New Offensive Line Coach Search

[irishog77]

Not a fan of Callahan or just like the others more?

I think it's pretty clear that this one is 5th best, solely among Callahans- Bill, the other Brian, Big Tom, and Tommy Callahan are all above him in the pecking order.

 

[ThePiombino]

You would think ND would be able to get a top level O-line coach. This is a bit worrisome.

It's only worrisome if you're surprised

 

[TheRealLynch51]

I guess. It seems others have been too confident in our coveted coaching positions.

Rees leaves his Alma Mater after one year.

Hiestand leaves after one year.

Two OC's say no and Freeman has to go with the in house candidate.

And now we have an underwhelming list for our 'O-line U' coaching position.

We didn't get choice #1, and no one else has, since he's still retired. Now we're on to choice #2. Who would you rather have on our list that's realistic? Or is it a thing where both myself and yourself may not know enough about offensive line coaching to even know who would be a great hire at this point?

 

[stlnd01]

We didn't get choice #1, and no one else has, since he's still retired. Now we're on to choice #2. Who would you rather have on our list that's realistic? Or is it a thing where both myself and yourself may not know enough about offensive line coaching to even know who would be a great hire at this point?

Yep. Like was obviously the home run. We took our shot and he didn’t bite. OK. That’s life.
From there Callahan, Rudolph and Vladek all look like good OL coaches (I’d pass on Devlin given lack of college experience). The first two especially have excellent track records. But are there some better options out there we should be talking about? Who are they?

 

[irishog77]

We didn't get choice #1, and no one else has, since he's still retired. Now we're on to choice #2. Who would you rather have on our list that's realistic? Or is it a thing where both myself and yourself may not know enough about offensive line coaching to even know who would be a great hire at this point?

I know you didn't ask me, but I'll jump in while I'm waiting on pizza...

Interesting questions. I think most of us aren't truly qualified to know who is actually a really good OL coach or not (probably true for most other positions as well). I tend to look at who has generally had good OL play, who is at programs that can run the ball, who has moved up in the profession, who is not only getting guys drafted, but having those players either star or make it for awhile in the pros, and who is getting good recruits.

Matt Luke would have probably been number one on my list the last couple of years. Besides him, Bill Bedenbaugh at OU seems like a really good OL coach. Brad Davis at lsu too. And Stacy Searels at Georgia. Highly doubtful any of them are coming- less doubtful than Luke.

Out of that quartet mentioned earlier, Rudolph seems to be the one that checks most boxes. I'm sure there are others out there as good as, or better, than Rudolph. I can't necessarily say who, off the top of my head though.

 

[TheRealLynch51]

Yep. Like was obviously the home run. We took our shot and he didn’t bite. OK. That’s life.
From there Callahan, Rudolph and Vladek all look like good OL coaches (I’d pass on Devlin given lack of college experience). The first two especially have excellent track records. But are there some better options out there we should be talking about? Who are they?

Such a hard thing to look up. Unless you take Big Game Boomer's rankings as gospel. Lolzzz If you want to look at the highest paid offensive line coaches in the country, the only one I can say would be a straight upgrade over Hiestand is Sherrone Moore from Michigan, and that ain't happening. Rudolph is #10 on that list as well.

https://footballscoop.com/news/highest-paid-offensive-line-coaches-2022-edition

 

[TheRealLynch51]

I know you didn't ask me, but I'll jump in while I'm waiting on pizza...

Interesting questions. I think most of us aren't truly qualified to know who is actually a really good OL coach or not (probably true for most other positions as well). I tend to look at who has generally had good OL play, who is at programs that can run the ball, who has moved up in the profession, who is not only getting guys drafted, but having those players either star or make it for awhile in the pros, and who is getting good recruits.

Matt Luke would have probably been number one on my list the last couple of years. Besides him, Bill Bedenbaugh at OU seems like a really good OL coach. Brad Davis at lsu too. And Stacy Searels at Georgia. Highly doubtful any of them are coming- less doubtful than Luke.

Out of that quartet mentioned earlier, Rudolph seems to be the one that checks most boxes. I'm sure there are others out there as good as, or better, than Rudolph. I can't necessarily say who, off the top of my head though.

Exactly. I feel like OL coaches don't move between high level power 5 schools much at all. I.e. leaving one blue blood to go to another. Meaning most of the hires are coming from those tier of schools that are lower tier power 5 schools or non-power 5 programs. Which means most of us have no idea who they would be until the options are presented to us.

 

[Te'o4Heisman]

I guess. It seems others have been too confident in our coveted coaching positions.

Rees leaves his Alma Mater after one year.

Hiestand leaves after one year.

Two OC's say no and Freeman has to go with the in house candidate.

And now we have an underwhelming list for our 'O-line U' coaching position.

Rees leaving was not a bad thing.
Im not sure how you determine what is a good or band list for any open positions when they come opem so late in the coaching carousel season. A lot of coaches have already moved and are off the market by the time these openings even came up.
The in house hire for OC along with a good dedicated QB coach will end up being a net positive vs what we had last year. I know its a whole lot easier to just jump on the negativity bandwagon which you always seem to do, but realistically with Guy like rudolph or callahan we will end up going into this season with a better staff top to bottom than we had last year. Freeman has at least earned the benefit of the doubt with his hires to date and staff he put together last year, so I will give him that.

 

[BobbyMac]

That's what I'm saying. He developed all of those guys to great results despite not having high recruit rankings coming out of high school. Minnesota's website said that all 5 of their offensive lineman in 2021 were All Big 10 team. That's pretty damn impressive.

I think both is true. And it depends how we define talent.

Carroll & Filliaga were both 4.5* prospects, that's one kind of talent.

Anyone who can become an All American like John Michael Schmitz has natural talent to begin with and the right mental talent to develop.

2021 roster was loaded too:

Daniel Faalele was a 4* in HS, 1st Team ALL-B1G and playing for the Ravens now.

Connor Olson was a 3* on 247, started a B1G record 58 games and was All-B1G - 3rd Team

Blaise Andries was 1st Team All B1G, a 3*/89 and like JMS, was an offer away from being Irish... and he almost got it.

Sam Schleuter was a 3*/89 on 247, multi-time All-B1G HM and was with the 49ers now.

He's overseen a lot of talent & development at MN and important at ND is all of these guys have been Academic All-B1G (many 2-5 seasons) except oddly enough, Quinn Carroll.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I'm a pretty big fan of most of those names.

Callahan is probably my favorite and the biggest sure thing, considering what he's been able to do at Minnesota with very limited talent.

Rudolph did some really good work at Wisconsin in terms of building strong OLs. Less so as building a good all-around offense, but that's not what he's coming to do.

Blazek is a very intriguing name for me. He started out his career coaching under Ferentz, who is one of the godfathers of OL coaches. Not sure how I can gauge his work at Vanderbilt, considering the absolute dumpster fire that program was post-Mason, especially on offense. Not to mention, it's Vanderbilt, so it's stuck with mid-tier G5 talent in the toughest conference in CFB.

Devlin is probably the one name I wouldn't be excited about. Has a lot of NFL experience, but not a lot of good experience.

 

[Sea Turtle]

We didn't get choice #1, and no one else has, since he's still retired. Now we're on to choice #2. Who would you rather have on our list that's realistic? Or is it a thing where both myself and yourself may not know enough about offensive line coaching to even know who would be a great hire at this point?

I don't know enough myself. That's why I read and listen to those who do know. For instance, I was telling people on here that Quinn was going to be garbage before it became evident.

Not because I know so much but because people who do know, were saying it. I got a lot of pushback from it and it turned out those guys were right. I think it was the guys from Irish Breakdown.(I watch like 4 of them)

I dont know any who are impressed with this list. A couple of the podcasts are saying that wisconsins line regressed when Rudoph took over.

 

[Giddyup]

Rees leaving was not a bad thing.
Im not sure how you determine what is a good or band list for any open positions when they come opem so late in the coaching carousel season. A lot of coaches have already moved and are off the market by the time these openings even came up.
The in house hire for OC along with a good dedicated QB coach will end up being a net positive vs what we had last year. I know its a whole lot easier to just jump on the negativity bandwagon which you always seem to do, but realistically with Guy like rudolph or callahan we will end up going into this season with a better staff top to bottom than we had last year. Freeman has at least earned the benefit of the doubt with his hires to date and staff he put together last year, so I will give him that.

Nick Saban disagrees but with a good ol coach we should be close or better.

 

[TheRealLynch51]

I don't know enough myself. That's why I read and listen to those who do know. For instance, I was telling people on here that Quinn was going to be garbage before it became evident.

Not because I know so much but because people who do know, were saying it. I got a lot of pushback from it and it turned out those guys were right. I think it was the guys from Irish Breakdown.(I watch like 4 of them)

I dont know any who are impressed with this list. A couple of the podcasts are saying that wisconsins line regressed when Rudoph took over.

To your point though, Driskell isn't high on Rudolph either ("I dont think he's a bad coach either"), but is high on Blazek. He says he really likes Minnesota's run game in recent years too, but hasn't dove into Callahan enough to form an official opinion yet. List seems fine to me and to others who evaluate tape as well.

 

[Giddyup]

I’d like us to look at Bart Miller Illinois ol coach. He was ol coach under Bielema at Wisconsin when they were running all over people.

 

[Giddyup]

We’re going to have to make one of these guys one of the highest paid assistants in football if we want to get them from a P5 school.

 

[Irish4life]

We’re going to have to make one of these guys one of the highest paid assistants in football if we want to get them from a P5 school.

I know that the narrative of the offseason is that ND won't spend money on assistants, but we did poach 3 guys from other P5 staffs (McCullough, Stuckey, Parker) last offseason. And outbid Georgia for Al Washington.

 

[Giddyup]

Yeah. If we go big on our ol coach the stingy narrative gets pretty weak.

 

[NDRock]

Yeah. If we go big on our ol coach the stingy narrative gets pretty weak.

I don’t think the narrative is that ND is stingy, it’s that they refuse to go all in. They prefer to go 90% of the way there. I guess it makes them feel like they’re not some common football factory.

 

[Sea Turtle]

To your point though, Driskell isn't high on Rudolph either ("I dont think he's a bad coach either"), but is high on Blazek. He says he really likes Minnesota's run game in recent years too, but hasn't dove into Callahan enough to form an official opinion yet. List seems fine to me and to others who evaluate tape as well.

Blazek might do well if he decides to come here. He does like Minnys run game. He just doesn't seem too excited about the list. It's like he's discussing the menu at McDonalds. 'We'll, the quarter pounder with cheese deluxe is pretty good. I like it for lunch sometimes'.

It just seems that if we our O-line U and if this position is as coveted as tgecbeat wants us to believe, this list should be quite impressive.

 

[ND87]

Is Rick Dees dead or alive?

No...
This is Dead or Alive

 

[TheRealLynch51]

Blazek might do well if he decides to come here. He does like Minnys run game. He just doesn't seem too excited about the list. It's like he's discussing the menu at McDonalds. 'We'll, the quarter pounder with cheese deluxe is pretty good. I like it for lunch sometimes'.

It just seems that if we our O-line U and if this position is as coveted as tgecbeat wants us to believe, this list should be quite impressive.

I'll wait for the hire and film breakdown after before we attempt to judge how "excited" Driskell is. Otherwise, we're just trying to judge his "excitement" on two paragraphs of text.

 

[Sea Turtle]

I'll wait for the hire and film breakdown after before we attempt to judge how "excited" Driskell is. Otherwise, we're just trying to judge his "excitement" on two paragraphs of text.

That's fair.

 

[ulukinatme]

No...
This is Dead or Alive

ND coaching searches spin me right round, baby, right round.

 

[irishog77]

No...
This is Dead or Alive

Excellent!

Post of the year right here!

 

[irishog77]

No...
This is Dead or Alive

Is Pete Burns the one who now looks like Marilyn Manson and the Hippie Muppet’s love child? With an overdose of botox?

 

[irishog77]

 

[GoIrish41]

Is Pete Burns the one who now looks like Marilyn Manson and the Hippie Muppet’s love child? With an overdose of botox?

You might be thinking of history documentarian Ken Burns. 🙂

 

[StPaul_Irish]

I’d like us to look at Bart Miller Illinois ol coach. He was ol coach under Bielema at Wisconsin when they were running all over people.

You can get a good look at a butcher by sticking your head up his ass...Wait, it's gotta be your bull.

 

[TheRealLynch51]

Loy with the most Loy update today. Rudolph and Callahan are the most mentioned names and a hiring decision should be made by the end of the week. He also still pumps that he had them both on his list of 20 some people. Lolzzz

 

[Fbolt]

I knew all this a month ago