Potential Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator Candidates
There's no time to waste for Brian Kelly as the AFCA convention starts this Sunday. He has to be in search mode immediately to find his next defensive coordinator now that Mike Elko is gone.
I'm sure he'll start with two guys who are already on staff and then work his way down his list from there. Here are some potential candidates Notre Dame may choose to look at for the position.
Mike Elston
Why he’s a fit:
Loyalty. That’s at the top of the list. He’s a BK guy and is the last BK guy standing from all of his previous FBS stops. He’s not going anywhere else and he cares about Notre Dame.
In his brief time running the defense as an interim DC after BVG was fired, the defense improved statistically under his watch. They were dreadful in those first four games and then moved up to average after, but getting them to average was an accomplishment.
The team gave up 6.18 yards per play in the first four games of the season and 454 yards per game. It improved to 384.4 YPG and 5.2 YPP against five Power 5 programs after that game (excluding the hurricane game). That would have finished 26th in YPP for the year against Power 5 competition for that entire season.
Why he might not be a fit:
Inexperience. That’s certainly a factor as he only has that interim stretch of games where he was running the defense. His defense faced two offenses in the top-30 in S&P+ (USC and Navy) and those weren’t great games for his group. We never really got a sense of his style as a play-caller other than he was vanilla to counteract the 31 flavors defense of BVG. It’s hard to say what his defense will look like and that’s not comforting.
It also has to be considered that he was recently seen as a defensive line coach better suited to coach in a 3-4 and now he would be expected to run a 4-3 (or 4-2-5).
Clark Lea
Why he’s a fit:
Continuity. He knows the current defense well from having coached with Elko twice before Notre Dame. If Kelly is happy with the scheme, then Lea is the right call to take over. He’s also probably the best call to make if you want to keep current players happy. He helped Te’Von Coney and Drue Tranquill have breakout years at linebacker and with him gone, they may look to the NFL instead of sticking around for next season.
Although he has worked with Elko in recent years, he’s also worked under other respected defensive coaches like Chuck Bullough at UCLA and Scott Shaffer at Syracuse. It says something that coaches like Bullough and Elko want to bring him along with them as well.
The guy is a darn good football coach. He’s young, bright, and going to be a defensive coordinator for somebody someday. This could be his day.
Why he might not be a fit:
It’s as simple as inexperience. He hasn’t called a defense during his career. That doesn’t mean he can’t do it, but even Elston’s eight games is more than Lea has on his resume. He’s also not as commanding and fiery as Elko is. Kelly may be looking for that same type of personality to run the defense and in that sense Lea would be different.
Alex Grinch - (Reported) Ohio State CO-Defensive Coordinator
Why he’s a fit:
Mount Union is one of the greatest college football dynasties ever and Grinch is an alum. They have produced plenty of great coaches too and he is a rising star to add to the list. He did a tremendous job coaching safeties at Missouri before moving on to Washington State to run their defense the last three seasons.
Grinch took over a group that was one of the worst in the Power 5. They were ranked 101st in S&P+ the year before he arrived. This past season they rose all the way up to 29th.
Much like Mike Elko, he’s had success with doing more with less. They never attracted top defensive talent to Pullman yet he was able to coach them up to play above their projected talent level. He ran what was essentially a 4-2-5 defense that was great at creating pressure. They finished 24th in Havoc Rate this past season.
Notre Dame would give him a chance to continue to call his own defense as the lone DC too. As a bonus, he is also originally from the Midwest.
Why he might not be a fit:
It will probably be tough to pull him away from Ohio State now that he is already set to join their staff next week. As an Ohio native, it’s an ideal fit for him as well. The only pull would be for him to have it completely be his defense and not be a be the second guy after Greg Schiano. Is that enough to steal him from Urban Meyer?
Although he is considered a good recruiter, he hasn’t recruited nationally before.
Scottie Hazelton - Wyoming Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
Why he’s a fit:
This may seem like an odd name to include because I’m sure most Notre Dame fans have not watched much of Wyoming, but the 44 year old Hazelton is a name to watch out for. He previously worked for Brian Polian as his defensive coordinator at Nevada for one season (2013), so there is some familiarity there with the staff. There is also a track record of success.
