2008 Ohio State Buckeyes seniors

One of my favorite Ohio State photos from our photo shoot from before the 2008 season of five returning seniors - Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Robiskie, Marcus Freeman, Alex Boone and James Laurinaitis. Four of them are in the NFL, while Freeman is the linebackers coach at Purdue.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis were a great linebacker duo at Ohio State, among the smartest yet most relaxed Buckeyes I've covered in my time on the beat. They knew who they were as players and people and weren't afraid to show it. And they were great friends.

We'll have a lot of old Ohio State talk this week with former OSU assistant Darrell Hazell the head coach at Purdue and Freeman his linebackers coach. Here's a story from Freeman after I asked him on a conference call today if he had converted Laurinaitis into a Purdue fan yet.

"Laurinaitis came to my house this summer on his way back from Columbus to St. Louis and we had just finished a wall in our house that you're able to write on in chalk," Freeman said. "And I said make sure anybody that comes to visit our house, you've got to sign the wall. And he put, "James Laurinaitis, Go Bucks."

"So I wasn't able to convert him yet to be a Boiler guy, but he's still a fan of Coach Hazell and mine and Ohio State. Obviously, we're all fans of Ohio State. I'm a fan of Ohio State. When I'm not playing them, I'm the biggest fan there is. That's not something I think I'll be able to do, convert James from being a Buckeye fan."