Once the controversy of the Andy Ludwig decision to stay at Utah came to pass our writer’s room figured the continued search for a new offensive coordinator would be tight lipped (for real this time!) until things were truly signed, sealed, and delivered. Instead, reports came out almost immediately that Notre Dame tight end coach Gerad Parker was interviewing and 24 hours later reports from across the country confirmed that the offensive coordinator job is in fact staying in-house.
Notre Dame is also expected to sign Wisconsin’s Gino Guidugli to coach the quarterbacks after the Kentucky native recently joined the Badgers this off-season and knows Marcus Freeman from coaching at Cincinnati where he spent the last 6 seasons.
Thus wraps up one of the most depressing coaching searches in modern Notre Dame history.
1) I’ll start with some positives. There are plenty of people in and around Notre Dame who think Parker is a very good coach and thought really highly of Guidugli, too. What’s the mantra? No one really knows all that well how good or poorly a coach will do in a new or upgraded role. Everyone is wrong all the damn time. Perhaps this is something to keep in mind for the more impatient and demanding of us out there. There’s also something to be said for Freeman sticking with people he’s familiar with, it’s definitely not something that is always bound to fail, and you can see some advantages to this approach rather than bringing in a total and complete outsider.
2) There’s also the Sam Hartman factor and belief that the talented quarterback is going to make any transition for a new coordinator pretty smooth, and maybe even make the new set up look awfully good right out of the box. Especially when it comes to the early part of the season, the schedule is so easy and we may see some fireworks offensively that’ll be juxtaposed with some of the criticism that’s going to drown out most of this off-season.
3) Now some difficult questions. After diving deep into the Andy Ludwig offense I’m not too eager to look into whatever offense Gerad Parker prefers to run. Does he even have an offense at all? Not only are we looking at a situation where Parker really has no experience coordinating an offense from the ground up, I think there’s a real concern that Freeman will have his thumb (as a defensive coach) under whatever system Parker decides to run. That smells like it’ll cause some problems. Notre Dame currently doesn’t have an offensive line coach either and the lack of offensive experience overall is a bit concerning.
UPDATE: Per source with direct knowledge, Wisconsin assistant Gino Guidugli is scheduled to interview on Thursday in South Bend “with the expectation” he will be #NDFootball QB coach. @PeteThamel was first w/reported GG-ND link. #NotreDame
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) February 16, 2023
4) The immediate worry is that the players sense this isn’t a great hire or are disappointed in how this entire process played out while there are some longer term concerns about recruiting and what this means moving forward. Just about everyone involved with Notre Dame would’ve really struggled with the notion that Parker would be offensive coordinator if you told them as little as 2 weeks ago. I’m sure we will see plenty of “Parker is really well liked!” stories coming in the future that will obscure some harsher truths.
5) This felt like such an enormous hire for Freeman and backtracking to Parker in this manner simply feels awful. The pressure and amount of criticism that Parker and Freeman may take over this decision could really reach some nasty levels. Especially if we’re talking about Sam Hartman regressing, a major flop against Ohio State, or worse as the season progresses. That comes with the territory at Notre Dame to a degree, however, this opens the door to a new level of disdain. And honestly, it’s a weird feeling giving where Marcus Freeman stood as a whole vibe and young coach recently. The Irish fan base has never been so united in their disappointment in such a long time. That’s weird coming off a fun bowl win!
My gut instinct is that Notre Dame will be okay for 2023 just because it’s going to take some colossal poor decision making to screw up a veteran quarterback like Sam Hartman with plenty of good pieces around him. Still, any little screw ups will be magnified incredibly which is always the case more so for the offensive side of the ball even in good times. This could be really challenging for Freeman heading into 2024 when there’s another quarterback re-set. You’d hate to keep spinning your wheels heading into year 3 of his tenure but it’s possible Notre Dame is searching for another new offensive coordinator in 10 months.
Good write-up Eric. Now time for me to add to the negative vibes:
It appears that the initial positive spin out of the box is “well yeah but Clark Lea was inexperienced too!!!” which, people saying that can seriously go pound sand. There were stories all through the 2017 season about how Lea was a great LB coach who was a fit with the university, and that was well before the DC position came available. There was basically zero resistance to the Lea hire in real time, because (a) his reputation was sterling, (b) he was a known fit scheme-wise and culture-wise, and (c) Kelly had done well with the Elko/Long hires. None of (a), (b), or (c) apply here. Instead, the line on Parker all year was, in essence, “yeah he’s fine, probably a downgrade from McNulty but he has Mayer so no problem.” And now this dude is the OC. Remarkable.
When the best argument for somebody is “you never know how these things will go” – which, fair enough – things are not in a good place.
FWIW I think things will be fine next year, but as is implied here if things *aren’t* good then they’re probably going to need to fire Freeman after year 3, which woo boy can you imagine the media firestorm if that happens.
I’m afraid I have to share your pessimism. This is perhaps the very definition of an uninspiring hire. It will be made even more so if they follow through on naming Watt as OL coach. And honestly, they would deserve any media firestorm that occurs after kneecapping their new coach like this.
One good thing that comes of this for Freeman, is that he will be given more of a pass if he doesn’t succeed here, and may be able to transition to someplace where they will give him the support he needs to be successful.
The odds of Notre Dame firing Freeman after year three while he’s busting his butt on the recruiting trail and going to tons more alumni events than Kelly or Brey are really right at zero point zero percent.
Yeah it’s more likely that Freeman leaves for another job than gets fired after year three. The administration clearly doesn’t want to pay to retool the program, so they’ll ride this for as long s possible unless it bottoms out. Remember, the last two ND coaches to have losing seasons after a coupe, break in seasons not only weren’t immediately fired, one actually ended up with a big extension!
