The hiring of a new defensive coordinator at Notre Dame is akin to the signing of any new recruiting class. One difference between the two is the amount of years spent with the Fighting Irish.
With a recruit, it could be four or five years, and on rare occasions three when somebody such as junior tight end Tommy Tremble opts to turn pro early.
With a defensive coordinator, three years is generally the maximum, just as it was with the most recent and successful tenure under Clark Lea (2018-20) prior to accepting the head coaching position last month at alma mater Vanderbilt, located in his Nashville, Tenn., hometown.
Now it’s former University of Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman’s turn to take the baton and run with it for a few years. Since 1980, he is the 19th defensive coordinator hired at Notre Dame. That means the average tenure of the previous 18 — be it interim (2016), co-coordinators (2009) or a one-year drive-by with Mike Elko in 2017 — over 41 seasons was 2.3 years.