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!
BREAKING #NotreDame is expected to hire #Memphis OC Chip Long as new offensive coordinator source tells @FoxSports: https://t.co/44JLPD224i
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 30, 2016
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.
Well glad to hear he is a tenacious recruiter. Wonder if he’ll stick around long though if he isn’t the one calling the plays.
Has he worked with QB’s before? I would presume he’d be the QB coach then too.
With his TE experience, I assume he is taking Booker’s duties there. But even with all we have heard/read about Kelly taking back the Playcalling, would Long have jumped for a non playcalling job?
Good point. I forgot the experience part as I got to the bottom. Just had our third child on Christmas Eve, so I haven’t been sleeping much!
So Long coaching TE’s maybe leaves Kelly himself with the QB’s?
Then again, Polian has had a history coaching TE’s too, and the younger the coach the less set they are at a position (you often see coaches having a history of coaching multiple positions). Though I wouldn’t feel confident that your first time coaching QB’s is at ND.
My final answer then is Kelly with QB’s with probably Long with TE’s.
Stanford just beat UNC despite David Shaw’s best efforts at the end of the game. They’re going to finish in the top 15 again. Grr.
One year as an OC? I…huh. Ok then.
The hire makes more sense if you think about it as being a TE coach with “top assistant” type status with the title… but presumably BK is just going to call plays, because if he goes down, he’ll go down swinging. Right?
The only thing about that explanation that doesn’t make sense is that we gave this dude a 3-year deal. If he’s not really the OC (i.e., playcaller), why does he deserve the Aranda treatment? Not my money, I suppose, but still.
I don’t understand why an OC would leave a school where he was the playcaller for a gig as a glorified TE coach. Sure, a bigger name school is nice, and maybe the 3-year deal is too good to pass up, but it makes way more sense to me in a “I want to progress my career sense” to go somewhere that, you know, you get to actually do your job. It’s why I’m completely at peace with Denbrock moving to Cinci and don’t really buy the “oh, it’s rats fleeing a sinking ship” talk I’m seeing in the media. Denbrock was going to do nothing more at ND that would get him ready to be a HC, so he went somewhere that he could, even if it’s a perceptual “step down.” It’s only a step down if you don’t understand that OC at ND under Kelly doesn’t actually equate to being an OC most other places. If your HC chops are based on having been an OC, you need to call plays.
The thing that bothers me in the 40 min I’ve known about this hire (kid’s B-day tomorrow, been at the movies and then supervising a party all day) is that this doesn’t give me any sense that BK is making any actual change on offense. This is a double-down, and he hired an “OC” who is “there to learn from him” (ie, be compliant and not make a fuss about not calling the plays.) That’s possibly fine, if Elko has the defense covered and fixed and ST improves and we can just go on about life; I was hoping for more shakeup, some change from BK. Granted, changes were more important on the other side of the ball, but I’m tired of the “we’re fine, everything’s fine” when it seems that the changes going on are more forced upon BK than any sense from him that he needs to do something different.
That all seems correct. I think if we know one thing about Brian Kelly as a football coach, it’s that he thinks his offensive scheme is just fine. He’s not going to change that in the year where he needs to save his job, which next year quite obviously is (I hope? Swarbrick has to think so, right?).
I’m ok with this. Defense and Special Teams both needed an overhaul, not sure that switching to a new offensive scheme too wouldn’t be playing with fire in a make or break year. Bring back the 2015 offense with a borderline top 25 D and we’re a playoff contender.
Also, another hire outside the coaching tree. This could’ve easily just been Jeff Quinn.
It is my understanding that he did not call plays at Memphis. Norvell, who was the ASU OC who got the Memphis gig and brought along Long, was the playcaller, I believe.
I think it’s premature to say that the offense isn’t going to change at all. Some of the early coverage I’ve seen suggests we might see a few tweaks.
First of all, Irishchamp23, congrats on child #3 ! Best of luck on catching up with the sleep pattern.
As far as all of the above comments, KG, you’re right, manifestly, this does not signal a change on offense. But per my previous post on the Brian Pollian thread, I think that Matt LaFortune has a good thought. Tossing in a whole sale revamp under a genuine, genuinely independent OC, at the very same time as a hopefully genuine reboot of the D and special teams, would just be too much change to handle at once. Better let BK do his thing on offense, ideally the new guy will help him coordinate the whole. My one hope is that having to work with an untested QB will make BK torque down his offense, with some increased emphasis on run, much as he wound up doing in 2012, and arguably, partly in 2015 (though having PJ have a breakout year helped there).