I could be wrong about that, but if things are bad next year the vibes are going to be so bad and, unlike Kelly after year 6 and Weis after year 3, there won’t really be much to point to to think it might work out in the end. If that is followed up by another bad season, you’ll have an admin that had two straight years of catching grief for being unserious about winning combined with a coach with zero track record of success who has had three at least somewhat disappointing seasons.
That is a worst case onfield-problems-only scenario and it’s very unlikely, but I think it’s within the realm of possibility. As Eric gets at, the vibes are already bad now!
But – winning cures all and if we’re 9-4 again or better this year that basically goes out the window.
Sorry for the long reply. Not really directed at you, more just expressing my total frustration.
The only reason I would agree that ND does fire Freeman after year 3 is because that is how inept the priests and administration have proven to be.
Imagine – “The only 2 coaches to be fired after 3 years at Notre Dame were both black.” This immediately after the school publicly announced that they don’t want to spend money to support said black coach.
It doesn’t matter who the coach is. It could be Saban, Holtz, Leahy, or Rockne Notre Dame will never win a national championship as long as the priests & administration and their kind that have been in power for 30 years, continue to be in power. They’re fine with a weekend like this where they get some bad press for fumbling negotiations. What they don’t want is a book like the Under the Tarnished Dome. They don’t want people coming around and doing deep dives into their business. That’s what happens when you’re already hated and you’re number 1. People try to tear you down.
When you’re top 20ish, they make fun of you for being Barney Fife. But they don’t do anything deeper than surface level investigation.
They have become wealthier than they ever imagined the last 30-40 years and now don’t have to bow down to anyone. Rumors of a BOT member willing to pony up the cash personally and was told no. There might be 5 or 10 families whose money they still need. They’ll take everyone’s, but actually need it might be 5 to 10 families and that number might be high.
It reminds me of a priest of my childhood parrish in central Illinois. He looked at the parishioners as a flock to serve his needs. We would have turkey dinners at Thanksgiving and he would come in and parade through the line being served. He wasn’t there to help, volunteer, and didn’t care about the success of the event. He stayed there for almost 30 years. IE look at Jenkins and the whole mask incident.
It’s classic corporate leadership and usory too. You finally have a coach who not only says all the right things but is out working 80 hours per week, recruiting, doing all the right things. You know he won’t complain or refuse to go to a donor event or show anyone up. Unlike the last guy who just would give you the bird and would throw hissy fits. Companies cowtail to people like Kelly all the time until there’s a breaking point. They use and abuse people like Freeman and eventually break them and throw them away or they leave on their own.
Thanks for listening to my rant. Probably sound crazy, but frustrated with the leadership in this country all across the board.
If the football program is struggling after Freeman Year 3, Swarbrick probably “resigns” and the new AD would be looking to bring in his own guy to run the football team.
But agreed, it would be an absolutely horrible look for the university.
As an aside…
Jenkins is finishing up year 18 this year and I believe his fourth term finishes in the summer of 2025.
Swarbrick is finishing up year 15 this summer.
I know there are rumblings that both of them will retire together. Notre Dame has had some super long tenures in both positions throughout history, but I’m not sure if it’s our modern bias, but both have been running the show for a really long time.
There could be some new blood when Freeman is entering make-or-break territory.
We can only hope! Only quasi sarcastic
I’m frustrated too, but I think most of this is not accurate.
It does matter who the coach is. Holtz, Leahy, and Rockne all won national titles under “the priests & administration.” Rockne threatened to quit almost every year to force the admin to put more money into the program. Making good, reasonable, qualification-based coaching hires is critically important to the football program. There is a clear model for a successful HC at ND. When ND follows it, it is successful. When ND departs from that model, it is a failure.
ND ignored every scandal under Kelly. They don’t actually care about that kind of stuff.
No one is doing this. The people in a position to do that, like Pete Sampson, are mouthpieces for the university. This is not a real concern for ND.
Thanksgiving dinner in Peoria is like COVID masks or something? Jenkins is a hypocritical doofus, but what on earth?
When did Kelly do this? ND gave him basically everything he wanted.
didn’t I see Sampson post something on Twitter that showed that Parker actually has more Power 5 OC experience than any OC hired before him at ND going all the way back to Haywood?
Well… doesn’t stealing MF’s buddy from the Badgers count for a positive? Assuming he’s as good as they say, that should help with Hartman and the QB room, plus influence the offensive identity in a plus fashion. Easier for the new OC to double hat as tight ends coach I would also think.
Good point noise. I do think Guidugli is the key to the changes that might be hidden x-factor. He’s a good recruiter and seems to be a solid person and coach. Hopefully his star continues to rise and what comes out of this whole thing is that he helps grow and lead the offense eventually.
Recruiting could benefit from this (over Ludwig) especially in the Midwest. Player development may too. I’m more skeptical about the Oline coach in these two aspects than the OC and QB coach.
I don’t think I necessarily have anything to add that hadn’t been discussed on every message board. It’s impossible to not question the process it took to get here and how all the optics appear. As has been stated it’s either incompetence or negligence. The admin has showed again and again they just aren’t interested in competing even close to the highest levels of college football.
Which brings me to my question:
what is best case scenario and worst case scenario?
If freeman succeeds(wins 10+ games for multiple seasons) in the face of all the hurdles in todays landscape he 100% leaves for a job with more support. and he would be cheered in a way kelly was vilified. Maybe the admin wakes up, but probably not.
If he loses 6-6 or worse for a couple years he probably does get fired.
