Brian Polian, Notre Dame Adjust To ‘Healthy’ New Roles
Sometimes it’s not just the football players who experience a position change. This winter, the Notre Dame coaching staff experienced two of its own.
Special teams coordinator and recruiting coordinator Brian Polian dropped the latter title and is now the associate head coach to Brian Kelly.
Meanwhile, defensive line coach Mike Elston, who also had held the associate head coach title from 2018-20, is now the recruiting coordinator, which he likewise had been from 2015-17.
The changes are not viewed from a promotion or demotion perspective as they are creating different viewpoints in the football office and overall infrastructure. A devil's advocate might also inquire that after posting a 33-5 record the past three years and earning two College Football Playoff berths, why “fix it” if it’s not broken? The reply might involve not being complacent with standing pat.
“It’s a little bit unusual that responsibilities would shift the way that they did with no turnover on the staff,” Polian admitted. “But philosophically for Coach Kelly, a fresh perspective and a little bit of change — while keeping continuity — is a good thing, and that’s the way I viewed it.”
Kelly has had a history of coaching position changes that aren’t necessarily viewed as conventional. For example, 2010-11 defensive backs/safeties coach Chuck Martin (head coach at Miami (Ohio) since 2014) suddenly became the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator on the 2012 unit that advanced to the BCS championship game.
In his 18-year affiliation with Kelly, Elston also has coached tight ends, coordinated special teams and instructed linebackers. With a much stronger vision toward assembling top-5 caliber classes on the recruiting trail, Kelly felt that restructuring that element of the program required a new set of eyes.
Not that Polian’s work wasn’t also appreciated. Over the past 15 years he has established himself as one of the more industrious and productive figures on the recruiting circuit in college football, specifically in Pac-12 territory and Hawaii.
His efforts to land national defensive player of the year Manti Te’o in 2009 from Hawaii became the stuff of folklore, and his continued efforts in the Islands since coming aboard in 2017 helped ink safety Alohi Gilman, and current starters or regulars such as defensive lineman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, linebacker Marist Liufau, vyper end Jordan Botelho and incoming linebacker Kahanu Kia.
His pipeline with the Polynesian culture also could include California linebacker Niuafe Tuihalamaka, ranked No. 71 overall nationally by Rivals, in the 2022 cycle.
“I attacked the job of recruiting coordinator from a very specific point of view,” said Polian, whose 2021 haul was ranked No. 10 nationally. “I had very specific goals in mind when I took on that responsibility, and I think we accomplished a lot of them. I’m very proud of the [2021] class we put together with no on-campus recruiting, with no contact.
“All of those things were good, but I also see how Mike is attacking the job, what he is emphasizing, what is important to him — and quite frankly I recognize that a fresh set of eyes after a while and different approach is a healthy thing. Mike and I, we both want what is best for the program, want to serve Coach Kelly and do what we can do to build this thing to win a national championship.”
Elston is not a novice when it comes to coordinator recruiting efforts, while Polian understands what it is like to run an entire football operation after having served as the head coach at the University of Nevada from 2013-16. He and offensive line coach Jeff Quinn, the head coach at Buffalo from 2010-14, are the only ones on the current staff with such a background.
“I can apply those things to the responsibility that Coach Kelly has asked me to take on, whether it be a liaison with NCAA legislation, seeing the big picture with our football team, communicating with our football team, whatever it is he asks me to do,” Polian said. “Some of the football responsibilities I had naturally taken on already … all those things fit the job description anyway. I think it’s been a healthy transition.”
Recruiting, of course, will remain a significant aspect of his work load, as it does for any assistant or coordinator.
“I’m not involved in the day-to-day grind of the recruiting the way I was,” Polian said. “I’m not watching film with both sides of the ball the way that I was previously. I’m focused now on my specific recruiting areas, and then the time away from recruiting is where Coach Kelly needs me.”
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