The Overhaul Continues with a New Special Teams Coach
Notre Dame made another rumored football staff addition official today: Brian Polian will return to South Bend, joining Brian Kelly’s staff as the new special teams coordinator. Polian was with Charlie Weis throughout his Notre Dame tenure, serving as a defensive assistant from 2005 to 2007 and as the special teams coordinator from 2005 to 2009. After Weis was fired Polian still wanted to be at Notre Dame; Kelly decided instead to give the special teams job to Mike Elston, though, who had held the same title at Cincinnati. Whatever bad blood may have existed from that parting was obviously minimal, if it existed as all, as both men found cause to leave the past alone.
After leaving Notre Dame, Polian worked at Stanford for two years under Harbaugh and Shaw, then headed to Texas A&M and Kevin Sumlin’s staff for one year. He was the special teams coordinator at both stops; at Stanford he also coached safeties and was the recruiting coordinator, while at A&M he coached tight ends. From A&M, Nevada hired Polian for their head job, then dismissed him recently at the end of his fourth season with an overall record of 23-27. The Brian Polian that comes to Notre Dame now, with four years of head coaching experience and time on the staffs of Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, Kevin Sumlin, and Charlie Weis, is no doubt a much more knowledgeable and mature version than the 31-year-old that Weis hired away from George O’Leary’s Central Florida staff in 2005.
It’s not clear at this time whether Polian will have duties beyond special teams – the official university press release only says he’s rejoining the program as special teams coordinator. If that really is all he’ll do, it means that Kelly is extremely serious about righting the special teams ship and also that there will have to be some creative shuffling of the staff to cover Scott Booker’s position group, tight ends, without going over the nine-assistant NCAA limit. Stay tuned.
Speaking of Recruiting…
Polian has a reputation for being a high-energy, passionate football lifer, and for expecting the same high energy level from his special teams units. That in itself should be music to Irish fans’ ears given the (charitably speaking) uneven special teams play of the Kelly era, but what will really get their hearts a-flutter is that Polian is an excellent recruiter. In fact, with his hire now official, he may automatically become the best recruiter on the Notre Dame staff. His dogged recruitment of Manti Te’o is the stuff of legend – he’s probably still using the frequent flier miles he racked up back then – but he’s not just a one-trick pony. I looked at the results for the guys who had been with Kelly for most of his time at Notre Dame and none of them comes remotely close to Polian’s Notre Dame results. Not Mike Denbrock, not Mike Elston, not Harry Hiestand, not even Tony Alford. Hiestand tops Polian in quantity, although of course his list is composed exclusively of offensive linemen so it’s a bit different. Quality? Forget it.
In five recruiting cycles at Notre Dame, Polian was the primary recruiter on three 247 Composite five-star signees and one near-five-star: Jimmy Clausen (#1 overall), Manti Te’o (#4), Dayne Crist (#19), and Kyle Rudolph (#29, two spots away from a five-star rating that year). Alford, Hiestand, Denbrock, and Elston combined have two five-stars and three top-30 players across a combined 28 recruiting cycles at Notre Dame: Jaylon Smith (#2, Elston), Tommy Kraemer (#27, Hiestand, high four-star), and Max Redfield (#30, Denbrock). Polian signed six top 100 kids, compared to Hiestand’s six, Alford’s four, Denbrock’s two, and Elston’s two. He signed nine top 200 kids, compared to Hiestand’s 13, Elston’s eight, Denbrock’s seven, and Alford’s six. And again, all those guys have had more cycles at Notre Dame than Polian did. He collected more talent, and better talent, in less time than Kelly’s other top recruiters. The next time someone says, “Yeah, he got Te’o, but so what? What else did he ever do?” Well, you’ll know what to say now.
Other Changes Afoot
It’s been about a month since the 2016 season mercifully came to a close – and what a whirlwind month it’s been. Here’s a quick recap of the staff changes that have already occurred and some of the rumored changes still out there.
Departures:
- Brian VanGorder, defensive coordinator, fired mid-season.
- Scott Booker, tight ends/special teams coordinator, fired post-season.
- Mike Sanford, quarterbacks/co-offensive coordinator, took head job at Western Kentucky.