But if he goes 8-4 ish for 3-4 years it’s just no man’s land and I think everyone stands still. Freeman would t have enough of a resume to take a bigger better job but he’d never get fired. True purgatory, washington wizards territory
it’s just funny, pretty much everyone agreed this was THE most important hire of freeman’s tenure and it was an absolute disaster.
Like I said above, I think that the way this has played out, public perception will definitely be that Freeman isn’t getting the support he needs here. I think he could parlay even 8-9 win seasons into an opportunity somewhere better, especially if he continues to have issues with Jack’s office.
The administration proved once and for all with this move that they are not serious about competing at the highest level. A coach who can keep them from being a national embarrassment, maybe make the 12-team playoff every few years, is exactly what they want. I think Freeman actually wants to be a championship level coach, and will eventually move on. I don’t think they’ll have the nerve to fire him, given the optics.
So LSU is probably a better job and alabama oc is a better job than nd but the question is what lateral move could he make that would shock us? Like if south carolina or some other second tier sec/big ten school that was all in on football and support and do everything to win came calling, i mean you could argue it would have a better path to winning
Oh, whenever Ryan Day goes to the NFL it’s going to be a knife fight between Fickle and Freeman for that opening, and loser gets the Penn State job.
I’m absolutely convinced that’s Rhule’s job if he does remotely well at Nebraska
What about Hartline if the timing works out? If Day leaves in the next 2-3 years and Hartline does well as the OC, it’s hard not to think they may promote him.
The second tier SEC team that will have an absolute mountain of cash sitting around will be Texas. If Freeman wins 10+ games for 3 years and Sark has them sitting at 9 wins, the offer Freeman gets might make Jimbo’s look like pennies.
There hasn’t been a day this century that Texas wasn’t a better job than ND, even with their insane boosters. You can win a natty there.
The more interesting thing will be if/probably when at this rate, somebody leaves ND to go to, e.g., Michigan State or Arkansas.
True, I guess when I was saying “second tier SEC team” I was talking about wins & losses. You are correct in terms of status, funding, etc. that Texas is a more desirable coaching destination.
Even with all this crap, I think ND is a better job than most of the SEC if only because the SEC has Goliaths in the way that aren’t moving and ND doesn’t have to deal with that. S Carolina, to use your example, can and has poured a ton of money into their program (them firing Muschamp was the first 2020 firing to signal that CFB teams weren’t going to let the pandemic stop them from eating buyout money) and it’s not gotten them a chance in hell of beating Georgia or Alabama in an important game yet and I don’t think there’s a reasonable path for them to do so.
yeah their best chance is home run hire PLUS UGA/Bama goes on the decline and even then it feels like a 50/50 shot.
You forgot throwing money at the program hoping to hit the jackpot on one of the spins.
I am starting to feel like there will always be trouble between Jack and CMF. The OC debacles
may just be because Jack feels like he got stuck with Freeman instead of someone he wanted, and he is just paying it back
Maybe not that bad, but I sense less collegiality and more ambivalence (at best) between the AD and his Head FB Coach
That’d be very surprising to me since it seemed more like Jack wanted to lock up Freeman instead of doing a full search last year
Agreed. I get the sense that Swarbrick does not like firing or hiring coaches and tries to avoid it. At least in football, he is a big fan of in-house promotions.
Last year they gave a perfunctory call to Fickell he said “I have a bowl game, we can talk later” and then we went and signed with Freeman. I’m not kvetching about going with Freeman but it does look like we really could have had Fickell if we wanted since it was not in fact waiting only for Ohio State
The PR from former and current players was rising pretty fast in CMF’s favor. The thought of being seen to slow walk MF would have detrimental effects on holding the class together and experiencing a mass transfer event.
Not to mention it seems pretty clear that Swarbrick was blindsided by Kelly leaving when he did and was pretty much panicking.
What evidence was there that Parker was forced on Freeman? Is that comment solely based on ND not hiring Ludwig? I don’t think that’s the same thing.
How was Rees forced on Freeman? He didn’t have to take the job.
I, for one, welcome our new QB coach/co-OC.
I know I’m very much in the minority on this but, other than looking foolish nationally with the Ludwig situation, I have a wait and see attitude. IMO that fiasco in the end means nothing. ND could have done everything right and Ludwig could have bombed.
There are certainly many aspects of an OC job that we can question whether Parker has the ability to do well. If Freeman doesn’t know those questions and have a good idea of the answers, then we were screwed no matter. I doubt Marcus Freeman has gone from being “the answer” to “let me out of here” because of what has transpired in the last week.
I’m willing to wait and see as well (what else can we do?) But if you hire your kid for a position, instead of a more qualified candidate, and it turns out that the kid’s not so bad, it doesn’t mean you did right.
But combine last week with the lack of flexibility on undergrad transfers, NIL, and getting outflanked for coaches by programs above and below you all in the name of “doing it the ND way”, I would at least not feel supported
Yeah, but also all 3 of those things are items he knew about before getting to ND (or at least should have known about) though. And so far, he’s said all the right things about how the “ND way” makes ND special.
This was nepotism ?
Coaches move all the time. You should expect about 1.5 changes a year. Rees moving and Heistand leaving were not unexpected developments. That chatter began a couple years ago.
ND does some things differently. That’s not news and some of those things aren’t going to change.
Agreed. The process surrounding Ludwig was a bad look and an unforced error to make themselves look foolish, but probably nothing major in the big scope of things that needs to be blown out of proportion.
The problem is the stated reason. The administration is clear that they don’t want to spend any extra money on football, despite it being the cash cow for the part of the university that isn’t just a giant tax exempt hedge fund.
