ND Coaching Search Megathread

[Dale]

When I say blow the doors off, it doesn’t have to be an established high P5 DC. Clinkscale for example would make me way more excited than any of the article mentioned names.

 

[zelezo vlk]

When I say blow the doors off, it doesn’t have to be an established high P5 DC. Clinkscale for example would make me way more excited than any of the article mentioned names.

Sp?

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

We’re NOT going to get an S-Tier Freeman / Mike Elko / David Aranda / Kirby Smart (I realize they are all head coaches now) caliber DC with Freeman as head coach. The best DCs just like best OCs want autonomy, and our head coach is always going to have a big hand in the defense (as he should, he’s one of the best defensive minds in college football right now).

If we get an established DC at a major program it’s going to be someone slightly below the top tier. Way I see it we’ll have to choose between an established A/B tier ish DC, or an up and comer (either P5 position coach that hasn’t been a DC yet or a Gof5 DC) that has a lot of promise to be an S Tier DC but hasn’t shown it on the big stage yet.

Yep. Even Alabama and their famous coaching rehab clinic is mostly about high profile OCs. The DCs for all of Saban's tenure have been relatively young up-and-comers, not former HCs or guys with 30 years of experience.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

How about... Will Muschamp. He's only a Co-DC at Georgia right now. Plus he's in the playoffs which might be why he's a secret candidate.

No thank you. Since being HC at Florida he has been taking steps down to where he ended up as ST coach at UGA.

 

[Rogue219]

Will Muschamp at ND would be an absolute nightmare.

 

[IrishLion]

IMO the DC choices were a tad underwhelming. Loy dismissed the idea of Tressel as unlikely which was my hope. Meh on the retreads. Heacock would be the ultimate “fine” to me. Eliano is an odd one considering who’s getting credit for Coby and Gardner? Mickens or Eliano? Or Fickell/Freeman/Tressel along the way? Not every coach possible gets them as a bullet point.

Hopefully the names offered up were a bit of Gug smokescreen the “mystery candidate” blows the doors off

Eliano gets credit for Bryant's development the last two years... He's always looked pretty good, but he was ELITE opposite Gardner this year, and that goes to the last two years of development.

Freeman and Mickens get credit for Sauce, both for identifying him early and getting him ready to play right away as a difference maker in 2019 as a freshman.

Eliano getting brought in and going over Mickens' head would be interesting to me, unless it's a Co-DC/Co-DB's coach thing.

The one that really gets me jacked up though is if Freeman can steal UC's special teams coach.

Their special teams units change games in an aggressive way that we've been asking for from BK and Polian for years.

 

[DCDomer]

Not really a DC (no experience at least), but I would go for Colin Hitschler at Cincy. He has been a part of all of their success on Defense, moving from QC to Analyst, to Safeties coach. He's an up and comer, and there were calls from their fanbase to make him DC when MF was hired at Notre Dame.

https://gobearcats.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/colin-hitschler/1756

 

[Rogue219]

Justin Frye is OC/OL at UCLA. That seems like a hard guy to pry away to just be OL at ND. Elston should keep is AHC title, so what do you give Frye?

I'd love to have Frye, but the logistics of getting Hiestand seem pretty easy. I believe he lives in South Bend and is currently not employed. Seems like an easy piece to fit into the puzzle.

I would not sell Perry Eliano short.

The speculation is fun and all that, but I don't care who they wind up hiring. Just get a stud trigger man and wide receivers to win a national championship.

 

[dublinirish]

The lack of public discussion obviously means that Hartline is locked in and coming over after bowl season.

(I tell myself)

you'd think Hartline would be leveraging either a new deal or a promotion at OSU if Freeman was seriously after him

 

[chicago51]

Pure speculation here.

I believe the reports saying MF want an outside hire for DC. But let me throw this scenario out there. Say ND hasn’t picked a DC for 2022 either publicly or privately prior to the Fiesta Bowl. MF calling the plays with Elston / Mickens leading defensive practice and spear heading the game planning (in collaboration with MF) just completely shuts down maybe shuts out Oklahoma State. Does MF start to get the itch that this arrangement could work and he can keep calling the plays? If this happens does MF say “wow this worked really well, maybe we should do this next year” thought in his brain.

FYI I know they haven’t confirmed the Fiesta Bowl defensive play caller, Driskell on the ISD podcast predicted it was going to be MF.