- Paul Longo, strength and conditioning director, demoted/reassigned/something (depending on who you ask).
Known Additions:
- Mike Elko, defensive coordinator
- Brian Polian, special teams coordinator
Buzz on Other Spots:
- Brian Kelly will probably go back to calling plays next year, but whoever calls plays, it won’t be Denbrock.
- Elko will get to choose his staff, with Keith Gilmore a presumed casualty but nothing close to official until Elko gets to meet with everyone.
- Mike Elston and Todd Lyght both seem relatively likely to return.
- If Gilmore is out and Elston returns, Elston could possibly move back to defensive line, and Wake Forest linebacker coach Clark Lea could follow Elko to Notre Dame.
- Alternatively, Elston could stay with the linebackers and Elko could look to hire a defensive line coach who is an elite teacher and recruiter. Penn State DL coach Sean Spencer worked for Elko at Hofstra and Bowling Green, which has caused some people to connect some dots that may or may not be there.
- The wild card here is if Elston, for one reason or another, doesn’t return. He’s expected back as of now, but the defensive side of the ball is very fluid.
- Mike Denbrock, Harry Hiestand, and Autry Denson are all expected to return.
- Kelly was rumored to have interviewed Pitt OC Matt Canada (hired by Ed Orgeron at LSU), Baylor OC Kendall Briles (hired by Lane Kiffin at FAU), and San Jose State OC Al Borges. Details are extremely fuzzy, to the point that nobody is really sure whether those were interviews or mind-mapping sessions or something in between.
- Jeff Quinn, Kelly’s offensive coordinator at Cincinnati and currently an offensive analyst at Notre Dame, was at one point rumored to be headed to an on-field role next year. It’s difficult to see how that squares with all the other changes, though, so I’m not sure I’m fully bought into this one. Particularly if Polian really is “just” the special teams coordinator, I just can’t see a spot for Quinn.
- Kelly has been quietly interviewing strength & conditioning candidates, with the intent of hiring a substantial name to take the program in a new direction. Precious little info of any real value has leaked out about the search, but consensus seems to be that Kelly is willing to make a dramatic shift here.
There has been an awful lot to keep track of this offseason; hopefully our semi-brief recap here will help. On the one hand, this level of change is a little frightening, but on the other hand, all of these changes had to be made and they seem like they’re changes in the right direction.
Thanks for the round up.
Did Quinn coach QB’s at all ever? Don’t we need one more offensive coach? Would it make sense for the WR’s to also take the TE’s or is that too much?
What did we do with the QB’s before that Matt guy for a year and Sanford? Is that the O coordinator’s job? But Denbrock coaches WR’s right? The question seems to be then who would take over the QB’s – whether it is a new dedicated coach or not (the TE’s are more easily assimilated into WR/OL I imagine). And this is all assuming that Polian is only doing ST’s which is not a given.
What ever happened to the idea of having one additional assistant beginning this year as a new NCAA rule?
I believe Chuck Martin (2012-13) and Charlie Molnar (2010-11) were the QB coaches before Matt LaFleur.
Brendan knows more, I also believe the extra assistant rule is being voted on in the spring and is expected to pass.
Eric is a wise man… Molnar was Kelly’s QB coach at Cincy and followed him to ND in the same capacity. Got the OC title added when Quinn, who was Kelly’s OC and OL coach in Cincy, decided to take the head job at Buffalo rather than follow Kelly. Quinn’s background is exclusively with the offensive line, which is another part of why I don’t seem him as a fit.
The 10th assistant is being voted on in the spring, but won’t be in effect until 2018. It is indeed widely expected to pass easily.
As for assistant count:
QB: Vacant
RB: Denson
WR: Denbrock
TE: Vacant
OL: Hiestand
DL: Presumed vacant
LB: Elston
CB: Lyght
S: Elko
ST: Polian
That’s 10 slots, so someone is going to have to double up. If Polian isn’t going to pick up TEs, Denbrock probably is the next logical choice.
Whether Denbrock doubles up or not (with Polian taking the TE’s if not), we need to hire a QB guy because it wouldn’t make any sense for some other position coach to double up with the QB’s. And as you both have said Quinn is not that guy. Wonder where we go for that slot.