It’s weird though, because quite a few people reported that ND was willing to match any salary that Alabama was going to offer Tommy Rees. A year after making him one of the highest paid coordinators in college football. To then follow up with this Ludwig situation makes it seem like possibly incompetence vs. just blatant cheapness (not sure which is worse though, incompetence or cheapness!)
Both?
https://18stripes.com/parker-guidugli-terrible-process-hopeful-future/#comment-46214
Using the phrase “they don’t want to spend any extra money on football” is what blows it out of proportion. When it comes to recent coordinator-level expenditures, Notre Dame spent extra money to have Freeman choose them over LSU. They spent extra money to give Rees a raise to retain him last year (and presumably were willing to do the same this year).
So let’s be accurate. They’re not willing to spend extra money on what would have been the biggest coordinator-level buyout for a B-level basic, 58-year old coach that isn’t a game changer. To be honest, I wouldn’t be thrilled to change the market in such a way, either.. (That said, they were very wrong and made undeniable and indefensible mistakes in the process to go as far as they did with Ludwig, should have never brought him into town given the details of his new contract with Utah).
I think we all know they have their quirks about what they are and aren’t willing to spend cash on, but approaching it like “all football spending bad” isn’t really true. It might not be the blank check, open book enough for some, which is fine, but that’s life.
The problem is ND cannot expect to be an elite program if they do not facilitate undergrad transfers AND do not facilitate top-of-the-market acquisition fees for players AND put players in non-air-conditioned dorms (I lived in Dillon; football players should not live in Dillon) AND have second- or third-tier football facilities AND don’t spend more money than everyone on recruiting and support staff AND don’t pay their coaches at the top of the market.
Just about everything about ND football other than the education they can offer is second-rate at best at this point. It’s hard to see how you don’t end up with a second-rate program with those inputs.
Sure, but this is what I meant about blowing this decision out of proportion to link it to all the existing problems of the program, ha.
Those are all issues and independent of this matter and they all would have remained regardless of flexing a little financial muscle to buyout a mid-level coordinator or not.
Humorously enough, if anything, such a move would be bound to backfire when the offense was only OK/pretty good to show ND is second-rate because they can’t even spend their money the right way to get a star coordinator. It’s always something lol
Yes, that’s fair. I think there are two distinct problems: (a) losing Ludwig/going with Parker and (b) how the failure to land Ludwig fits into bigger-picture issues with ND Football.
I think with respect to (a), it’s probably a step down, maybe not a you-need-to-set-the-market-for-this step down, but still as has been noted, Ludwig would be the most impressive OC hire of the century and Parker is… not somebody any other P5 school would hire as OC right now. Still, you really do never know, and Parker could end up being good or even great. Just no reason to think so.
With respect to (b), this is just more the epitome of ND doing ND things and being publicly seen as not really trying as hard as possible to win. Even if Ludwig would be distinctly better than Parker, the on-field difference there isn’t going to be as important as if ND started ensuring top-dollar payment for any recruit who can make it past admissions, for example. But ND could plausibly get away with not doing the latter and still claiming to be chasing championships; after this Ludwig fiasco it would be hard for anyone associated with ND football to say with a straight face that they are trying their best to play elite-level college football. And that’s really a bummer IMO.
Gotcha, I get where you’re coming from too, and don’t disagree fundamentally with what you’re saying at all. On Point A, I suppose I do push-back on the “Ludwig would be the most impressive OC hire of the century” — better than the young Sanford coming off a 12-2 Boise State Fiesta Bowl winner? I’d say no, but to each their own. Feels a little prisoner of the moment-y to me, or maybe I just am not as impressed by Ludwig as many here, which is cool too.
I also tend to think it will be some kind of Parker/Guidugli hybrid OC, we still are jumping the gun a bit and need to see how it shakes out. But to me that enhances the situation a bit, otherwise I agree Parker is an uninspiring OC on his own.
As far as your point B, a lot is right. I don’t think Ludwig-gate is anything new, but surely ND doesn’t go all out to be truly the best.
A quibble could come from when you say “trying as hard as possible to win”, is balking at a huge OC level buyout show that? In a sense, I see your perspective to say yes. Just that I can’t quite get to link it to that huge of an issue, in part because apparently unlike most, I don’t see Ludwig as particularly worth it or likely to actually help Notre Dame win anything (although he is good and would have been good, I don’t think they will do much worse for not having him).
According to a tweet yesterday from Notre Dame Prime, that is the exact direction this is going with Parker and Guidugli being co-OC.
But Parker is the play-caller I believe. That’s already been decided upon.
Is Ludwig top of the marker talent? That guy from Washington — maybe. Todd Monken, yeah. Garret Riley, maybe. But Ludwig — the guy whose name I’m willing to bet 85% of 18Stripes readership didn’t even know three weeks ago? Probably not.
I don’t think this is fair, aside from his age:
Ludwig would have been ND’s best OC hire of my football-conscious lifetime, and I’m about to turn 36.
Depressing homework assignment: List all of ND’s OCs for the last 30 years, and try to find a name that’s been consistently impressive.
This was a big fuck up. I don’t think our offensive staff is any worse now than it was before, but we whiffed hard on an opportunity for a major upgrade.
Ludwig’s offense is basic, his tendencies are old school and not that innovative. That’s not unfair at all. He’s a good coach but mileage can vary on just how much of an upgrade they lost out on.
Most ND fans probably never heard or didn’t think much about him 2 weeks ago, and won’t again in the future. He’s not some rare miss they’ll never recover from.
