Potential Notre Dame Running Back Coach Candidates
Lance Taylor has been looking for an opportunity to advance his career as either an offensive coordinator or head coach. He now has that opportunity with Louisville.
That leaves Notre Dame without a running backs coach, but much like the defensive line vacancy created by the departure of Mike Elston, there will be plenty of strong options available for Marcus Freeman to pursue.
It starts with a name that Notre Dame fans are already very familiar with.
Tony Alford - Assistant head coach for offense and running backs coach at Ohio State
Everyone knows all about his resumé already. He can coach and he certainly can recruit.
Would he be open to coming back? I think there’s a far better chance with Freeman as his boss than it was if Brian Kelly was still around. He makes good money and he would need a similar title to the one he has at Ohio State to have a shot, but it’s definitely worth exploring to see if he might want to return to Notre Dame.
Lou Ayeni - Running backs/recruiting coordinator at Northwestern
It’s always a challenge to take a coach away from his alma mater, but it’s undeniable that it would be a step up for him in every sense at Notre Dame. He previously worked for Matt Campbell at Toledo and Iowa State and did an awesome job identifying under the radar recruits like David Montgomery and Kareem Hunt.
That’s something that Lance Taylor did a nice job with for Notre Dame as well so adding someone who can evaluate like that would help fill the void that Taylor is leaving.
Deland McCullough - Associate head coach and running backs at Indiana
This is another name Notre Dame fans should be familiar with as his name has come up before when this position was open previously. McCullough was at Indiana from 2011-2016 before moving to USC for a season. He then went to the NFL and was on staff with the Kansas City Chiefs while they went to back to back Super Bowls.
He’s back at Indiana and his son signed there, flipping from Ohio State, and he has another son who is committed there. Both of them are blue-chip prospects. Maybe that will be enough to keep him there and not consider the Notre Dame job, but my guess is that if he left, Notre Dame would benefit from his boys following him.
He’s a very strong recruiter and this would be one of those hires that checks all of the boxes.
Kenni Burns - Assistant head coach and running backs at Minnesota
People like to poke fun at PJ Fleck, but there aren’t many who have an eye for coaching talent as strong as him and Burns is another example of that. He has done a great job at Minnesota and his backs have been super productive.
Another good recruiter, Burns could see this as a step to making that eventual move to become a head coach. He was mentioned as a candidate at Temple earlier this offseason.
Gary Brown - Running backs at Wisconsin
Brown is a long time NFL running backs coach who was with the Dallas Cowboys from 2013-2019. He has previous experience working the college game where he was the running backs coach at Rutgers in 2008.
The offensive coordinator on that Rutgers staff was current Notre Dame tight ends coach John McNulty. Connection and credentials make him an automatic candidate for the job.
Larry Porter - Running backs/assistant special teams at North Carolina
Porter has one of those resumés that can only be matched by a few position coaches in all of college football. He’s been a head coach (Memphis 2010-2011) and has worked at Texas, LSU, Arizona State, Auburn, and Oklahoma State.
He’s known as one of the best recruiters in the country at the position and he would be one more experienced hand along with McNulty and Harry Hiestand on the offensive side of the ball.
Michael Pitre - Running backs for the Chicago Bears
The Bears don’t have a head coach so it’s likely Pitre will be available and going back to the college game seems likely.
Prior to the Bears, he was at Oregon State where he did a fantastic job with Jemar Jefferson and Artavis Pierce. These two were not star recruits, but could have played for just about any program in the country.