And thanks for the update on the coaches. Thought it was for next year, but 2018 is it with the vote in 2017. Wonder how teams will employ that coach.
Denbrock has now left? Who do we get for OC?
Yeah, SI’s Pete Thamel reporting that Denbrock is taking the OC job at Cincy. He was losing play-calling responsibility in 2017 and probably the co-OC title too. We’re officially at the point where I’m concerned about the level of turnover.
Maybe this opens a spot for Quinn as a WR coach, although I don’t think he’s ever done that before. Hope Kelly has a line on a pretty good OC – worth noting that Mark Helfrich is still out there.
Do you think this more points to the rumors of BK taking over the play calling full time or an internal problem? Seems to me leaving ND to go to UC is not a promotion, unless he’ll actually have more freedom to call plays there etc. You’re right though, turnover is getting really concerning.
Doubt there’s an internal problem – if Denbrock leaves I think it’s just him wanting to do his own thing. Whoever calls plays in 2017, it wasn’t going to be Denbrock, and he might not even have kept the co-OC title. Going to Cincy, though, he would be the clearly-defined OC for a defensive head coach, so he would really get to spread his wings. If he succeeds at that, he’ll get a shot as a HC somewhere. Might not be able to get that shot right now due to questions about how much he has actually run things.
Not so fast, my friend.
Apparently “no decision made yet by Denbrock” according to 247
The sports press corps has not exactly been covering themselves with glory this year.
Losing Denbrock is tough. We are going to lose at least one recruit or maybe two. He’s such a good coach who you can plug in on both sides of the ball. I was hoping he would stay despite losing play call duties.
I really hope I am wrong about the recruits.
I agree. Sad to see Denbrock go. Would have been nice to see him and Polian out ‘crootin’ together. He did a lot of CA right? I know Hicks is a defensive guy, but 247 says Denbrock was his primary recruiter. I bet we lose him now.
According to 247 he is the primary recruiter for Hicks, Robertson, and Kmet, and secondary for Young, Pouncey, and Davis.
I guess the good news (or maybe something that helped push him out the door) is that we have Polian coming in with recruiting coordinator experience.
Pump the brakes, man. We’re not going to lose any recruits. However things are listed on 247, Hicks’s most important relationship has been with Todd Lyght, and they talk constantly. I really don’t think Denbrock leaving will affect Hicks at all. In fact Pouncey is the only one in juicebox’s list that I’m at all concerned about, and that has nothing to do with Denbrock – that’s all about how attractive Miami might be to him.
As for targets, it might affect things, we’ll have to see. I think Denbrock is a big part of the program and losing him is definitely tough, but I don’t think it’ll cost us any recruits.
Also, Hansen says that Cincy made Denbrock an offer but he hasn’t decided whether to accept. Says negotiations were conducted with the full knowledge of Kelly, so he’s not blindsided by the news at all.
Not to say we will 100% lose a current commit, no one knows what these kids will do. But it seems more likely than not that we will lose at least 1 recruit after turning over Denbrock, BVG/Hudson, Booker, Sanford, Longo, maybe Gilmore, the re-airing of the frozen five, and going 4-8. We have lost recruits at the end for much weaker reasons than losing half our coaching staff.
Sure there may not be kids who seem to be openly waving. But after following recruiting for 5 years, I would be absolutely shocked if we don’t get at least one more decommit out of this class. I know we have had a relatively stable (in terms of decommits) 2 years, but that is not the norm for us, or any school.
I will say about my original post saying we would lose Hicks. Picking Hicks to leave was lazy. I’m no longer a member of any pay sites, so don’t have any inside info on any individual recruit.
I fully expect us to lose at least one commit. With all this change, it seems almost impossible we don’t. However, I have absolutely no idea who that might be. When you go recruit by recruit, it might not seem like this will hurt us, but it is a HUGE amount of change through coaching staffs, and we haven’t done great closing in general. Hicks was just an easy pick as there are reports he is wavering, and a very good recruiter, who was listed as his primary just left.
