In 34 years now at Blue & Gold Illustrated, there is a phrase I have grown to loathe: “We have to wait until the [insert new coach or assistant] gets his own recruits.”
First, upper-tier coaches win — period. My introduction to this was when first-year head coach Gerry Faust inherited a veteran-dominated Notre Dame team in 1981 that played No. 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl months earlier… and then promptly finished 5-6 in year 1.
“Oh, he needs to get his own recruits!”
Why? There were plenty of top-notch ingredients on hand.
Second, look throughout Notre Dame history and you will find almost every coach thrived most with “the other coach’s” recruits.
Ara Parseghian’s winning percentage his first three years (.866) was actually better with “Hugh Devore and Joe Kuharich recruits” than with his own in the ensuing eight years (.825). Either way he was great — which is the point.
Dan Devine’s 1977 national title was downplayed his third year by many because “they were Ara’s recruits.”
Faust’s best season in year 2 when the Irish upset Michigan, Miami and No. 1 Pitt, plus were robbed at USC, was with “Devine’s recruits” … Bob Davie’s 9-1 start in 1998 was with “Lou Holtz’s recruits” … Ty Willingham’s 10-1 debut in his first 11 games were with “Davie recruits,” and Charlie Weis’ 19-6 ledger his first two seasons were with “Willingham recruits.”
Brian Kelly’s 12-0 start his third season was spearheaded primarily by Weis recruits.
Even Lou Holtz won his national title in year 3 with many Faust recruits, plus that patchwork first class he signed in 1986 was referred to by Holtz privately as the “worst in Notre Dame history.”
The third reason stems from the coordinator situation at Notre Dame.
When a new coordinator is hired at Notre Dame, be it on offense but especially on defense, the countdown on my end begins on whether he can last three years, or just enough to start working with “his recruits” before a new coordinator arrives so he can get “his recruits for his system.” It is an endless cycle, and even as far back as the 1980s, long-time recruiting analyst Tom Lemming indicated that most Irish assistants were mainly “soldiers of fortune,” waiting to be hired as a head coach elsewhere or raise their income level at another place.
Word last January was that Notre Dame was going “long term” with new coordinator hires Chip Long (no pun intended) on offense and Mike Elko on defense. That long-term was defined as three-year deals —which were par for the Notre Dame coordinator course. Elko had become the 15th defensive coordinator at Notre Dame since 1984, which comes out to an average of between a two-to-three-year stay.
However, “one and done” is not what anybody could have anticipated from Elko, who signed a deal with Texas A&M this week that, according to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, starts at $1.8 million and has rollover options.
The Aggies under new head coach Jimbo Fisher, who reportedly signed a 10-year, $75-million deal, had originally wooed Elko in December. Per the South Bend Tribune, Notre Dame countered A&M’s lucrative deal with a $1.5-million deal that was verbally agreed to before it became a bidding war.
To many, Notre Dame refusing to continue the bidding was a reflection of its “lack of commitment” to becoming a national champion on the field again. That’s an understandable perspective, especially from the outside looking in— but making former 2014-16 Fighting Irish defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder one of the top 10-paid assistants at more than $1-million a year didn’t help, either.
At some point your word also has to mean something.
If Elko was going to continue the success he enjoyed at Notre Dame this year — and it was tangible from fundamentals to the eye test during the 10-3 season — he was going to become a head coach in short order anyway, just like Barry Alvarez (1990-91) or Rick Minter (1992-93) after two seasons, Bob Davie (1994-96) after three and even Bob Diaco (2010-13) after four. Yet even with Diaco, the recruiting on defense began to take a downturn once it was evident he was on his way toward becoming a head coach.
The one-year term of Elko became a blind-side hit to the Notre Dame football office, but also business as usual in many respects.
The issue now is whether to promote internally or hire from the outside. Internally, linebackers coach Clark Lea has been with Elko in stops at Bowling Green, Wake Forest and Notre Dame, so the continuity aspects can remain and there is no need to learn a third system in three years — which then renews the mantra of landing a certain type of recruit to a new system.
Also, associate head coach/defensive line coach Mike Elson has been with Kelly since 2004, and he was the de facto coordinator the final eight games of 2016 after VanGorder had been jettisoned. The improvements then also were conspicuous with the simplifications. Elston in fact also had an interview for the coordinator role last year.
Or what of former Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini, who signed a four-year deal at Youngstowns State worth $213,894 in base salary per year? Surely, Notre Dame could top that many times over, plus his son Patrick is a freshman walk-on at Notre Dame.
“Notre Dame simply attracts people at the top of their profession, and, with a young and talented football team coming back in 2018, we’ll certainly add our next great defensive coordinator in very short order,” Kelly said via Twitter.
The question is how “short order” will the next defensive coordinator’s term be?
NOTRE DAME DEFENSIVE COORDINATORS
The "coordinator" title was not used until head coach Dan Devine came aboard in 1975. He gave the offensive coordinator title first to Merv Johnson that year, followed by recruiting coordinator to Brian Boulac in 1976, and finally defensive coordinator to Joe Yonto in 1977.
Here are the Fighting Irish defensive coordinators since then:
Joe Yonto (1977-80) — Longest tenured on-field assistant in school history (19 years) was moved to administrative assistant by new head coach Gerry Faust in 1981, before temporarily returning as line coach for Lou Holtz in 1986-87.
Jim Johnson (1981-83) — Left for the Oklahoma Outlaws of the newly formed USFL, and later would become a top NFL coordinator.
Andy Christoff (1984-85) — Was not retained after Faust stepped down.
Foge Fazio (1986-87) — Left for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons to get much better salary.
Barry Alvarez (1988-89) — Hired as head coach by Wisconsin, where he thrived and as is now the director of athletics.
Gary Darnell (1990-91) — Ill-fated tenure and philosophical differences led to him moving to Texas, becoming head coach at Western Michigan (1997-04) and then … defensive coordinator at Texas A&M.
Rick Minter (1992-93) — Hired as head coach at Cincinnati, where he was head coach from 1994-03, with Christoff as one of his coordinators.
Bob Davie (1994-96) — Promoted to Notre Dame head coach after the resignation of Holtz.
Greg Mattison (1997-2001) — He had the longest tenure in the role at Notre Dame, and also served as Irish line coach in 2002-04 before winning a national title at Florida. He has been at the University of Michigan since 2011.
Kent Baer (2002-04) — Served under Tyrone Willingham and followed him to Washington after the head coach’s ouster. He has been the DC at UNLV the past three years.
Minter (2005-06) — Released by head coach Charlie Weis after two seasons, moved to Marshall and was at Florida Tech in 2017.
Corwin Brown (2007-09) — Not retained after Weis was fired, worked one year with the New England Patriots, and has not been back in football after a 2011 domestic disturbance that included a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Jon Tenuta (2009) — The co-coordinator with Brown during a tumultuous campaign. He is currently the defensive backs coach for the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Bob Diaco (2010-13) — The 2012 Frank Broyles Award winner as nation’s top assistant was head coach at Connecticut from 2014-16 and last year the maligned defensive coordinator at Nebraska, which has hired a new staff.
Brian VanGorder (2014-16) — Fired four games into his fourth season after unsatisfactory performance. Currently a defensive analyst at Oklahoma State
Mike Elston/Greg Hudson (2016) — Took over the final eight games after VanGorder’s firing, with Elston now associate head coach and defensive line coach.
Mike Elko (2017) — Improved Notre Dame from 62nd in scoring defense in 2016 (27.8) to 31st (21.7) this year before moving to Texas A&M.
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