Never is a long time, but I’m not sure this is true:
It is possible this a miss that Freeman will not recover from.
A perfect example of blowing this just a wee bit out of proportion. Just a little bit dramatic, don’t we think? It’ll be ok, I promise! If Freeman can’t make it back from this minor setback, he was never destined to make it anyways.
Maybe? I don’t think the setback of missing on Ludwig is that big. But is he truly now being given the decision to go after his #2 target? Or is Parker being thrust upon him by the administration?
Yes, definitely a bad sign if you can’t win after missing out on your #1 OC candidate. But if you have 2 OCs forced upon you back to back by your AD, I would consider that more than a minor setback.
(Of course, I don’t think we’ll ever truly know just how high up Parker was on Freeman’s list of candidates)
Yeah, I guess. I don’t see the situation as anything forced on Freeman. He also gets to bring in Guidugli, who he knows, likes and trusts. Freeman was also the guy who brought Parker in to ND in the first place.
Would it be ideal for a better candidate to hire in the first place? Sure. But the choice ND wanted would have been for Rees to stay in 2023, so calling Ludwig a #1 anything is a stretch. It probably would have been preferable to get Brian Johnson, Sean Lewis or any number of other candidates that weren’t interested. Teams don’t get their #1 choice for one reason or another all the time and are fine. The process of WHY they lost Ludwig is unacceptable, but overall the hype of making him some no-brain elite offensive mind that ND has ever had the chance to add goes a bit dramatic.
Presumably Ludwig wasn’t the #1 anyway. Klein already turned us down.
Parker was not forced upon Freeman. Not-Ludwig was forced upon Freeman. They did *not* have to immediately hire Parker; that is all on Freeman. There have to be dozens of other people who would consider ND’s OC gig who are seemingly better-qualified and don’t have a market-setting buyout.
Are we certain about this though? Rees was forced upon Freeman by Swarbrick. It wouldn’t surprise me if Swarbrick said “this is taking too long, it’s getting embarrassing for the ND Football program, here’s how you wrap this thing up.”
There is zero evidence of that/zero reporting t othat effect, and the FootballScoop story certainly made it sound like Parker was Freeman’s guy/choice. The reporting was that Parker’s interview really went well – gee, wow, your interview with one of your best friends went great, surprise – and the QB room liked him. And then he got hired the next day.
To be fair to Freeman, the interviewing-well thing worked out with the Stuckey hire, who was a risk. But also the what-the-QB-room-wants thing also went very poorly w/r/t not taking a QB transfer for last season, so not sure seeking player feedback is all that helpful.
Swarbrick didn’t seem to say that about defensive coordinator last year, i doubt he said it about OC this year.
The DC thing last year seemed pretty clear they were going with Golden but the Bengals unexpected run to the SB made things take longer than expected to finalize
No? Saying that a bad outcome is possible doesn’t seem dramatic to me.
Possible bad outcome isn’t the dramatic part. Framing not being able to hire one certain OC end up making a head coach’s tenure possibly “not recover[ing] from” is a bit much, especially considering the OC in question.
Freeman is a first-time HC with zero offensive background as a coach or player. He needs a good, experienced OC. I’m not sure why this is controversial.
It’s not controversial, it’s hysterical to suggest a head coach’s tenure possibly would not recover from hiring a certain OC candidate.
If you say so. I can think of plenty of head coaches who were sunk by bad coordinator hires.
Like I said, this has been a perfect example of blowing this just a wee bit out of proportion that not hiring a certain OC candidate raises the possibility of sinking the head coach. If he’s a good coach, it’s a minor setback. If it sinks him, he would have sunk anyways.
A little circular, don’t you think?
Yea Jamie U wasn’t exactly excited about the potential of Ludwig – comparing that potential hire to a ground rule double but not likely potential for it to be a homerun partially because of his offenses have lacked explosion in throwing the football which is a necessity for the elite offenses.
I think Ludwig would have been a game changer, as you put it. His offense smashed Southern Cal twice this past year, scoring 43 and 47 points against the Trojans. Our offense scored 27 and lost. Hiring Ludwig would have been a direct, forceful response to SC becoming the premier offensive program of college football.
Our offense had limited mobility and limited arm in Drew Pyne, Utah’s offense had Cam Rising. Rising isn’t a barn burner or anything, but had a respectable 68 rushes for 409 yards in 2022. Pyne had 47 for 108. Their pass completions percentage are similar for similar average yards with Rising throwing about 100 more balls.
Yep, there’s the personnel and let’s not get too blinded by USC either. Utah scored 17 points against Oregon and 21 against Penn State. Hardly a consistent game changing offense against ranked teams.
Ludwig’s a pretty good OC, but acting like he’s some unique offensive genius to unlock Notre Dame’s offense is a stretch.
“I think Ludwig would have been a game changer, as you put it. His offense smashed Southern Cal twice this past year, scoring 43 and 47 points against the Trojans. Our offense scored 27 and lost.”
Our offense scored easily for 2.5 quarters, but was in a 17 point deficit after spending the first 1.5 quarters screwing around playing smash mouth manball into literally the only thing the USC defense did well — defend the run between the tackles — because our OC was too high on his own supply after trucking Clemson with the same strategy.
And they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to pay coordinators salaries on the level of a major program. The problem is not wanting to pony up for anything not on the field on game day. ND wants to be a major football power without handing out UNC degrees or giving each player a waterfall in their personal sleep pod in the athletes only dorm. ND doesn’t get the stupid money that the new tv deals give schools, but they’re not hurting for funds. The easiest way to try and stay competitive without totally trashing academics is following Bama’s lead and hiring a ton of support staff to do everything that doesn’t fall under the NCAA definition of coaching. Why not have a ton of people in contact with or evaluating recruits or potential transfers, or living in the film room self scouting and looking for opponent tendencies? Instead it’s give Drue Tranquill space for a float tank, have recruiters fly commercial, and hey kids you know you can have lunch with Tom Mendoza? It’s completely unserious for the level ND wants to play at.