If “Better let BK do his thing on offense” means we throw 9-26 in a monsoon and lose to NC State, that’s a problem. I was hoping for an OC established enough that he could say “uh, coach…that’s a really dumb idea. Maybe we shouldn’t do that.” What we’re getting is another guy who will not challenge Kelly’s ego whatsoever. I’m not exactly “RTDBK” but I do know that you have to have an established run game you can count on to get yards when you need it. I don’t care if (in normal weather conditions) we throw the ball 40 times, but I want to believe we can convert a 3rd and 2 and not feel like it’s a passing down, or that dammit when the D knows we’re going to run, we’re more likely than not to get stonewalled.
I’m not smart enough to know if that’s a HC problem or OC problem or OL coach problem or recruiting problem, but I am smart enough to know it’s a problem. Even when we’ve had statistically GOOD running teams under Kelly. Kelly knows his teams suck at straight-ahead, move the pile running–hence we get NC State, despite all logic dictating you can’t throw more than 2 yards in that wind and rain. Trees fell down immediately outside the stadium during the game. Again, I don’t want a return to pre-Weisian offense when every pass felt like an adventure, but I do quite miss the days when 3rd and 1 was a given.
Didn’t call plays? Welp.
Not sure if you have ISD membership, but Jamie U has a good breakdown over there of Long’s offense and possible changes we might see at ND.
http://irishsportsdaily.com/s/1525/long-to-bring-more-uptempo-and-rpos-to-nd
I do not, I’m a poor grad student. Can you summarize?
As the headline suggests, he basically looks at Long’s use of tempo and RPOs. He’s generally optimistic about Long.
Actually that article – in the free part – says he did call plays. The way the 1st 3 paragraphs are phrased gives the impression that while we all thought BK was going to re-take possession of the offense he may not be with this hire. If this guy will call plays then your concerns might be met KG.
HAHAHAHAHA Eff Michigan.
Plus, it was a fun-ass game to watch!
In “fun with arbitrary endpoints”, Notre Dame and Michigan both went 1-3 in their last four games.
Also Notre Dame won twice as many games outside of its home state than Michigan did.
Amen. Always, always a sweet day (though I had to be up at 0430 to see it).
Since it’s New Year’s Eve (to be ever enshrined as that lovely Sugar Bowl win for the Natty vs da Bear Bryant and the C—– Tide) permit me as 18 Stripes’ Senior Person to wish one and all a very happy New Year. Success to the Irish beyond our wildest hopes and dreams, and confusion and ignominy to the Skunk Bears and their like!
PS NY’s Eve was also my dad Ray’s birthday, which made for some very wild and crazy parties in my youth. It all started in his senior year in 1936, when he went to tOSU for the Game of (That) Century; he roomed next to Bill Shakespeare, who as I am sure you all recall, scored the winning TD in that epic comeback, and as a consequence, dad promised the biggest NY Eve bash in ND history to anyone who could get to Minneapolis.
By all accounts he kept his promise! Which undoubtedly had a lot to do with the arrival of Frank Leahy just a few years later…
PPS Final blast from the past – my son Ray (’14) just gave me for Christmas “Loyal Sons” by Jim Lefebvre, which I have found to be a truly well done account of the 1924 Four Horsemen Natty year. As long as we are all hanging around Eric’s (truly great) site, we may as well celebrate genuine glorious tradition, not that hoked up c__p that Eric so nicely skewered from the 538 whatever thing.
Folks seem to gripe about Kelly’s play-calling a lot which is an opinion I don’t share, although I won’t belabor that point.
In the interest of moving the discussion along, here’s a question for someone more in the know than me: what work goes into “coordinating an offense?”
The current position coaches know what to teach, I mean, zone blocking & the zone read aren’t going anywhere and I presume 80 – 90% of the playbook stays, but I’d guess Long will add a few plays, do some quality control and let Kelly know what elements of each week’s gameplan are & aren’t installing well, and then help script plays & get each week’s play-call sheet assembled? I’m sure every team’s offense operates slightly differently but, absent play-calling, what unique, non-position-coach- or recruiting-related responsibilities might Long have?
I hope Long calls the plays. I have not been impressed by Kelly’s playcalling. I will not be calling for his head anymore if Long calls the plays and the team is much improved. So far I am impressed by the coaching hires.
Is this guy related to Howie Long? If so, I wonder if he is a Chip off the old block.
TCFKAO….I have a New Year’s resolution for you.
Polian takes Bookers place as STC. Who is going to coach the WRs?
Sanford coached the QBs. I guess Long or Polian can take WRs and TEs. Who is going to coach the QBs?
we have one spot, depending on what Elko does.
He was a fullback coach? Why didn’t you just start and end with that!? He was a fullback coach!