CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois head football coach Dino Babers has added veteran assistant coach Tom Freeman to his staff to coach on the defensive side of the ball.  Freeman brings more than 30 years of coaching experience with him to the Panthers staff.

Freeman and Babers have a long time association that started when Babers was a player at the University of Hawaii.  Freeman was the offensive guards and centers coach for Hawaii from 1975-81.  Freeman has also been on the coaching staff with Babers at Arizona State, Purdue and Pittsburgh.

Most recently Freeman was the offensive line coach for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League in 2010.  He helped coach the team to the CFL West Division Championship as the team lost in the Grey Cup.

Prior to that Freeman served as the offensive coordinator at Weber State for one season and offensive line coach at Central Florida for two years.  The 2009 Weber State team advanced to the FCS playoffs while the 2007 UCF team won the Conference USA title and played in the Liberty Bowl.

He was a member of coach Walt Harris staff at both Pittsburgh and Stanford serving as the run game coordinator.  At Pittsburgh between 1997-2004, the Panthers made six bowl game appearances including the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.  Freeman coached on the staff of the 1999 Blue-Gray Game and 2004 East-West Shrine Game.

Freeman was at Purdue from 1991-96 and Arizona State from 1984-91.  He served as the offensive line coach at Purdue while coaching guards and centers at ASU.  As a member of the Sun Devils staff he helped coach the team to three bowl games including the 1987 Rose Bowl.

He is a graduate San Diego State and coached his alma mater from 1981-83.