Same could be said if Elston or Mickens end up calling the D. If ND gets a shutout, does MF seriously consider sticking with that person next year?

I believe the reports of wanting an outside hire but any chance a great bowl performance could change that?

 

[Irish#1]

Their special teams units change games in an aggressive way that we've been asking for from BK and Polian for years.

I think this was all Kelly and not Polian. Kelly's methodology has been to keep mistakes and errors to a minimum through play calling. After the Wiscy game, they asked Kelly about Tyree's return and he said they usually return to the short side of the field to avoid getting holding or clipping penalties, but Polian convinced him to set up the return to the wide side to give Tyree more room.

 

[ulukinatme]

Wait...is there info out there that HH is coming back as the OL coach? Will we be getting any additional recruiters to help him in that regard? He could kill it as our technician but we must keep signing classes like our last 2. Potential stacked on potential.

I could care less if HH directly recruits any kids. As Riddickulous pointed out...let Rees and Freeman pick up the slack or delegate. Harry is a proven developmental stud, and the kids were already seeking him out for additional instruction.

I've been seeing some rumors about HH too today. Supposedly something on 247 but may have been pulled? I don't have access. In any case, maybe fences have been mended or maybe the issues behind Harry's exit weren't as big a deal as we were led to believe?

 

[NDdomer2]

I could care less if HH directly recruits any kids. As Riddickulous pointed out...let Rees and Freeman pick up the slack or delegate. Harry is a proven developmental stud, and the kids were already seeking him out for additional instruction.

I've been seeing some rumors about HH too today. Supposedly something on 247 but may have been pulled? I don't have access. In any case, maybe fences have been mended or maybe the issues behind Harry's exit weren't as big a deal as we were led to believe?

Then why not put him in an analyst role where we arent self inflicting ourselves one less recruiting coach and we still can get his coaching/development.

A Lot complaining about QB recruiting around here but we want our qb coach to pick up someone's slack?

 

[Free Manera]

Then why not put him in an analyst role where we arent self inflicting ourselves one less recruiting coach and we still can get his coaching/development.

A Lot complaining about QB recruiting around here but we want our qb coach to pick up someone's slack?

Analysts can’t coach. They’re limited in the amount of player contact they’re allowed to have. HH’s best asset is his teaching.

 

[Irishize]

Justin Frye is OC/OL at UCLA. That seems like a hard guy to pry away to just be OL at ND. Elston should keep is AHC title, so what do you give Frye?

I'd love to have Frye, but the logistics of getting Hiestand seem pretty easy. I believe he lives in South Bend and is currently not employed. Seems like an easy piece to fit into the puzzle.

I would not sell Perry Eliano short.

The speculation is fun and all that, but I don't care who they wind up hiring. Just get a stud trigger man and wide receivers to win a national championship.

True but doesn’t Chip Kelly call the plays? If that’s the case maybe it’s more about money and the fact that the cost of living in LA County has to dwarf what he’d be paying in Indiana.

 

[ThePiombino]

Analysts can’t coach. They’re limited in the amount of player contact they’re allowed to have. HH’s best asset is his teaching.

He can teach the (young) coach.

 

[ulukinatme]

Then why not put him in an analyst role where we arent self inflicting ourselves one less recruiting coach and we still can get his coaching/development.

A Lot complaining about QB recruiting around here but we want our qb coach to pick up someone's slack?

McNulty and Taylor only have to pickup 1-2 guys a cycle, right? How hard would it be for them to each rope in a few linemen, especially if we have a proven commodity that makes NFL stars like Harry? Between Rees, Freeman, Taylor, McNulty, and whoever ends up at WR coach I'm sure they can figure it out and Harry can get a pass. He's worth it, and the offense as a whole benefits from having a strong OL.

 

[Irish#1]

Then why not put him in an analyst role where we arent self inflicting ourselves one less recruiting coach and we still can get his coaching/development.

A Lot complaining about QB recruiting around here but we want our qb coach to pick up someone's slack?

I'm not worried. If HH comes back, MF[SUP]2[/SUP] has a plan to address HH's reluctance to recruit. Harry demands the best out of his kids and I like that.

