How are we already entering year 4 of the Marcus Freeman era? Thanks to a fantastic run to the National Championship Game, Freeman enters 2025 with a healthy .767 winning percentage as head coach of the Irish. He’s now ahead of his predecessor in winning percentage and among Notre Dame coaches who have led the team for 3 years or more he’s inched ahead of Lou Holtz and Dan Devine in modern times and only Parseghian, Leahy, Layden, Rockne, and Harper have better marks overall.

After a successful 2024 season there was concern that several members of the Irish coaching staff would be poached and leave for other jobs although in the end only 2, one from each side of the ball, left for other pastures. Here’s where we stand with the current coaching staff and their place in the Notre Dame football world.

The New Crew

Defensive Coordinator: Chris Ash
Running Backs: Ja’Juan Seider

The hire of Ash feels like it’s trying to run it back with a similar Al Golden-type of fit/profile and it lacks the pizzaz that could’ve come with a more flashy, and perhaps younger, hire to run the Irish defense. But then you can’t blame Freeman for seeking out something culturally similar and in all likelihood someone who can continue Golden’s scheme and provide some stability in the near-term future. With the bar set high from last year (no. 1 in defensive FEI last year I’d like to remind everyone!) and a front-loaded schedule the pressure will be on immediately for Chris Ash. We’ll also mention if there’s room for improvement before the season begins there’s hope that Ash can be a little more committed and determined on the recruiting trail–something not believed to be a strength from Al Golden.

Despite his insistence on wearing a visor in 2025 there’s no questioning the HRH (Home Run Hire) of Seider, prying him away from Penn State after 7 years in Happy Valley. It’s difficult to imagine a better hire from a resume and experience standpoint, although 2025 offered an enticing opportunity for a new running backs coach at Notre Dame and Freeman certainly could’ve been just about as picky as he wanted to be with a strong hand to play with his personnel. As we look towards the next few months something splashy on the recruiting trail would be a good signal for the future.

Coming Back

Offensive Coordinator: Mike Denbrock
Wide Receivers: Mike Brown
Linebackers: Max Bullough
Strength & Conditioning: Loren Landow

Bringing Denbrock back was one of the national off-season highlights and praised by just about everyone except the gargoyles insistent the former staffer knew nothing but Brian Kelly’s scheme and Notre Dame would throw the ball all the time (they ran the ball 56% of the time in 2024 but perhaps not enough in the I-formation). There were some hiccups but overall a very successful season, especially dealing with the injuries up front. Was this the 8th straight year the defense outplayed the offense, though? I might suggest the next step for Denbrock is to put together a season where his side of the ball is clearly the better one–is that possible in 2025?

Notre Dame didn’t throw for even 200 yards per game, didn’t have the quarterback to push things much further, and the receiving corps has been in a multi-year funk. This was the 5th straight season without a 1,000-yard receiver and this should be the 4th straight year without a NFL Draft selection from Notre Dame. We’ll cut Mike Brown some slack for now but this will be an important 2025 on and off the field. He’s been on campus for 15 months and a recruit with a 0.900 Composite score has yet to verbal/sign with Notre Dame. The prospects to turn that around for this cycle don’t look awesome, either. The vibes aren’t great, although a developing Jaden Greathouse and a more efficient passing game could turn things around quickly in 2025.

If there was a national award for the best first-year assistant I would stump for Max Bullough being in contention last year. He is a rising star, still just 33 years old, and might be the one assistant we look back on 10 years from now and wished he’d stayed with Notre Dame for a larger role. So far his profile is outstanding (GA at Cincinnati, Alabama, and Notre Dame) with a tremendous first season developing a pretty young linebacker room in 2024. He does have the benefit of a former linebacker coach also being the head coach but I’ll be interested to see how things evolve with Golden (another coach with extensive linebacker experience) no longer here.

Bullough is DGT™

If you measure a strength program but how few players get injured it wasn’t a very good debut for Landow coming over from the Broncos. If you measure a strength program on how many players show themselves ready to make an impact on the field it was a great debut for Landow. The former is a popular critique for the message boards but the latter example of Notre Dame’s depth last year has to be a positive sign for Landow’s first season in South Bend. Don’t forget the new Shields Hall comes online in the fall of 2026 offering a substantial boost to Notre Dame’s strength and nutrition program–I’m sure it would benefit everyone if Landow is worthy enough to stick around and provide consistency as that project is rolled out.

Making a Home

Quarterbacks: Gino Guidugli
Offensive Line: Joe Rudolph
Special Teams: Marty Biagi

A trio of coaches above will be entering their third year in South Bend and have found various levels of success so far. Guidugli walked into the Sam Hartman transfer and that end result was maybe a touch disappointing but the work this past season with Riley Leonard was a thorough success with 38 touchdowns scored by the departing signal caller. He had to live with the Deuce Knight drama, re-load with the Hebert commitment, and has Noah Grubbs in the fold–a pretty solid situation navigated, although the 2027 cycle will have a lot of eyeballs on it in recruiting and of course the 3-way quarterback competition this off-season should provide an excellent challenge for Guidugli.

Joe Rudolph was supposed to have a good debut season in 2023 with a veteran line then anchored by future top draft picks Joe Alt (16 games started for the Chargers and 8th in ROY voting) and Blake Fisher (5 starts for the Texans). With the injuries in 2024 it would’ve been a good coaching effort to have a passable offensive line. Making it to 14 wins was some sort of Rudolph magic unexplainable by this website. Moving on from the (ahem) acquired taste of Harry Hiestand to Rudolph looks to be one of Freeman’s best decisions to date.

What kind of sorcerer do we have here?

Biagi was a bit of a last minute hire after Brian Mason bolted for Indianapolis (the Colts have been 20th and 19th in special teams DVOA by the way) after just one season with the Irish. His first season was a big success (4th in FEI special teams) while last year was more of a mixed bag developing an Australian punter and dealing with the injury to kicker Mitch Jeter. Big plays in big moments have been a hallmark of the Biagi special teams era and keep him a valued part of the coaching staff.

From the Beginning

Defensive Line: Al Washington

Washington remains the only new hire from Freeman’s first season that is still with the program. He was brought in from Ohio State where he coached linebackers with promise of big things in the recruiting game that haven’t really materialized over the years. It’s a testament to the overall strength of the coaching staff under Marcus Freeman that someone like Washington–who has done a very good job development talent on the field–is seen as an assistant needing to step things up in some respects. Due to his time in the program, background at some big programs, this could be the one job that opens up after 2025 by mutual consent.

The Holdover

Defensive Backs: Mike Mickens

This will be Mickens’ 6th season coaching at Notre Dame after he beat Freeman to South Bend from Cincinnati by one year. Still just 37 years old (a couple years younger than Freeman) he’s flying high right now as one of the most treasured assistants in the country. Most Irish fans believed he would get a long look at the briefly vacant defensive coordinator job or else he’d bolt for another position throughout the country, but he’s back again as the defensive backs coach. It’s possible Mickens sticks around long enough to eventually replace Chris Ash as DC for the Irish although this seems unlikely. Given his resume so far, Mickens should be a defensive coordinator at a good program, or a head coach somewhere, sooner rather than later.