Before Nevada he was the DC for FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. He was on Craigh Bohl’s staff that won a national championship in 2011 and the defense was huge in them winning it. They were ranked 1st in the nation in scoring defense and averaged over two takeaways a game.
He coached linebackers at USC for one season and in the NFL with Jacksonville the last three years before rejoining Bohl at Wyoming. The defense was ranked 96th in S&P+ in 2016. They rose all the way up to 7th this season.
They also leaped up from 76th in Havoc Rate all the way up to 34th. They led the nation in takeaways with 38, were 9th in scoring defense, 21st in yards per carry, 9th in YPP. And he runs a 4-3.
Why he might not be a fit:
I’m not sure what the relationship with him and Polian is like after he left Nevada’s staff after only a year. The Nevada defense wasn’t very good that season either. He’s only recruited at the Power 5 level one year and at the FBS level for three.
Orlondo Steinauer - Fresno State Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
Why he’s a fit:
A former star player and then DC in the CFL, Steinauer made the move with Jeff Tedford to the college game to coach at Fresno State this season. His experience in the wide open Canadian game gave him a unique philosophy with his hybrid 4-3 that has turned their defense around and helped them get to 10 wins and win the Mountain West conference.
They’re another dramatic climber in S&P+ going from 84th to 13th. Fresno finished 10th in scoring defense, 17th in YPP, 17th in yards per carry, and 16th in yards per attempt. They did all of this while being overmatched in non-conference games against Alabama and Washington.
His defense held Rashaad Penny to 69 yards against San Diego State. The same Rashaad Penny who rushed for 2,248 yards on the season and gashed Arizona State and Stanford for a combined 391.
The Bob Chmiel stat of the season is that Steinauer’s defense also held Bob Davie’s option offense to 2.95 yards per carry.
Why he might not be a fit:
I’m not someone who looks down on a coach who has not done it at a certain level. I’m a believer that if you can coach, you can coach. In saying that, going from CFL defensive coordinator to having to recruit nationally at Notre Dame is a different world. I don’t know enough about Steinauer to know if he can make that transition and be successful right away.
Bob Diaco - Former Nebraska Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
Why he’s a fit:
Familiarity. Diaco remains close to Kelly after coaching with him during his first four seasons at Notre Dame. The defense in those years was also a very good group. There is no denying that and I’m not just talking about 2012. They finished 10th, 11th, and 8th in S&P+ during his first three seasons. That’s pretty darn good and we know that the defense was the strength of all three of those teams.
Why he’s not a fit:
He is a 3-4 coach and that scheme doesn’t really fit the personnel right now. At least not the way he runs his 3-4. His defenses have also not been very good since 2012 other than one year.
They finished 53rd in S&P+ during his final season at Notre Dame. During his three seasons as head coach at UCONN, they were 78th, 32nd, and 87th. That improvement and then regression is not encouraging. His Nebraska defense was a dreadful 109th.
Those kind of numbers would make it a public relations disaster to bring him back and that’s before we get into his lack of passion for recruiting that ultimately hurt the defense after he left Notre Dame. It’s tough to think that it would be considered anything other than bunting for a single as opposed to a homerun if Diaco was hired.
Jim Leonhard - Wisconsin Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
Why he’s a fit:
Leonhard took over Wisconsin’s defense after only one year of coaching defensive backs at the school. The Badgers defense didn’t miss a beat with him replacing Justin Wilcox. They actually were slightly better moving from 7th to 3rd in S&P+. They ranked in the top-10 in virtually every defensive category of importance including being second in Havoc Rate.
He said this about his current program and I don’t think there is a better explanation as to why he would be a culture fit for Notre Dame. “
I feel like we do it the right way (at Wisconsin). We’re not the only team doing it the right way, but we’re one of them.
“To me, the recruiting side of it, just everything outside of coaching, I know I want to be in a place where you truly believe in the product and you truly believe in the university.”
Notre Dame is one of the places that does it the right way and it might be why he didn’t end up at Florida State as their DC despite receiving interest.
Why he might not be a fit:
For one, he’s an alum of Wisconsin and seems to be happy there. Notre Dame would have to step up with a big offer to gain his interest.