 

[MacIrish75]

McNulty and Taylor only have to pickup 1-2 guys a cycle, right? How hard would it be for them to each rope in a few linemen, especially if we have a proven commodity that makes NFL stars like Harry? Between Rees, Freeman, Taylor, McNulty, and whoever ends up at WR coach I'm sure they can figure it out and Harry can get a pass. He's worth it, and the offense as a whole benefits from having a strong OL.

I get the thought on this, but I think that’s too simplistic of a solution. The bottom line is, relationships win the day in recruiting. As good of a relationship as a prospective OL recruit could forge with Tommy, etc they’re going to want to have one with the guy that is coaching them on a daily basis.

I’ve coached on numerous staffs in multiple sports and the bottom line in filling out a staff is that you have to hire people with complementary personality traits. You don’t want your entire staff to be “rah-rah” guys and you don’t want them all to be surly curmudgeons, either. There’s room for a guy with HH’s general disposition if you’ve got enough other guys on the staff to counter it.

 

[Irish#1]

Interesting comment from MF[SUP]2[/SUP] on hiring a DC. First priority is they are a fit with the rest of the staff, but it looks like he wants to keep his defense in place.

“I’m gonna encourage whoever becomes that defensive coordinator, as much as we can keep same as. Put it on the defensive coordinator to be able to relearn names and terminology, but don’t put all that stress on the players. Let’s put that on a coordinator.

While he wouldn't say who will call the D in the bowl game, it sure sounds like it will be Elston as he's been doing it in practice.

 

[chicago51]

Interesting comment from MF[SUP]2[/SUP] on hiring a DC. First priority is they are a fit with the rest of the staff, but it looks like he wants to keep his defense in place.



While he wouldn't say who will call the D in the bowl game, it sure sounds like it will be Elston as he's been doing it in practice.

I watched him taking questions. So when MF came to ND he learned a lot of position names and terminology used by Elko / Lea and applied it to his defense. Like he used the name rover instead of the sniper name he had at Cincinnati, things like that. It seems he would allow some scheme changes but he wants continuity in terminology.

As for the bowl. I think he wants Elston to play call. This is just my conjecture but Elston is such a humble guy. I think MF is trying to convince Elston, that Elston is capable to call the D during the bowl game.

I agree with MF that the game plan (which seems like MF is largely putting together for this bowl game) is much more important than play calling. I'm not anywhere close obviously to D1 level defensive coach. But based on my experiences coach mostly Jr high as well some high school, I think our game plans for better or worse have had much more to do with our team performance than what plays I've called .

 

[NDFAN2008]

Was listening to the Driskell podcast and sounds like team is going to or leaning towards Keeping Del for another year. I just hope this doesn’t mean we lose guys to tranfer

 

[NDIrish88]

Was listening to the Driskell podcast and sounds like team is going to or leaning towards Keeping Del for another year. I just hope this doesn’t mean we lose guys to tranfer

Omg. I have no words

 

[ColinKSU]

That would be an absolute disaster and raise serious questions about the promises Freeman made in his press conference.

 

[Ricochet]

That would be an absolute disaster and raise serious questions about the promises Freeman made in his press conference.

The long and short of it is that many past and present connections to the program apparently believe in Del and think his shortcomings come from essentially Kelly PTSD.

 

[ColinKSU]

The long and short of it is that many past and present connections to the program apparently believe in Del and think his shortcomings come from essentially Kelly PTSD.

Yikes. That’s even worse than I thought. Total failure by the program’s leadership to bring him back if they seriously think he can do the job. Del’s the definition of coaching dead weight and he’s single-handedly bringing the offense down.

 

[Trait Expectations]

Yikes. That’s even worse than I thought. Total failure by the program’s leadership to bring him back if they seriously think he can do the job. Del’s the definition of coaching dead weight and he’s single-handedly bringing the offense down.

You know nothing jon snow

 

[chicago51]

The long and short of it is that many past and present connections to the program apparently believe in Del and think his shortcomings come from essentially Kelly PTSD.

What is Kelly PTSD?

 

[MacIrish75]

The long and short of it is that many past and present connections to the program apparently believe in Del and think his shortcomings come from essentially Kelly PTSD.

Except…ya know…the kids that have played for and seem to vehemently dislike Del…but hey, as long as many past and present connections support him!

 

[ColinKSU]

You know nothing jon snow

Explain to me why I’m wrong. Explain why all the transfers and *multiple* years of misses at the position are actually good things and reasons why ND needs to keep Del.