As Tyler notes below, increasing smoke that Pouncey will be leaving. I don’t think the Denbrock news really changed anything – I think he started drifting as soon as he got the Miami offer, when he gave some very non-committal comments to ND mods who asked about it. The Denbrock news may push him to jump sooner, but I think it would’ve happened eventually anyway. This is a kid who cried when he committed at Irish Invasion, cashed in Christmas and birthday presents for airfare to the Echoes banquet, and just tweeted a picture of him and Brian Kelly last night with the caption, “Me and the boss man himself. Love ya coach.” Recruiting is a funny business.
Normally I would expect some attrition too, but outside of a few cases the kids in this class have been ultra-solid throughout. I keep banging this drum, but don’t even count Jeter because he couldn’t come anyway. Adebo never wavered, despite constant speculation that he was wavering. Hicks took the Michigan and Cal visits but seems solid now. Werner decommitted and destability certainly had something to do with it, but Ohio State deciding they really want him had something to do with it too.
Hey, if we were 10-2 and everyone was coming back, we’d probably have no decommits and a couple more blue chips. But off a 4-8 season, I think we’re actually recruiting pretty well. I would also expect more loss in the class normally with all this change, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen.
I believe you nailed that one.
I think the only committed guy this might impact is Pouncey, as he was already conflicted and Denbrock is his position coach.
Denbrock was Hicks’ primary recruiter, but he obviously wasn’t going to be his coach. Lyght contacts Hicks frequently and I think that relationship is more important.
Robertson is set to enroll in a couple weeks.
Kmet has been as solid as solid could get.
Young hasn’t shown any interest in any other schools.
Davis just let it be known that nothing has changed and he’s solid to ND despite his high school coach being hired by Baylor.
The real impact will be on the top receiver targets we are still working on. I don’t think this bodes well for Jamire Calvin or Oliver Martin.
It’s starting to look like Denbrock leaving would in fact shake up Pouncey’s recruitment, if/when it becomes official.
Hansen thinks the Denbrock loss is huge! What do you guys think? Losing Sanford bothered me more. Was I wrong?
I definitely think it’s a big deal. He has a lot of history with Kelly, he’s a great recruiter, he’s a great WR coach, and while Sanford clearly took a promotion, there obviously had to be some level of acrimony between Kelly and Denbrock for Denbrock to take a semi-lateral move to Cincinnati. (“Semi” because he’ll be the unquestioned, unbothered OC there, which he didn’t get at ND.)
That said, losing Alford was a big deal at the time too and I honestly don’t think we ended up really losing anything with Denson. Can Kelly make that kind of hire again? If so I’ll be much less concerned. If Jeff Quinn becomes the new WR coach, that would be a big red flag.
Has Kelly ever coached his own position group? It seems like he has been helping with QBs and being sort of a holistic coach for as long as I can remember.
I too am concerned about all this change. I actually really like the parts coming in, and outside Denbrock am fine with the parts going out, but this much change could make it very tough to win in 2017, which could mean BK out the door, and then who knows what would happen to all these great coaching pieces we have put together.
I am pretty indifferent toward Kelly himself, but I really like Polian, Elko, Denson, Lyght, and Heistand. Lyght, Denson, and Elko still have a lot to prove here, but they have shown serious flashes of potential.
Kelly coached LBs at Assumption and DBs at Grand Valley State before taking over the DC position there in 1989. I think he was the defacto QB1 coach, though, everywhere up until LaFleur.
And I’m with you, the individual pieces could be good, but we’re at the point now where we need every move to hit immediately. That’s a pretty enormous risk/reward equation.
Not sure how feasible it is, but I’d like to see him take QBs and not use 2 coaches on that one position.
Some amazing schadenfruede, especially for those of us at the Bush push game.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/if-bills-reggie-bush-doesnt-run-for-4-yards-sunday-he-could-make-some-sad-history-153939401.html
Wow, looks like I can check off “rush for more yards in 2016 than an NFL running back” off the list of old resolutions.
So I’m confused. I thought everyone wanted big changes. We are getting just that, big changes, and now it’s too much? It seems like there is no possibility for ND to get this right.
Maybe we should set up an advertisement in the Observer? I’m sure that would fix everything.
Looks like Pouncey has decommitted
Yep.
Luckily we’ve got a big board coming up within the next few days, and we’ll share who may be replacing him in this class.
Well, we’re waiting….
That’s creepy slightly slowed down.