Also, I thought I saw reported later on and they were willing to spend money on it but by the time they “figured things out” (whatever that’s supposed to mean), Ludwig got cold feet and wanted to stay in Utah.
Tim Prister reported that ND was willing to pay Ludwig’s buyout. It was Ludwig who, upon landing back in Utah, had second thoughts and dragged his feet.
I’m with tlndma on this one. The optics aren’t great on the OC coaching search, but wait and see what the results are. Coaches move all the time. The get promoted, demoted and do lateral transfers.
Some big hires – like Kiffin to Tennesee look much worse than what happened to ND here. One can argue that it took Tennesee a bit to recover from that, but this isn’t our HC either. If Parker doesn’t work out, he moves to another Power 5 as an OC or tight ends coach, or moves to the Group of 5/FCS as a HC / OC. And ND takes more time to make a reasonable decision on a new OC.
Looking at the 2023 schedule we should expect 9 wins as a minimum. Parker will probably make some questionable calls in those games, however they need to end in W’s. Freeman doesn’t get a pass for Marshall and Stanford type games.
The things I’ll be looking for:
Ohio state – do we match up well. Is it an improvement over the loss in 2022, do the players come out ready to play and compete through the whole game.
USC – does the offense go stride for stride with the trojans. I’m not saying we have to look the same, I am saying we have to match the end of our drives to the end of their drives unless our defense turns them over. At the end of the game, do we have a two minute offense to score one last time, or at 6 minute offense to chew clock and then score?
Clemson – Klubnik is in, he is probably the better QB over DJ. Again, does our offense compare in end results, do we have successful plays, are we moving the defense off the line. We did that very well in 2022, but you have to suspect with the talent that clemson has, they will figure some things out by the 2023 game.
It is wait and see mode for me.
Our standard for 2023 definitely should be 9 wins, but the season has scary potential to go off the rails in a hurry. In addition to the #2, #10, and #12 pre-season SP+ opponents, we also face:
-8-5 NC State as our first road game (Hartman had 3 INTs in 2022 loss)
-9-4 Duke in our 2nd road game
-Road trip to preaseason SP+ #36 Louisville (Hartman had 6 TOs in 2022 loss)
I would hope our defense can take a step forward over 2022’s mediocre performance, but we lost quite a few of our key players. If the offense isn’t good, I can see the makings of an extremely poor season, just looking at those few opponents.
If the season goes off the rails, will Freeman still be leaving for greener pastures ?
If the season goes horribly it doesn’t seem like there would be a top 10 Power 5 HC job available for him, so the suggestion would be that Freeman might leave to be a DC or G5 head coach? That’d be both publicly declaring failure and walking away from millions of dollars.
I think everyone needs to breathe in and out a couple times and accept that HCMF is going to be here at least four more years unless he leaves as the hottest name on the coaching circuit, which would mean at least a playoff appearance.
Four more years? Two yes, unless he’s like 1-10 or some actual scandal happens, but those are extremely remote. 3 is the over/under number to me, not 4.5+
He’ll get his 5 years. Things are not going to go haywire.
I can’t help but think that this is the result of not having Freeman just hire a normal OC when he was promoted.
ah well but we got an extra year of Tommy Rees, which gave us… losses to Marshall and Stanford. So I think that gamble paid off
The doom and gloom from many posters on this board is palpable, though not isolated. We’re second tier, will never compete for a NC, pervasive ineptitude, parsimonious, out of touch with the college football landscape, no longer elite and hasn’t been. Freeman will be gone in three years, a disaster hire, success will only come with a complete change of leadership including the priests perhaps in three years or longer. We should have joined the Big or we’re irrelevant. Whether the same ones who wanted Pyne gone and Rees on a one year prove-it or he is gone is only worth self-examination.
At the end of the year, the highest paid Coordinator positions in CF were just over $2 mill and ND should have ponied up almost $5 mill that would guarantee success. As far as Thamel’s “an obstacle” to that success with Ludwig, the article “an” may be significant to the discussion and the reason takes a back seat to:
College football insider reveals how talks fell apart between Notre Dame, Andy Ludwig
Of course, should that be true, what say ye all? An entrenchment would be that this originates from the Admin trying to save face and is false and manipulative? Perhaps it’s Tommy Rees’ fault, though that would be illogical if the same posters wanted hiim gone.
Just a contrarian viewpoint.
The OC hiring snafu is not Tommy’s fault and I’m still glad he’s gone. Get over yourself
wut
MC
It’s a bit hard to follow.
$5 Mil. does seem like a cheap rate for “guaranteed success”.
TAMU fans would consider that a bargain.
It’s spelled “aTm.”
And pronounced “cash machine.”
and boy how that money has translated into wi…….oh wait
Sounds like the ND side of the story is going to officially come out soon… at least they know it was a cluster.
Yep, supports the On3 link above about the buyout amount not being the reason why it didn’t work. What Prister just wrote would be the funniest reveal of all if Ludwig truly wasn’t enthusiastic about jumping on board when it came time to wrap it up at Utah and commit fully to ND.
I think the ND side of the story should be greeted with some level of skepticism. Even if they ultimately got around to being willing to pay the buyout, it seems like that was a snag at some point, so the bigger-picture issues likely remain to some degree (though lesser, to be sure).
