SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Ja’Juan Seider saw enough of Jeremiyah Love in person six weeks ago, and his Notre Dame running back cohorts intermittently on film during his ongoing whirlwind relocation/introduction to South Bend, to know what their collective ceiling looks like heading into spring practice.
But the new Irish running backs coach and associate head coach was more interested this week in inspecting the cracks in their floor.
“I want to know the weakness,” said the 47-year-old Seider, who spent the past seven seasons of his coaching career at Penn State, “so I can help them grow in that area.
“One thing I told them today after we broke this morning: ‘I’d like for you guys to text me three, five things, individually, that you want to grow in that area.’ And a lot of times when you get that information, you may be able to design a drill that can help them.
“It might be contact balance. It may be hand placement and protection. But you’re only going to know your blind spots if you really recognize them and you own them. You know, ‘Hey, I may be a guy who can only run with the ball in my right hand. Maybe I need to work a little bit more on my left hand.’ So, you just try to find those little details and help them grow.”
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This is just one way departed running backs coach Deland McCullough’s successor will go about coaxing improvement from a unit that ranked 19th nationally in rushing yards per game (200.8) and concocted the second-best yards-per-carry average in school history (5.7) in a 2024 season that went 16 games deep and ended in the CFP National Championship Game Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
And that despite the Irish facing three top 10 rush defenses during ND’s four-game College Football Playoff run, and 10 of its 16 2024 season opponents being ranked 42nd or better nationally in that category among the 133 FBS teams the NCAA tracks statistically.
McCullough left ND roughly three weeks ago to take the running backs coach position with the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. That after a three-year run with head coach Marcus Freeman and the Irish.
Seider’s official announcement as McCullough’s replacement on Feb. 18, nine days after the deal was in place to lure him away from the Nittany Lions.
“When this opportunity came, we thought hard about it,” Seider said. “We turned the phone off for a couple of days. Only person we really talked to was Marcus, a little bit here and there. We just said, like it was time to do something different. Go challenge yourself. Go walk in different shoes.”
Seider’s running backs also logged 16 games in the 2024 season/postseason at Penn State, with the Nittany Lions falling to the Irish 27-24 Jan. 9 in the CFP semis/Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla. And they were also top-tier, finishing 17th in the national rushing stats (202.3).
In part because the former college QB at West Virginia and Florida A&M was relentless when it comes to finding ways to bring out the best in his players.
On Wednesday, he shared his vision and goals as a new member of the Irish coaching staff during a press conference at Notre Dame Stadium that also featured new ND defensive coordinator Chris Ash.
“When I was a young coach, the best thing I did was spend time with the O-line,” Seider said. “I wanted to know why a big guy could kick back and move as fast as he can. He’s playing on his instep. Well, a lot of times you go watch backs block, they play with their weight on the outside of their foot, of their toes. So, you can't move. Now you're on your heels and you get bull-rushed. So, I learned that so I can incorporate it in the room.
“Just little things like that. And even in the offseason, I always make the running backs go run routes with the receivers. Who runs routes better than the receivers? Maybe tight ends? But at least you will learn that part of the game so you continue to grow your game.
“Because the guys that want to play on Sunday gotta be three-down backs. That's the guys who’s going to make the money. That's the Saquon [Barkleys] of the world. That's the kid [Jahmyr] Gibbs in Detroit. So, you try to give them examples, because that's who they want to be in the future.”
Seider’s future with the Irish running backs ramps up in less than three weeks, with the presumptive/yet-to-be announced start of spring practice believed to be March 18 and the 15 and final practice, in the form of the annual Blue-Gold Game, official set for April 12 at Notre Dame Stadium.
Love, a junior-to-be, leads a six-deep running back room coming off a season in which he rushed for 1,125 yards on 163 carries (6.9 per carry) and 17 TDs, including an epic two-yard scoring run against Penn State that for most backs would have been a lost-yardage play.
“J-Love he can pretty much do it all,” Seider offered. “I mean, he can make you miss in a phone booth.”
He’ll be joined by senior-to-be Jadarian Price, rising sophomores Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young, early enrolled freshman Nolan James Jr., and eventually if not sooner senior Gi’Bran Payne, coming off a season missed due to an ACL tear last April.
Here are the additional top takeaways from Wednesday’s meeting with the media about how Seider will go about coaching that group:
SEIDER IS ALSO BIG ON ROTATING BACKS
As was Deland McCullough. At Penn State in 2024, Katron Allen and Nicholas Singleton each surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing plateau.
“Well, to me, as a coach, I always believe you coach the bottom of your roster no different than you coach the top of your roster,” Seider said. “And that's how you build depth, because your fifth, he becomes your one. And so, you gotta prepare like that throughout the week.
“So, I always believe, throughout the weeks that in season, we try to have four guys ready, because it's hard to get five to six guys ready. But have four guys in a rotation, where they can learn, they can have a process to be ready to play in the game, because there's [the potential for] an ankle injury, right?
