The effort to rebuild the Notre Dame coaching staff continues and reportedly added a major piece on Friday afternoon. According to Bruce Feldman at FoxSports, the Irish are set to hire Memphis offensive coordinator Chip Long for the same position in South Bend.

Long, 33 years old, just finished his first year at Memphis where he came from Arizona State after following Mike Norvell from Phoenix in the wake of Justin Fuente taking the Virginia Tech job.

Chip Long spent 4 seasons under Todd Graham where he first made his name as a tenacious recruiter.

CHIP LONG COACHING HISTORY

2016: Memphis (Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends)
2012-15: Arizona State (Tight Ends/Recruiting Coordinator)
2010-11: Illinois (Tight Ends/Fullbacks)
2008-09: Arkansas (Grad Assistant, Tight Ends)
2006-07: Louisville (Grad Assistant)

An All-American tight end at North Alabama University, Long welcomed his first child back in June so he’s had one busy 6 months!

Memphis was expected to take a big step back offensively without Fuente and 1st-round quarterback Paxton Lynch but Chip Long was able to keep things running at a high level in 2016. Using JUCO transfer and former Tennessee quarterback Riley Ferguson, the Tigers averaged 38.8 points per game and finished as the #37 offense according to the S&P+ rankings. The prior year, Memphis averaged 40.2 points per game and were the #28 S&P+ offense.

In terms of style, should Long have the offense put in his hands there doesn’t appear to be a major difference in style with what Notre Dame has run in the past. The Tigers were a fairly pass-heavy offense (443 pass attempts vs. 487 rushing attempts) although Ferguson wasn’t used nearly as much in the running game as Kizer at Notre Dame. With sacks removed Ferguson ran for under 200 yards compared to 472 yards for Kizer.

Overall, Memphis finished with the #52 rushing offense according to S&P+ which is probably the most concerning part of this hire. Although, the Tigers did a great job spreading the ball around as their top running backs all received at least 87 carries and each tailbacks averaged over 5.0 yards per rush.

Should Long stick around Notre Dame for a while he’s built a reputation as a tremendous recruiter which should work out well, especially with his experience coaching tight ends.