Also the immediate hiring of Parker following Ludwig turning it down is still going to be a questionable decision going forward.
It is going to be questionable independently, though at this point I don’t see what else could be done. The desirable NFL candidates weren’t interested. Lewis jumped to Colorado instead. Klein didn’t work out. Ludwig dragged his feet long enough to soft turn them down. Not many realistic alternatives at this point, besides Parker.
And, again, I wouldn’t look at it as just Parker — the role and potential for Guidugli to level up is probably more of the kicker and takeaway to focus on just as much. Given circumstances, that is pretty good. In an ideal world, Guidugli would have had a few years more experience and could have stepped in right away. Instead, it looks like they’re grabbing him a year early instead.
I would love to hear more about Lewis, because at one point the chatter was that he would bounce from CU and come here if offered the job, but that was basically the last we heard about him. He has a particular system, it sounds like, that didn’t really mesh well with what Freeman was looking for.
To be fair, Parker is better than half of that atrocious list the Athletic lazily put out. Paul Chryst? No thank you.
The hiring of Parker that quickly was more likely than any other candidate getting hired that quickly. I do get your point.
Yeah but there was no rush. They could have kept looking around for another month and still ended with Parker. The Parker OC college market was exactly one team.
Except we don’t know of Parker’s possible opportunities. There will be many coaching hires in the next month. This staff isn’t set in stone.
Yeah, I wouldn’t see the benefits of a search that lasted for an indefinitely long period. They’ve already had two weeks, which in the modern world with zoom interviews and all has allowed them more than enough time to fully survey the candidates that are available/realistic. The process has played out fairly well, assuming they already turned over all the stones out there that there are to turn over.
My guess is the rest of the OC market largely already turned us down. I imagine they’ve been calling people since the day Rees left.
I find that to be a very plausible guess.
the real question to me is why did two OC’s at fairly successful programs decide that the jump to ND wasn’t “worth it”.
Alma Mater and age. Just a stab at it.
FWIW, there has been some rumbling that Klein met with the QB room while he was here and it did not go well. Now these might be the same people trying to convince us that ND was always
at war with Eurasiawilling to pay Ludwig’s buyout, but that did trickle out prior to the Ludwig fiasco blowing up.I noted Ludwigs coaching moves tendencies in the Almost OC article and certainly am not surprised that he balked. That’s his prerogative with multiple considerations. Should it come out that Utah upped his salary reminiscent a BK type of move or what happened with Ryan Griggs at Washington, I would also not be surprised.
Colorado may have similarly acted to keep Sean Lewis or an initial inquiry by ND may have been blown up for pecuniary self-interest. His buyout was less than $750k from Kent St. By this time, Wisconsin had hired NC’s coordinators. NC hired Chip Lindsey. Warren Ruggiero may be comfortable at Wake. Bryan Harsin has received 50% of his buyout from Auburn with a new position salary subtracted from the rest. But he may be more comfortable in a particular geographic area, too. Marcus Arroyo may wait for a WC position.
Anyone would have to fit within the coaching team and recruiting territory responsibilities.
https://notredame.rivals.com/news/ad-jack-swarbrick-s-response-to-nd-offensive-coordinator-buyout-controversy
There it is. Not sure if the request for cash at the end is a little tongue-in-cheek or 100% tone-deaf.
The first paragraph is really obnoxious. Wow, people care a lot about ND football, how surprising and ridiculous.
I get he doesn’t want to be say Texas where the inmates are running the asylum but yeah, doesn’t read well
Holy crap. That letter is more smug and condescending than I knew Jack was capable of. And I thought him capable of a lot of smugness and condescension. And the temerity to *actually ask for money*! I’m gobsmacked that anybody in the athletic department allowed this email to go out into the world.
I *think* it was intended as a winking joke, but it makes the letter incoherent: “we would have spent the money, and also please give us your money as we need it”
I think that credits Jack with way more self awareness than he has.
Yeah, should have been more direct and cut like 50% of what was in there. I get it must be frustrating to have unverified reports where they say you’re cheap and the histrionic side of the fan base get to act aggrieved as a result. but this kind of statement is does more harm than good and backs into the whole “we need some serious process improvements in the athletic department”.
I think the email is awesome. “if you want to tell us how to spend our money, at least contribute some to the effort”. He’s aware the “ND is cheap” rhetoric will continue no matter how much evidence he counters that argument with.
Some interesting side thoughts in all this:
Does Chris Watt get promoted to O-line coach? Provides continuity for the HH method of teaching/coaching, or does Parker/Guidugli look for their own person?
Is their a Fickell/Freeman rivalry brewing for coaching talent? It seems we have poached a number of coaches from Fickell over the last couple of years. I can’t imagine he is terribly happy about that. Does that say anything about the way the two manage their coordinators /staff?
Anyone here watch Silicon Valley? I fully believe* that this is the same as the episode where Laurie Bream goes around publicly interviewing tons of potential CEOs to replace Richard after giving them series A funding. She is essentially just doing it, so when she puts Richard in place as CEO, she can point to everyone she interviewed and say this was the best possible CEO.
Freeman knew that Parker is going to be the next Lincoln Riley, so he brought in other candidates to interview, just so when he picks Parker we know he is the best choice. They had to keep making up reasons why the other OCs didn’t take the job.
*I don’t believe this at all.
It is pretty common for people to interview a bunch of candidates and not necessarily feel like the first one was their first choice. It usually is the case in college where you work down a list because of spring ball and recruiting and timing is more important, but in the NFL they frequently take their time and interview many people.