“We play a physical game. We are the one position where every play somebody's trying to get you. And so, we have to have guys ready and we have to build depth to get to the championship, which Notre Dame, did.
“They had a lot of injuries, and you never knew the difference who was in the game. Was a guy injured or was that a guy who had been playing all year? That's a testament to this program, what coach Freeman has built.”
IMPACTING THE OFFENSE BEYOND THE RBS ROOM
When Seider left Penn State, he not only was the running backs coach, he was also assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator. At ND, his title includes the tag of associate head coach, which implies a broader set of responsibilities than simply coaching running backs.
So what might that look like at ND for the former college QB in collaborating with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock?
“Well, I think first of all, you’ve got to come in and be a sponge,” Seider said, “because I've been around people and I never wanted to be that guy: ‘Hey, Mike, you’re doing this way, but we did it that way.’ What it ain't about what I did at that place. It’s about what we're doing here at Notre Dame.
“So, just trying to be a piece of the puzzle. And then when he asks, maybe having an opinion or example, ‘Hey, Jay, how do you guys do this at Penn State that kind of fits what we're doing?’ So. anytime you can fit something that's already similar to the situation — the system that we already in — it's easy to implement something.
“I think my value is going to come with the running backs and being able to teach them how the quarterback sees the game. And we're always talking about, in our room, playing from the neck up.”
And so Seider plans to teach the running backs how the quarterback reads coverages and pre-snap movement and get them to see that through the same set of eyes.
“It's going to allow them to play smarter,” he said. “We’re already talented in that room, so we can play from the neck up. We can anticipate the front changes. We’re going to teach those kids that to make them understand now we got a chance to be maybe a little bit more explosive in the area where we weren't, because maybe they weren’t trained that way.
“I don't know that, because I'm just learning the kids. I'm just giving you the background how I want to coach them.”
RECRUITING PHILOSOPHY
“It's about relationships,” Seider said. “I think establishing relationships, establishing trust with the players. But it's not just the player. It's the family. Those kids didn't get there by themselves. It's the mom, the dad. It may be the grandparent that's raising that kid. It may be the uncle
“ It may be that person at the school that you don't think about, maybe that custodian that's really close to that guy, or whoever that may be. And to me, it's just finding out the decision-makers. Who are they? Who's helping this kid make decisions?
“Because there's a [transactional] world we’re in right now, with NIL and revenue-sharing that's come along. But at some point it's got to be even. And what's going to separate when Notre Dame can pay this and Ohio State can pay this, Penn State can pay that? It's relationships, Because we all say we got the same thing, but at the end of the day, that kid can come to me, because I build the best relationship.
“Well, that's a little bit of trust, and there's a little bit of: ‘OK, I can trust this coach from development.’ He's going to be there through my tough times, because every kid is going to go through homesickness. Whether he’s 15 minutes down the road, you’re on your own for the first time. Mom’s not there, making your bed and fixing you breakfast.
“So, it comes down to the relationships and it comes down to outworking people. If you’re going to sit around and not going to communicate with the kid and the parent, well somebody else is. And to me, I never change, because I'm going to outwork you. I take recruiting the same way I take coaching, the same way I play. Like, I want to be the best at it, and I hate losing, so I'm going to do everything I can to have an opportunity to win.”
WHY NOTRE DAME?
Seider and Freeman had a longstanding friendship after meeting through former Irish assistant coach Gerad Parker, now the head coach at Troy.
Parker and Seider first overlapped on the offensive staff at Marshall (2011-12), just head of Parker and Freeman working together at Purdue (2013-16).
“When [they were] at Purdue, we were on the road together and we kind of hit it off,” Seider said. “And it was almost like — I was telling my wife — sometimes it’s like talking to myself. When I talk to [Freeman], it’s like I'm talking to myself. And we just stayed in touch.”
Seider had a little first-hand experience on the Notre Dame campus, way back in 1997 when the 22nd-ranked Mountaineers’ were ND’s senior day opponent in late November and Seider was the backup to West Virginia starting QB Marc Bulger.
The Irish under first-year coach Bob Davie and outgoing QB Ron Powlus pulled off the 21-14 upset. The same Ron Powlus, now deputy athletics director/football for ND, who had a voice in bringing Seider to campus for the job interview.
“I really didn't get the chance to feel Notre Dame, when you come in as a different team, because you just come in for business,” Seider said. “You come to play the game, win and lose, go home, right?”
And now?
“When you come on this campus, you feel Notre Dame — whatever it is,” he said. “I don't know what it is, how to explain it, but it just felt different. You walk different. You talk different. You stand up different. You sit different.
“And I just think it's from the top, meeting with [ND president] Father Bob [Dowd], meeting with [Adam] Sargent in academics, meeting with Freeman, him coming to pick us up from the airport.
"It was just first class, and you understand why. You feel the ‘why’ of Notre Dame, like it is special, and that's why it's only one Notre Dame.”
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