Notre Dame Promotes Grad Assistant Chris O’Leary To Safeties Coach
Notre Dame has turned to an internal hire to fill its open assistant role.
The Irish have named Chris O’Leary as their next safeties coach, formally announcing the move Friday. O’Leary has been with the program since 2018 as a defensive graduate assistant, working with the safeties and rovers. He replaces Terry Joseph, who left in January to become the secondary coach and defensive pass-game coordinator at Texas.
“Chris has been on a job interview the past two years," Brian Kelly said. "He has done an exceptional job of mentoring and coaching the rovers, and in particular Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Paul Moala. His ability to build relationships and motivate our student-athletes has been apparent to me, and made him the ideal candidate for this job.”
O’Leary came to Notre Dame after a one-year stint as the safeties coach at Division II Florida Tech. He spent 2015-16 as a defensive graduate assistant at Georgia State, where he worked for his former head coach at Indiana State, Trent Miles. He caught 47 passes for 397 yards as a receiver for the Sycamores from 2010-13 and is a Terre Haute, Ind., native.
O’Leary briefly went on the road to recruit for Notre Dame in January 2020 when the Irish were filling the cornerbacks coach position vacated by Todd Lyght.
In his first year on the job, O’Leary will have junior All-American Kyle Hamilton at one safety spot. The other is unsettled after sixth-year senior Shaun Crawford’s departure and features a host of underclassmen. Newly hired defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman did, though, convince senior safety Houston Griffith to withdraw his name from the portal in late January.
A top-50 recruit in the 2018 class, Griffith started two games in 2020 and has 33 career tackles (1.0 for loss) and three pass breakups. When not starting, Griffith was in Notre Dame’s dime package and occasionally appeared in the nickel defense. He played 192 special-teams snaps in 2020.
Notre Dame’s other options at safety include senior DJ Brown, junior KJ Wallace, junior Litchfield Ajavon, freshman Justin Walters and freshman Khari Gee. Brown was Notre Dame’s primary nickel back in 2020 and made eight tackles to go with two pass breakups.
With O’Leary promoted, Freeman’s defensive staff is finalized. Mike Elston is staying on as the defensive line coach and associate head coach, and Mike Mickens is the cornerbacks coach. Freeman will also coach the linebackers. Elston’s name came up in connection with other openings, most notably the Purdue defensive coordinator job.
FootballScoop first reported the news of O’Leary’s hire Wednesday night.
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @MasonPlummer_ and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.