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Harry Hiestand's second tour of duty at Notre Dame ends with his retirement

Harry Hiestand's second tour of duty at Notre Dame ended Sunday with the announcement that the longtime offensive line coach was retiring.
Harry Hiestand's second tour of duty at Notre Dame ended Sunday with the announcement that the longtime offensive line coach was retiring. (Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports)

As Marcus Freeman awaited the end of an interlude in his search for a new offensive coordinator, a second and sudden one for another assistant coaching position now beckons.

And it will be every bit the challenge in filling it, considering who’s walking out the door.

Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand ended his second tour of duty at Notre Dame on Super Bowl Sunday, with an announcement just before kickoff and just one year after his coaching reboot. The 40-year coaching veteran who spent seven seasons total with the Irish, called his departure a “retirement” and comes nine days after offensive coordinator Tommy Rees left for Alabama.

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“It is important to me to spend time with my family,” the 64-year-old Hiestand said in a statement, “as I have two kids competing in college athletics, one for his last season. And I have decided it is time for me to be a part of that.

“I am thankful for the opportunity (university president) Father (John) Jenkins, (athletic director) Jack Swarbrick and especially coach Freeman gave me to return for a seventh season coaching the offensive line at Notre Dame.

“Coach Freeman sets the example for Notre Dame Football every day, and he brings out the best in all of us. The players, especially the offensive line, are the best part of this great job and I thank them for their hard work.”

Meanwhile, Freeman is waiting for an answer from Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig on whether he's succeed Rees as offensive coordinator at ND. Ludwig was in town Friday and Saturday for an interview and to meet with the Irish coaching staff.

Whoever succeeds Hiestand will inherit an All-America left tackle in junior-to-be Joe Alt, a junior right tackle, in Blake Fisher, with that kind of potential, a returning center in grad senior Zeke Correll, and some outstanding upcoming talent on the interior.

The Irish have one offensive lineman committed among their eight recruits in the 2024 class, in Peter Jones of Malvern, Pa. — Hiestand’s hometown.

Hiestand returned to Notre Dame for the 2022 season after spending the 2018 and 2019 seasons as the offensive line coach for the Chicago Bears and retiring for the first time after the Bears let him go. In January of 2022 Hiestand replaced Jeff Quinn, who had replaced Hiestand at ND.

Quinn (2018-21) wasn’t retained by Freeman after he took over the head coaching job from Brian Kelly, nor did Kelly ask Quinn to follow him to LSU. Hiestand’s first run with Notre Dame (2012-17) was capped by a Joe Moore Award in 2017.

“I want to personally thank coach Hiestand for coming out of retirement for my first year as a head coach, and raising the standard,” Freeman said, “not only for our offensive line, but for our entire team.”

During Hiestand’s first tour of duty, he helped develop four first-round draft picks in the span of five draft cycles — Zack Martin (2014), Ronnie Stanley (2016), Mike McGlinchey (2018) and Quenton Nelson (2018), an unprecedented run in Notre Dame history. Only Nelson among them was a top 100 player coming out of high school.

In the 14 draft cycles prior to Martin’s selection, ND had one O-lineman selected in the first round, Jeff Faine in 2003. In Moore’s celebrated run as ND’s offensive line coach (1988-96) under head coach Lou Holtz, he produced two — Andy Heck (1989) and Aaron Taylor (1994).

“It’s the best legitimate shot Notre Dame has to get back to national prominence and win a national championship that it’s had in over a decade,” Taylor proclaimed last January upon Hiestand’s return.

To find some sort of continuation of that means finding in a successor someone who is uncompromising when it comes to teaching technique as well as someone who appreciates and can perpetuate ND’s rich offensive line culture.

“One thing that was very clear from that first meeting with Harry,” former ND offensive lineman Mike Golic Jr. said last January, “and every day after that he was my position coach, was being the Notre Dame offensive line coach meant something to him.

“The pride in this position at this particular school, because of the history and the players that have come before. He really wanted to emphasize that. He wanted us to have a sense of where we fit in in the larger picture of what it meant to be for a Notre Dame offensive lineman.

“And for us, that was powerful — to have a guy who came in and immediately had this, not only understanding, but reverence for a place where Joe Moore had a tradition and was such a strong voice and fixture back with coach (Lou) Holtz.

“I think seeing the way he understood that immediately ingratiated us to him, because he knew he was a guy who cared about this place as much as we did.”

THE HEISTAND FILE

Hometown: Malvern, Pennsylvania

High School: Radnor High School

College: East Stroudsburg (Pa.) (Health and Physical Education, 1983)

Wife: Terri

Children: Daughter – Sarah; Sons – Michael, Matthew and Mark

PLAYING EXPERIENCE

1978-79 Springfield (Mass.) Offensive Line

1980-81 East Stroudsburg (Pa.) Offensive Line

COACHING CAREER

1982 East Stroudsburg (Pa.) Student Assistant

1983 East Stroudsburg (Pa.) Assistant Offensive Line

1984-85 East Stroudsburg (Pa.) Offensive Line

1986 Pennsylvania Tight Ends

1987 USC Graduate Assistant

1988 Toledo Tight Ends

1989-93 Cincinnati Offensive Line

1994-96 Missouri Offensive Line

1997-04 Illinois Offensive Line

2005-09 Chicago Bears Offensive Line

2010-11 Tennessee Offensive Line

2012-17 Notre Dame Offensive Line

2018-19 Chicago Bears Offensive Line

2022 Notre Dame Offensive Line

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