Consider this possibility: that Freeman, deep down, always wanted Parker. Parker and Freeman knew each other well from their Purdue days working together under Darrell Hazell, and Parker became interim HC and play caller when Hazell got fired. A disproportionate amount of this staff are already people Freeman worked with at Purdue.
However, Freeman knew that hiring Parker would be an insane risk. The “safe” thing to do would be to hire an established name from the outside. Everyone would applaud the move and few would blame him if it didn’t work — just as CEOs bring in McKinsey to solve some problem, and when they still fail they can say, “what did you want me to do? I brought it McKinsey, the best help money can buy!”
But then all the outside guys interviewed fall through for this reason or that, and it clears the deck to go with the guy your gut wanted to hire from the start — Parker.
I think the speed with which Freeman immediately hired Parker after Ludwig dragged his feet actually lends credence to this. Freeman could’ve kept conducting the search. He didn’t.
Parker is very much Freeman’s “guy.” So is Guidugli, whom Freeman worked with his entire time at Cincinnati. This offensive staff is now Freeman’s “guys.” They’re his network. They’re his people. You wanted to know what it looked like when Freeman brought in “his” people and wasn’t forced to keep people from the old regime? This is 100% it.
Yeah, this is far more likely than “everybody more qualified said no”. They apparently didn’t even reach out to Moorhead, which is wild.
This hire is unambiguously (and to borrow a phrase) small-timey. But also, it might be fine and work out, and if it doesn’t Freeman will have gone down on his own terms, which he is entitled to do as head coach.
Thought it was out there that Moorhead turned Alabama down because he wanted to stay an HC. I get the point about maybe reach out anyways, but perhaps his agent let it be known it wasn’t going to happen. For as flawed as the process may have been, I doubt that he would have been a factor in it.
Absolutely true
This makes sense. Makes you wonder if the whole buy out thing wasn’t the admin giving Freeman some cover. Maybe Freeman was the guy who got cold feet. And maybe he got them after the Dreaded Hockey Game. (Who knows, maybe Guidugli wasn’t a sure thing until after that. Maybe that pushed CMF over the edge). And maybe, at that point, everyone knew that CFM would be skewered if he suddenly turned around and said “Nah I want Parker now. Sorry.” So maybe Jack said, tell ya what coach. Go get your guy; we got your back.”
The Ludwig thing was a bit messy, but it feels like people are WAY over the top about it. We have no idea what was communicated to the admin regarding the buyout. As Eric pointed out, the whole resigning of Ludwig by Utah just one day before TR left stunk/stinks. So, it’s hard to rule out that ND just didn’t know what the numbers were at the time of the Dreaded Hockey GameTM. Assuming that those new buyout numbers were not told to admin before the process, is it really ND’s fault that there was a bump in the road once the real numbers came to light? Also, let’s assume Swarbrick is telling the truth about that and about the fact that the admin was indeed willing to pay the buyout once it knew the real numbers, and that Ludwig just got cold feet by then. Again Admin’s fault? Ok, let’s assume that once the real numbers came in ND just didn’t think Ludwig was worth the highest ever buyout for an assistant and said “no.” Is that really that unreasonable? I mean, everyone seems to agree that Ludwig would have been a good, not great hire. Many of you even thought that he was not a long terms solution. So the admin should have been saddled with the highest buyout for an assistant ever just because Ludwig was the best of what was left at the time? Seems harsh. I hear people screaming about how ND does not take football seriously because it won’t just spend money like “other programs.” Bama just hired TR who the admin said it was willing to pay to match (you can respond that that was not true and that it was just what the admin SAID. But then I don’t know where we go from here. At that point, people are just saying whatever they want and nobody knows or cares about the actual facts). Also, Bama didn’t seem interested in Ludwig, which means either they didn’t want to pay him or they didn’t think he was a good fit. Either way, it’s hard to argue that he’s so incredible that the admin can’t be forgiven for thinking that he wasn’t worth some crazy buyout number.
I’m hopeful for Parker and Guidugli. Not because I know anything about coaching, but just because I like to be hopeful. Makes the season more fun. Plus, Guidugli is an awesome name to pronounce.
New to the internet? 🙂
Good points and I agree with that.
Overall, I tend to believe that more or less Freeman wanted Ludwig, the contract was a hurdle but nothing huge and then by the time Ludwig got back to Utah and considered it he wasn’t going to go to ND. So Freeman moved on, the rest was just noise that was over-amplified to tie it into the other issues that people have and like to vent about ND football (NIL, transfers, etc).
Re 1st time on the internet: Right?!! You’d think I’d be used to this by this point LOL
I think you’re dead on in your analysis, FWIW
Almost two years ago, Stanford with the fourth highest endowment at $27.7 Billion, cut eleven sports to balance their athletic budget saving $8 million a year. Stanford Athletics was running a shortfall $12 million annually, increasing to at least $25 mill expected due to the pandemic. With the suspension (and costs) of many of those programs, it’s reasonable to conclude the result was due to losses in revenues, but also any costs of cancelations.The Pac 12 Conference overall suffered a 36% decrease in revenues overall for 2020-21.
That left Stanford with twenty-five athletic programs, seven more than the average D1 program. Notre Dame is not in the top ten in endowments ($18 Billion) and has been able to preserve twenty-six athletic programs.
Without knowing the exact costs for Ludwig and the OL coach he wanted to bring in, the total cost for both was probably about $6 mill (including the buyout and $1 mill for the OL coach) the first year and for both a $3 million annually afterwards for multiple years.
ND could even go to co-OCs next year, if they choose to, with time to assess candidates vs trying to hire late in the hiring process.