Notre Dame dreamed big when it came to replacing recently retired offensive line coaching icon Harry Hiestand.
On Monday reality aligned up with those lofty aspirations.
Multiple sources confirmed that Virginia Tech run game coordinator and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph, 50, is expected to be Hiestand’s successor, once he gets run through Notre Dame’s protracted vetting process and has a splashy graphic prepared for him.
247Sports was first with the news.
Rudolph spent the 2022 season at Virginia Tech with an offense stuck in abject rebuild mode, but built his coaching résumé at alma mater Wisconsin. There he coached five first-team All-Americans during his seven-year run (2015-21) under head coach Paul Chryst.
The Belle Vernon, Pa., product brings pedigree, extensive offensive coordinator experience, a brief NFL playing career, a Zoology degree and master’s in business administration to the job, and Irish second-year head coach Marcus Freeman hopes — stability as well.
The only two Irish offensive line coaches since the start of the Lou Holtz Era (1986) who were on the job for more than four years were the legendary Joe Moore (1988-96) and protégé Hiestand (2012-17 and 2022).
“Joe Rudolph is the perfect cultural fit,” said Rivals national recruiting analyst Clint Cosgrove, who has known Rudolph and his family for decades and who coached with him at Nebraska when Cosgrove was in college coaching.
“I don’t know a lot about Harry Hiestand. I’ve heard great things about him. But I know they’re both great teachers. They’re both old school, so I think there will be some overlap.
“Will it be the same under Joe that it was under Harry? No. But I think their approach, the way they see the game, they’re both teachers and technicians, I think there will be some crossover there. The players can take what they’ve learned from Harry and add to it what they’ve learned from Joe and continue to develop. And I think it’s going to be as seamless of a transition as you can have in such a situation.”
Dayton grad Rob Delaney will assist Rudolph in a graduate assistant role. So will Chris Watt, who exhausted his NCAA-maximum allowed years as a grad assistant and has recently moved into an analyst role for the Irish.
Rudolph completes an offensive staff shuffle started by offensive coordinator/QBs coach Tommy Rees’ departure to Alabama on Feb. 3, with Hiestand retiring shortly thereafter.
Tight ends coach Gerad Parker has since added offensive coordinator duties, and the official announcement of the addition of new QBs coach Gino Guidugli is expected soon.
Rudolph was reportedly making $725,000 a year with the Hokies.
His first orders of business are getting to know his new coaching peers and recruiting.
“I like numbers. I like what guys lift. How they run. Track numbers,” Rudolph told The Athletic last March in what he looks for in a recruit.
“I think those things are sustainable, regardless of who you’re playing against. Those things are sustainable against everyone in the country because they’re real measurables. So I like those numbers. I like how they play. It gets me to go see them.
“And what I want (them) to know is that I will never have to compromise on character or work ethic. So that’s what I get from the coaches, the people in the schools, watching them, seeing them train. If you’ve got guys that are hard workers and you’ve got guys with great character that have a skill set that you can develop, you feel pretty good about that.”
Notre Dame has one committed offensive lineman so far in the 2024 class, and the Irish are looking for more to go with Peter Jones, a four-star/top 100 prospect out of Malvern, Pa.
“He’s a phenomenal recruiter, and it all starts with he’s a great person,” Cosgrove said of Rudolph. “He’s genuine in his approach. He cares about the kids and his recruiting is based off of relationships. He’s not a ‘rah-rah’ guy. You just look at the fit with Notre Dame, which sells itself as a program, and then you have someone who’s extremely genuine, wants to develop the kids.
“He genuinely cares, and so he can genuinely connect with kids and parents. I just think it’s a perfect fit for Notre Dame in that sense.”
The Irish first took a run at in-hiatus coach Matt Luke, who last coached in 2021 with Georgia. Luke, 46, stepped away after that season citing family concerns. He interviewed for the O-line opening, with his family in tow, last Tuesday and Wednesday at Notre Dame before opting Friday to remain out of coaching.
The paths of Freeman and Rudolph have crossed before. Rudolph’s very first coaching job was at Ohio State, first as a grad assistant (2004-05), then as the Buckeyes’ strength coach (2006). All three of those seasons overlapped Freeman’s playing career as a linebacker at OSU (2004-08).
During Rudolph’s own playing career, he was a member of former Badger head coach Barry Alavarez’s first recruiting class and spent five years learning under elite O-line coach Bill Callahan (1990-94).
From Ohio State, Rudolph coached tight ends for his first seven seasons, including a first tour of duty at Wisconsin (2008-11). And he served nine seasons as offensive coordinator under Chryst at Pitt and Wisconsin.
But it was coaching offensive linemen that made him a national name. That included five first-team All-Americans at Wisconsin: Tackle Ryan Ramczyk, center Tyler Biadasz (who won the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center in 2019), guard Beau Benzschawel, tackle David Edwards and tackle Michael Deiter.
“What makes Joe Rudolph such a strong developer of talent is that he’s extremely intelligent," Cosgrove said. “And similar to the way he recruits, he really connects with the kids. Part of coaching guys up and getting after them is they’ve got to believe that you have their best interests in play and that you care about them. And if they know that, they’re going to let you coach them hard and he just creates those relationships.
“And then you think about his experience. He was a great player himself. He played in the Big Ten and then he went on to play in the NFL. He came up under (current Cleveland Browns O-line coach) Bill Callahan, who’s well known as one of the best offensive line coaches, not only when he was in college, but in the NFL.
“It all runs together. Joe’s just got the knowledge, the want-to, the will and the connection with the kids to get the most out of them. He sets his kids up for a lot of success and he makes them compete.”
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