Max Bullough In-Depth on Notre Dame LB Room and Recruiting Process
Notre Dame entered the 2024 campaign with a plethora of talent at the linebacker position. In fact, Marcus Freeman, Al Golden and Max Bullough made it very clear Notre Dame would go with a five-man rotation early into fall camp.
The raw talent was easy to see on the practice field, but so was the inexperience. Captain Jack Kiser was the lone player who had true game experience as an every-down backer, so there were growing pains throughout the year.
Bullough embraced the challenge. Of Notre Dame’s top 10 tacklers this season, the Irish had five linebackers in that group, including Kiser, who led the team with 90 tackles, and first-year starter Drayk Bowen finished third with 78 stops.
“We’ve had a lot of growth in our room,” Bullough told ISD. “We started out as a young group, with the exception of Kiser. We’ve grown together as much as anything. We’ve grown to a unit. That’s helped everyone spread out and show their own talents. They gained confidence from being together and in it together.
“It’s been exciting to watch. There are four or five guys who have played quite a bit and you can point out things each one has gotten better at throughout the year.”
Notre Dame made it the National Championship game and the growth was evident throughout the year. Bullough deserves much of the credit, but he’s quick to credit his players for being able to adjust and learn on the fly.
“It’s a sharp room,” explained Bullough. “They keep you on your toes. They ask great questions. I really enjoy it. They’re very cerebral. We think alike, so we can go back and forth. If you come to our meetings, it’s a two-way communication. I’ve learned a lot just from preparing to present to them. You know they will come to the meeting prepared, so you want to make sure you have the answers to the test.”
The IQ of his room has also made him a better coach.
Bullough quickly learned his room was going to test his knowledge with high-level questions, which in turn made the entire defense better and not just the linebacker unit.
“Sometimes you put in a defense and they say, ‘What if they did this?’” stated Bullough. “I remember doing the same thing when I was them. At first, you get caught off guard, but similar to them, I try to have those answers before we go in there.
“To me, that’s just more checks and balances. They’re smart. They’re out on the field doing it. We come up with it, present it and they poke holes in it, so it only makes us better as a program.”
Recruiting is an area that Bullough has also had to master as he goes into his third year at Notre Dame and second season as the linebacker coach.
As with most coaches, the Traverse City (Mich.) native has an extensive checklist of what he wants in a linebacker, and Bullough is pretty firm about not straying too far from what he wants in a backer.
“They need to have the ability to get to the right size,” Bullough explained. “You can’t see man-to-man on tape a lot of times, so I love to see them go hunt the football. You can’t always coach that in terms of seeing the ball and going to get it and not stopping my feet. Just a laser vision of getting downhill, seeing through the smoke and making that play. That’s kind of combined with closing speed.
“Athletically, he has to do it in space. Do we have that on film, or do we have to evaluate it? That’s definitely my progression.”
Similar to Freeman, Bullough believes in-person evaluations are crucial to the offer and recruiting process.
Evaluation periods on the recruiting trail and camps are essential for Bullough to get an accurate read on a recruit’s athletic ability and if they would be an ideal fit at Notre Dame.
“It’s incredibly important and valuable,” said Bullough. “We’re sitting at home and we can say all we want. We don’t actually know. You don’t know what the kid looks like. What is his frame? How tall is he? What’s his weight and hands?
“We’re at Notre Dame. You have to be a Notre Dame kid a little bit. I think that’s something you can tell about a kid when you meet him in person.”
Bullough also appreciates Notre Dame’s teamwork to develop a recruiting board. It’s not just him or another person making the linebacker board, so there are multiple opinions that go into simply offering a prospect.
“We do a great job here,” Bullough stated. “It’s a group effort. There are a lot of opinions and a lot of people who are close to each situation, so there are multiple options on each kid. In my experience, you kind of have a gut feeling, or we as a group know who is better for the program.”
Perhaps Bullough’s most significant win on the recruiting trail was securing the signature from California linebacker Madden Faraimo in December, which turned into the prize recruit going through playoff prep with the Irish days later.
Faraimo obviously couldn’t play in the games, but his first month on campus wasn’t about that. It was about him finding comfort within the program and getting a headstart on spring football.
“I think Madden has done a great job coming in here and worrying about what he has to do to get his process and career started,” Bullough explained. “Right now, that’s been a lot of scout work and individual. It’s getting into a routine about what life is here.
“He’s jumping in on the back end of the season, which is a little uncomfortable for a high school kid. It’s about getting his routine down and how to make it work for him. For him to do that when we have practice and not just lift, will help him when we come back to practice in the spring.”
As for Faraimo’s future position, Bullough isn’t rushing it, and it’s likely that he will learn multiple spots during the offseason.
“We’ll evaluate where we want guys to be once the season is over,” said Bullough. “This year, everyone has played almost every position. That’s kind of the direction we’re moving. I wouldn’t pinpoint him at any spot right now.”
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