He ran a 3-4 at Wisconsin as well so we don’t know much about him being married to that scheme or not. He played several years in the NFL under Rex Ryan, who was a 3-4 coach, but was multiple with his defense. So perhaps he is open to adjusting to the personnel on hand. We just don’t know that.
He inherited a veteran defense and Wisconsin has been great on defense for many years. How much of it is the system and culture already in place and how much of an impact did he make? That’s another unknown for someone who has only run a defense for one year.
Kerry Coombs - Ohio State Assistant Coordinator, Defense/Cornerbacks/Special Teams Coordinator
Why he’s a fit:
Coombs was a very successful high school coach in Ohio before joining Brian Kelly’s staff at Cincinnati. He did a tremendous job there and continued to do so under Butch Jones before Urban Meyer hired him away.
No one in the country has been better at developing cornerbacks and Coombs is a tenacious recruiter. His previous experience working with Kelly is certainly part of this, but there aren’t many more respected coaches than Coombs in any part of the country. If he wanted to, he could have been running a defense at other schools and was rumored to be offered the DC job at Cincinnati last offseason.
Why he might not be a fit:
He has never called a defense at the college level. He is more than capable of doing it, but he simply hasn’t so he doesn’t have the long track record that most people would like to see. He seems pretty happy at Ohio State and it’s not even clear he would leave for any job.
This would obviously be a promotion for him, but he might be content where he’s at for the rest of his career. He’s 55 years old.
Derrick Ansley - Alabama Defensive Backs
Why he’s a fit:
Nick Saban is the Jedi master of defense in college football and he’s had a bunch of paduans that have learned from him and been great coordinators. In addition to Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, he has Mel Tucker, Kevin Steele, Jeremy Pruitt, Will Muschamp and Mark Dantonio that have worked for him that have had a lot of success on that side of the ball.
Ansley has been on the Alabama staff for two years and was previously with Saban before as a graduate assistant. He was coaching defensive backs at Tennessee and Kentucky the previous four years before coming back to Alabama.
I’m just a believer that someone who Saban thinks is qualified enough to coach the position he cares about most is someone I would want to talk to about defense. That’s why he’s on this list. Pruitt, soon to be the coach at Tennessee, was the defensive backs coach at Alabama before being hired by Jimbo Fisher as the DC for Florida State’s national championship team so there is some precedent for this working out well.
Why he might not be a fit:
He has not called a defense, although he was being promoted to CO-DC at Kentucky before Saban brought him back to Tuscaloosa. He’s also from Alabama and has never coached outside of the south. He will probably not stay at Alabama forever, but the SEC is probably where he will be coaching for a long time. Who knows, Saban might even make him the next DC at Alabama.
Jimmy Lake - Washington Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
Why he’s a fit:
Lake is ready to run his own defense and won’t have the opportunity to do that at Washington with Pete Kwiatkowski doing a fantastic job. He was rumored to be taking the Cal DC position last year, but ultimately didn’t. Notre Dame would be a different story.
He is one of the top defensive back coaches in the country and recently had three players taken in the top two rounds of the NFL Draft. With a young secondary this season they remained in the top-10 in yards per attempt after finishing 4th in 2016. They finished 8th and 26th in passing S&P+ the last two years as well.
He’s also a good recruiter who recently won a head to head with Notre Dame for Kyler Gordon and has experience coaching at the NFL level as well.
Why he might not be a fit:
It’s the same issue as others where he hasn’t had a chance to call his own defense. There is no doubt he has learned from one of the best in Kwiatkowski, but he would have to be a homerun in the interview to win Kelly over.
All of his college has been out west as well so he he may look to get back out there one day if he did land the job.
The “Not happening, so don’t ask” list
Virginia Tech’s Bud Foster - Been offered a ton of money to leave several times and always stuck around in Blacksburg.
Clemson’s Brent Venables - Notre Dame just lost a bidding war for their former DC so don’t expect them to get in a bidding war for Clemson’s.
Washington’s Pete Kwiatkowski - The Pacific Northwest version of Foster. He’s not leaving Chris Petersen. Miami’s
Manny Diaz - From Miami and in his dream job.