun Bentley will be better this year because?

Answer: Experience. Maturity. Leadership and just improving on natural ability.

Q: Has he become a better leader? He was pretty quiet last year.

A: He's a voice on our entire team. When he speaks you see that everybody listens. When you're a young person it's a coaches job not to force that on them. Let it happen naturally and he's become one of the outspoken leaders.

Q: The guys respect him?

A: They respect a guy that works hard and has production. You work hard and you produce on the field, naturally people are going to respect you.

Q: He was thrown into that middle linebacker role last year and while he appeared to be a quiet guy out here, what were the leadership things you saw inside the room that told you he was someone special?

A: The first thing about leadership is doing your job and preparing. If you watch somebody that works tirelessly and performs and does their job they become a natural leader and you respect them. Now, he's become more of a vocal guy. At the Mike backer (middle) position you have to make all the calls. You have to be loud and outspoken. I think the most important thing that he does is people watch him work. When you work hard people respect that.

Q: What do you like about your young linebackers?

A: No. 1, they're good-sized kids. They've all come in here and gotten bigger. Our strength program has done a tremendous job of getting those guys ready. They're all eager to learn. Some are farther ahead than others but they all work at trying to get better. To me, that's the job of older guys too. I don't care if you're a freshman or a senior, we're going to be judged by the guys that are on the field. If I'm an older guy and I want all the linebackers to look good, I want to make sure I help out those young guys. They've done a good job of doing that.

Q: Are you more comfortable with your second unit if they have to play this year than what you were last year?

A: I think we have seven guys right now - and I'm not including the freshmen - that anybody can be on the field and I feel comfortable. I think we've got seven guys that we can put on the field and say, 'OK, they can get their job done.' That's what you want. You want depth. We have three returning starters but we have seven guys we feel won't hurt our team in the game.

Q: Is that the two-deep and Evan?

A: Especially with Andy being out, Evan has been thrown into the fire with the 2s. Before Andy was out, he was playing Mike and Sam (strongside); he was getting just as many plays as Garrett and Dez. Evan knows what he's doing. Now he's playing Sam, Mike, Will (weakside) and that's more valuable than anything … This is different for me. I've never in my coaching career been around the same group for three years. It's good. It's a learning experience and you find innovated ways to push them. The biggest thing is how do you perform on the field. As a coach you're trying to find different ways to help.

Q: Does that make it easier to get on them for the details?

A: They know who I am. They know I'm a perfectionist. There's no hiding it. When you're not being perfect, I'm going to let you know. Sometimes with a loud voice and sometimes with a quiet pat on the back. As long as they understand it's the best for them and the best for Purdue and the best for our program, they can understand no matter what we can always get better. My job is to continue to earn their trust. The guys that have been around for three years trust me. They've been around me and they know I care about them more anything. The young guys have to continue to learn to trust me and then they'll understand that everything I say is to make them a better football player.

Q: This seems like a pretty self-motivated group. How much do you have to continue to keep your finger on them?

A: It's never-ending as a coach. We're fortunate to have great leadership and that's a term that's used too loosely sometimes. I believe really we have good leaders. Our starters are tremendous leaders and even some of our backups are good leaders. When the leaders in your room are hard on the young guys and even hard on each other, when it's not right and the leaders get on them, that means 10 times more than when a coach gets on them. That's what you like to see. I'm getting ready to get after somebody and tell them that's not right and here comes Ja'Whaun, Andy, Garrett or Danny, somebody else is going to coach them. I can go back and watch the next group that's in. That's what you want as a coach - to create an atmosphere of leadership and guys that are trying to get better.