Longtime DL coach Mike Elston leaving Notre Dame for Michigan
The 12-season Notre Dame tenure for defensive line coach Mike Elston has ended.
Elston will leave the Irish to become the defensive line coach at his alma mater, Michigan, Inside ND Sports confirmed Thursday. 247Sports first reported the news.
Elston, who played outside linebacker at Michigan from 1993-96, coached alongside former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly since 2004 at Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Notre Dame. That ended in late November when Kelly left the Irish to become the head coach at LSU.
Elston opted to stay at Notre Dame rather than follow Kelly to LSU. He served as Notre Dame's defensive play caller in the 37-35 Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State on Jan. 1, and expressed in mid-December the importance of staying in South Bend for his family.
"It’s a family decision for me," said Elston, who has three daughters with his wife, Beth. "It will always be a family decision for me. It’s not about money. It's truly about my kids want to go to Notre Dame too.
"It’s a family decision, and that’s why I’ve always really kind of turned down opportunities for myself. I want my children to go off to college. And when they say to their friends, ‘Hey, I’m going to go home for the weekend,’ they have a place to go.
"They know where home is, and that’s South Bend for them. I don’t want that to change right now."
The opportunity for Elston to leave Notre Dame arose last week when Michigan defensive line coach Shaun Nua was lured away to join head coach Lincoln Riley's new staff at USC. Nua was officially announced as USC's defensive line coach earlier this week.
Since the Fiesta Bowl, Elston played a key role in convincing a trio of Notre Dame defensive linemen — junior end Isaiah Foskey, senior tackle Jayson Ademilola and senior end Justin Ademilola — to stay at Notre Dame rather than pursue an NFL career this offseason. NFL Draft declarations have to be made before Jan. 17.
Elston and current head coach Marcus Freeman combined to create a potent pass rush in Freeman's first season as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator in 2021. The Irish tied the program record, which was set in 1996, with 41 total sacks this past season. The vast majority of those sacks — 34.5 to be exact — came from 10 defensive linemen.
Foskey led the Irish with 11 sacks, which marked the third-most in a season for a Notre Dame player and put him in a tie for 10th in the FBS in total sacks for the 2021 season.
Elston held a number of different roles on Kelly's staffs at Notre Dame. He was the special teams coordinator in his first two seasons (2010-11), moved from defensive line to linebackers for two seasons (2015-16), served two stints as recruiting coordinator (2015-17 and 2021) and spent three seasons as associate head coach (2018-20). Elston was also given the title of defensive run game coordinator in 2021.
What Elston was never given the opportunity to do was become the full-time defensive coordinator. Elston called defensive plays behind the scenes in 2016 when Brian VanGorder was fired and Greg Hudson was given the interim defensive coordinator title. Then Elston called plays in Notre Dame's Fiesta Bowl collapse.
The Irish led Oklahoma State, 28-7, in the first half before allowing the Cowboys to score the next 30 points.
During his time at Notre Dame, Elston coached 11 NFL Draft picks: defensive linemen Kapron Lewis-Moore, Louis Nix III, Stephon Tuitt, Sheldon Day, Isaac Rochell, Jerry Tillery, Khalid Kareem, Julian Okwara, Adetokunbo Ogundeji and Daelin Hayes and linebacker Jaylon Smith.
The departure of Elston leaves Harry Hiestand, who has yet to be formally announced as Notre Dame's offensive line coach for 2022, as the assistant coach on Freeman's staff with the most time spent as a Notre Dame coach, and he hasn't been on staff since leaving for the NFL's Chicago Bears in 2018.
Hiestand was previously an Irish assistant coach for six seasons (2012-17). Current offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has been on staff for five seasons (since 2017).
Freeman will be tasked with finding a defensive line coach who can both teach and recruit at the level of Elston. The two worked hand-in-hand to land a pair of impressive defensive commitments in the 2023 class: Keon Keeley and Brenan Vernon. Keeping those two four-star recruits verbally committed to Notre Dame should become an immediate priority. Rivals ranks both among the top 30 recruits at any position in the 2023 class.
Freeman, who has made clear how much he will prioritize recruiting, will be dealing with some staff shakeup in its recruiting department. He will need to replace Elston as the coaching staff's recruiting coordinator and Aaryn Kearney, who left to work for a recruiting company called Zcruit, as the off-field director of recruiting.
Notre Dame currently has the top-ranked recruiting class in the country for 2023.
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