Monday morning Notre Dame announced that spring practice would begin on March 22nd and less than 2 hours later Tom Loy from Irish Illustrated broke the news that Joe Rudolph is set to become the next offensive line coach, replacing the departing Harry Hiestand who left South Bend for the second time after just one season.
BREAKING: Sources have informed #IrishIllustrated and #247Sports that barring a last second change, #NotreDame is expected to name Virginia Tech’s Joe Rudolph as its next Offensive Line coach.
“This is an elite hire” per a source.
Story: https://t.co/Y3Pz7U5IZ5@247Sports pic.twitter.com/GMiVNpuMn6
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) February 27, 2023
Although Rudolph and the new quarterbacks coach have yet to be formally introduced by Notre Dame, the 2023 coaching staff is all set and will look like this:
OC/TE – Gerad Parker
OL – Joe Rudolph
QB – Gino Guidugli
WR – Chansi Stuckey
RB – Deland McCullough
DC/LB – Alfred Golden
DL – Al Washington
CB – Mike Mickens
S – Chris O’Leary
ST – Brian Mason
Rudolph, a former player at Wisconsin, got his coaching career started as a grad assistant at Ohio State for 3 seasons before becoming the tight end coach at Nebraska and returning to Wisconsin to coach that same position for 4 seasons. He then moved to Pittsburgh with Paul Chryst to serve as their offensive coordinator and then moved back to Wisconsin with Chryst in 2015 to be the Badgers’ offensive line coach and then offensive coordinator for the 2020 season.
After being stripped of his OC status (during the Covid-shortened Graham Mertz extravaganza), Rudolph spent one more season in Madison before moving to Virginia Tech last year.
Rudolph was initially one of the top names rumored to be interested in the Notre Dame job and certainly brings with him a strong history of developing physical offensive linemen, and has shown a good pedigree as a recruiter, too. He’ll have an opportunity to jump right into recruiting for the Irish while getting to build around Joe Alt and Blake Fisher on the offensive line.
I am very excited to watch him work both in the long term with recruiting and scheming and in the short term with Alt, Fisher and co. up front and Estime/Diggs/Tyree
With our last coaching hire, the ensemble arguably is an improvement over 2022 not only in individual comparisons but also in as a group.
2022 – Tommy Rees OC/QB, Harry Hiestand OL
2023 – Gerald Parker OC/TE, Gino Guidugli QB, Joe Rudolph OL
Better than “Plan A” too? Andy Ludwig OC/QB and Jim Harding OL
With Parker’s in house promotion, MF’s experience at Cincy with Guidugli and Rudolph’s experience as TE, OL and OC coaching, this group should have no problem working together and improving offensive schemes and game planning.
I have no concerns about this group and their ability to coach the individual positions (I would also note your 2022 and “Plan A” proposals are leaving out Parker, who would have just been the TE coach in each of those scenarios). I think each of those guys will do well at helping the TEs, QBs, and OLs develop their individual skillsets.
I do still have a bit of concern about the overall Gameplanning/Gameday abilities of these coaches. I’m hopeful they will be able to put together a strong offense, but I would note the advanced statistics are not fans of each of Parker, Guidugli, and Rudolph’s most recent season as Offensive Coordinators (F+ has each of them coaching roughly the 70th best offenses during their final seasons as O Coordinators). Each of them certainly has a pretty good excuse for why their offenses struggled (lack of talent on roster, lack of QB, lack of QB), but it’s still a bit concerning.
With the level of talent we have, and the ability that these guys have shown to develop talent, I expect us to win 8+ games. The question is, in those 4 games against solid defenses in 2023, will they be able to out-coach the competition? I’m hopeful, and so far I’ve had no reason to doubt Freeman’s judgement, so hopefully these 3 guys (and really the rest of the offensive staff) are quickly able to develop an offensive philosophy that maximizes a really interesting group of offensive players this year.
Great points. As frustrating as the losses to Marshall and to Stanford were in sustaining drives, an interception for a TD and a fumble in the red zone respectively within the context of the development of a suitable offense resulted in losses.
After the Marshall loss, Eric wrote that Rees will be on the hot seat for the rest of the season and Hiestand probably needed to go and his hiring was a mistake. I wonder what the OF+ was at that point.
I wonder if new OLine offers will be going out as a result of Rudolph’s insight and relationship he’s developed in recruiting. Adding Hartman to our rushing attack should make our offense formidable.