6 Thoughts on a Thursday

The excitement of naming Marcus Freeman as head coach at Notre Dame had a lot to do with his charisma, work ethic, and his track record as a recruiter. Fans were also excited that him being promoted meant continuity within the program.

Most people understand that what helped the Irish reach the heights they have in the last five seasons after the rollercoaster experience of the early Brian Kelly years had a lot to do with the collective coaching staff. Elevating Freeman meant they were going to keep most of the staff intact.

That was the plan, at least.

If circumstances were different, Lance Taylor and John McNulty would have stayed at Notre Dame. It just so happened that both were offered opportunities to be offensive coordinators at other programs. With Notre Dame already moving on from Del Alexander and Jeff Quinn, that means that the only coach returning on the offensive side of the ball is Tommy Rees.

If there can only be one, then it might as well be the most important one. That’s to say that things would be worse if the others were staying and Rees were gone.

It’s still not ideal to lose two coaches who played a big role in the success of the offense the last two years. Both of them were attractive candidates to be coordinators for a reason. This does mean that there are now only four on-field coaching staff members returning with Freeman, Rees, Mike Mickens, and Chris O’Leary. And now it looks much more like a new coach having to put his stamp on things than keeping the band together.

How that will work out immediately in terms of staff chemistry and new coaches having to play a bit of catch up in recruiting is to be determined. Taylor and McNulty were valuable resources for Rees as well and that will be missed, although Deland McCullough and Gerad Parker can hopefully fill some of that void.

But having a mostly new staff composed of coaches Freeman and Rees want should give both of them a chance to establish something new and different at Notre Dame. The uncertainty of how it will all work compared to the previous staff working together well may cause a bit of nervousness, but things were likely headed in this direction soon. McNulty and Taylor weren’t going to be around for that much longer. This just accelerates things.

During Freeman’s first speech to the team he said, “Things aren’t changing. We’re going to enhance what we do, but things aren’t changing.”

Things changed more than he had originally planned, but the mission remains the same. With the hires they’ve made so far, they have the potential to enhance the program and that’s what matters. Time will tell if the changes they didn’t plan on making right now work out for the best.

2. As we wait for the final coaching position to be filled, I feel like a public service announcement is needed.

Anthony Weaver is not going to be the next defensive coordinator at Notre Dame much like Andy Heck was not going to be the next offensive line coach.

It’s not that Weaver wouldn’t be a qualified candidate, but as someone in the NFL who is currently interviewing for coordinator jobs, he’d have to show a real desire to coach in college before he would even be a consideration. Until that happens or he’s looking for work, he’s still the defensive line coach and run game coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, then you can pretty much forget about it.

I think it’s great if Notre Dame former players are on staff because they walk into the job knowing what the school and the program are all about. There is no worry about fit.

At the same time I think people tend to get carried away with the idea of getting coaches to leave the NFL for what would be considered a step in the wrong direction with their coaching careers. Rather than hope established NFL coaches like Weaver and Heck do that, it’s far more reasonable to hope that young college coaches like Tyler Stockton and Maurice Crum are able to ascend to the point where they get a chance to be on staff at Notre Dame one day in the future.

3. Lost in the fact that it was an entirely uneventful signing day for them, Notre Dame finished fifth in average recruit ranking for any team that signed more than 10 players (USC shouldn’t be mentioned for the eight kids they signed).

No one is going to talk about it because they are busy making fun of Brian Kelly not signing the kid he danced with or they’re focusing on Jimbo Fisher’s rant about “Slicedbread”, but don’t forget that Notre Dame signed their best class in nine years even without signing a high school player yesterday.

4. Devin Aupui, Khari Gee, and Jojo Johnson all never made it a year at Notre Dame, which isn’t all that surprising given that they were late additions to the class in a unique recruiting calendar.

There’s already a good number of players from the 2021 recruiting class that have already made an impact on the field and there are more that look like they have bright futures at Notre Dame, but I do wonder what will be the results with many of the players who would be closer to the “project” category much like Aupui, Gee, and Johnson.

How many hits are they going to get on the guys they couldn’t evaluate in person?

This brings me to one particular “project”. I don’t think there is a greater enigma from the class than defensive lineman Jason Onye. He has the kind of frame that any coach would want, but he didn’t have a senior season, is from a state that doesn’t play a super high level of football, and was super raw as a junior.

He also plays a position where they just signed two very talented players in Aiden Gobaira‍ and Tyson Ford‍ and the two commits they have in the 2023 class are both elite prospects as well.

It would be easy to see him get lost in the shuffle if he isn’t making considerable strides this year. He’s a player where I have no idea what his ceiling is, but he’s probably close to the bottom floor with his development and has a long way to go.

I don’t think he’ll get much time to get to where he needs to be as a player because I don’t see them recruiting any worse on the defensive line going forward. Saying that he needs to have a monster offseason is an understatement.

5. I don’t know if Jim Harbaugh staying is going to be a good or bad thing for Michigan because now it feels like there will be constant uncertainty he’ll leave for the NFL, even if he is saying that he is staying there for the long haul now.

Maybe before someone like offensive coordinator Josh Gattis would have been fine waiting to get a good Power 5 head coaching job before leaving, but now it would seem more likely that he pulled an Elko and took a Duke level gig if it’s open next year because of that uncertainty. That’s something to monitor that could definitely affect their recruiting.

I do find it hilarious that it was portrayed that Harbaugh was going to take the job and then it was spun that he turned them down before it came out that he was never offered the job.

Harbaugh is known for wearing out his welcome everywhere and it was this close to coming to that at Michigan before last season. So what happens if Ohio State beats the breaks off of Michigan next year? Or if they lose those one score games like the ones they won against bad Nebraska and Penn State teams this past year?

Harbaugh could get it rolling at Michigan, but it wouldn’t shock me if they imploded either.

So congratulations, Michigan fans! You got your Michigan man back. 

6. Notre Dame has had 26 players (and counting) transfer or who are currently in the portal with the intention to transfer during the last two years. Only three of that group were projected to be in the two-deep when they left (Ovie Oghoufo, Dillan Gibbons, and Lawrence Keys).

The Irish definitely would have been better off with more bodies at receiver, but they didn’t miss not having Keys last year and it’s not likely they would have missed much with those younger receivers in future years.

Gibbons would have been nice to have for depth and he did well with his chance to start at Florida State, but his athletic limitations are the same as Cain Madden’s so I’m not sure he would have made a big difference if he had stayed at Notre Dame.

Oghoufo seemed like the most significant loss at the time he decided to transfer, but comparing his year to Justin Ademilola, who replaced him at Vyper, it's pretty clear that the Irish got the better end of that. Oghuofo had some flashes at Texas, but his pass rush win rate according to PFF was 6.8%. Ademilola’s win rate was 12.6%.

Several players who weren’t going to play at Notre Dame had a chance to play a bigger role with their new team. Meanwhile Notre Dame didn’t lose any kind of production that would have impacted their record in the last two years while they had contributions from transfers like Madden, Jack Coan, Isaiah Pryor, Nick McCloud, and Ben Skowronek.

Throw in them picking up Brandon Joseph this year and I’d say that the transfer portal is working out pretty well for most of the former Notre Dame players who were looking for new opportunities and it’s worked out very well with what the program has gained from the players coming in.

I know there are a lot of critics of the portal and I’ve even seen some on the ISD board claim it’s ruining college football. For some players who go in without knowing they have a future school lined up, maybe there’s some truth to that. For Notre Dame’s players and the program in general, I think it’s enhanced it.