Notre Dame’s third and final new hire on the 10-man assistant coaching staff for 2018 was officially confirmed Tuesday morning with Terry Joseph announced as the new safeties coach.
A university source had informed Blueandgold.com on Jan. 21 that Joseph would be the likely hire, with a final vetting process by the school’s human resources department the final steps before it became official.
"Having the chance to coach at Notre Dame is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Joseph in a statement released by the university. “There are a lot of great programs in the nation but there is truly only one Notre Dame. I’m looking forward to working with Coach [Brian] Kelly, the rest of the staff and embracing the opportunity to compete on a national stage in pursuit of this program’s mission: to graduate all of its players and win a national championship.”
“Terry has an excellent reputation as a quality teacher and coach, as well as a committed recruiter,” said Kelly in the same release. “He has developed all-conference caliber players at each of his earlier stops, including Power-5 programs North Carolina, Texas A&M, Nebraska and Tennessee. Our players will certainly benefit from Terry's teaching in terms of football, but I’m probably more excited to see our players benefit from his leadership skills away from football.”
A 1996 graduate of Northwestern State — located in Natchitoches, La., — where he was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American in baseball, Joseph’s coaching career began in the high school ranks of his home state, first at Archbishop Shaw (1999-2002) and then Destrehan High School 2003-05.
He drew the attention of the flagship program in the state, LSU, and was hired by head coach Les Miles as a defensive graduate assistant working under coordinator Bo Pelini. The Tigers that season crushed Notre Dame, 41-14, in the Sugar Bowl.
From there Joseph was hired by Louisiana Tech head coach Derek Dooley as the recruiting coordinator and secondary coach, and Joseph’s efforts on the recruiting trail earned him recognition from Rivals.com as one of the top five recruiters in a non-BCS conference.
When Dooley was hired in 2010 to succeed Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, he brought Joseph with him with the same titles as defensive backs coach/recruiting coordinator.
Afterwards, Joseph was reunited with Pelini at Nebraska in 2012-13 as the secondary coach, a unit that enjoyed much success. Led by two-time first-team All-Big Ten pick Ciante Evans, the 2012 Cornhuskers led the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in pass defense and ranked No. 2 in pass efficiency defense. The following season it allowed the fewest completions (210) in the Big Ten.
Joseph next joined head coach Kevin Sumlin’s staff at Texas A&M as defensive backs coach before his most recent one-year stint at North Carolina. Among his pupils with the Aggies were former running back Brandon Williams, who became a third-round NFL pick, and 2016 All-SEC strong safety Justin Evans, a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award. The 2015 Texas A&M pass defense finished No. 4 nationally in passing yards allowed per game and No. 18 in pass efficiency defense.
Early this month, second-year Fighting Irish linebackers coach Clark Lea was promoted to defensive coordinator after Mike Elko departed for Texas A&M for the same job following one season at Notre Dame. Because Elko coached the safeties, that position group also needed an instructor to complement third-year cornerback coach Todd Lyght in the secondary.
The second vacancy filled this month was along the offensive line with another promotion. After Harry Hiestand — who coached Notre Dame’s offensive line six seasons from 2012-17 — took a position with the NFL’s Chicago Bears under newly hired head coach Matt Nagy, 2015-17 Irish offensive analyst was named by head coach Brian Kelly to succeed Hiestand.
Kelly and Quinn worked together 21 consecutive seasons at Grand Valley State (1989-2003), Central Michigan (2004-06) and Cincinnati (2007-09) before Kelly accepted the Notre Dame post while Quinn, his offensive line coach and coordinator, was named the head coach at the University of Buffalo.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne's Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook
