February 22, 2022 • 9 mins
Randall and Reuben discuss Notre Dame's coaching changes.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
You're listening to Irish Sports Talk.Hello Nordame fans, Welcome to Irish Sports
Talk, Episode six and twenty two. I'm Rubin and I'm joined by Randall.
Randall, how's it going. It'sgoing. Um, it's been a
little while. Yeah, it's beenover a month. Lots of different faces
(00:22):
on the Notre Dame football team,and I think we'll yeah, we'll go
through that list of coaches and itreally it's a different team, like you
would think that Notre Dame made aton of progress over the last number of
years. And the story after theMarcus Freeman higher was that, hey,
(00:43):
it's just basically it's just a differentface at the top. You know,
the core is still there and it'snot anymore. This is a very different
this is a different coaching staff.Yeah. I mean initially it seemed like
it because you know, there weren'ta lot of changes, and going into
the bowl game, it didn't seemlike they're that made changes. You know,
nobody, well hardly anyone went withBrian Kelly tell us you and it
(01:06):
was like, oh, this iswhat Notre Dame needed. Well then,
especially after the bowl game, thingsjust started to change and all of a
sudden you're looking at Tommy Reeves beingthe only coach on the offensive side of
the ball is still there, andthere's only what like two or three guys
on defensive side, and one ofthose would be Marcus Freeman, who had
been the defensive coordinators now the headcoach. You know, so you've got
(01:26):
to find defensive coordinator. And sothere's been a lot of a lot of
dust the last while, and likeit's all starting to sell. It seems
like the whole staff is in placenow. They did have a press conference
and all the coaches were available tothe media, and you know, one
thing you keep hearing is that theyhave the media has more access to the
(01:48):
coaches and assistant coach than they everhad with Brian Kelly. They were all
available, and so I think norDame is very should be grateful or is
fortunate. It is fortunate to havean experience They don't have an experience head
coach. They have a brand new, mostly brand new coaching staff, but
they do have an experienced athletic directorin Jack Scorbreck, and I think that's
(02:13):
gonna help a lot. There's gonnabe there's gonna be ups and downs,
there was a down in the inthe ball game, a big disappointment in
second half. And I mean,I think Marcus Freeman as a first time
head coach, like, there's gonnabe times when you know, there's gonna
be some struggles for sure, ButI think having Jack's experience of watching Brian
Kelly struggle and then eventually succeed andcontinue to make progress is going to help.
(02:36):
And I think he'll be able tohelp hopefully level out those dips,
those lows, and maybe elevate thosehighs. With Marcus Freeman, well,
one of the things we've already discussed, um not on the podcast but otherwise
is, you know, there's alot of time how much you know the
changes under Brian Kelly, how muchof that was actually Jack Horbick versus Kelly,
(02:58):
and so you can kind of youknow, so we still don't know
for sure, but like what youwere just saying about sword rate being involved,
you know, depending which side you'reon with that would you know,
is also gonna help make up youropinion on how much he's gonna be involved
here. But like you said,Mars Freeman is a new head coach,
but he's surrounded himself with guys thathave experienced I mean, I was a
(03:21):
Tommy Rees has been around Notre Dame, knows Notre Dame, so to have
him as an offensive coordinator was huge. To be able to keep him at
Notre Dame is huge, And alot of people think he'll be gone the
next few years to the NFL oranother job, which you know what,
that's normal. You have a goodteam. That's what happens with a good
team. The coaches leave and youknow, just like with the defensive new
(03:45):
defensive coordinator Al Golden, I meanhis team. He was with the Bengals
as a linebackers coach. They werein the Super Bowl. But you know,
now he has a different job,like now he's defensive coordinator at Notre
Dame. When you have success,that also means you're and lose coaches to
other jobs. And it's because they'redoing such a good job. Yeah,
(04:05):
but it also makes it that mucheasier to replace them with someone qualified and
willing to I mean, that canhelp advance the program even further. So
with all these hires, Marcus Freeman'sI think promise was that they were going
to me. The thing that startsto me the most in the hiring process,
(04:28):
and Marcus Freeman's promise was that ThereDame's recruiting is going to get better.
They're going to get better player.You look at this coaching staff and
yeah, you can say that.So you feel pretty confident and excited about
that. The guys that the guyto come in are going to increase or
or make improve the recruiting. Overall, the recruiting impact for Notre Dame.
(04:49):
Yeah, I mean it's not likea lot of these guys, I don't
know a lot about them, butguys you know, like Al Washington coming
from Ohio State, UM, someof the good friends Marcus Freeman like that.
That's made a splash with the recruits. Like recruits. He was recruiting
a lot of players of Ohio State, and we all know that Ohio State
gets top recruits, so they wereyou know, he was in contact with
(05:10):
a lot of these big names.And then you know, even back to
Al Golden, Um, here's aguy that has head coaching experience. Yes,
he it wasn't the best, likeat Miami, it didn't turn out
the best, but you know hedid take some other jobs. He was
in the NFL the last few yearssince twenty sixteen. I believe with the
(05:31):
Lions and then with the Bengals lasttwo years there has had success again,
and I think that was a greatIt'd be interesting to see how this defense
were There's a lot of talk aboutthat because they're they're saying, this is
Marcus Freeman's defense, and I thinkit will be. I think if you
were going to hire a former headcoach, that was the position to do
(05:53):
it, just because it's easier forMarcus Freeman to stay in control of that
because that's that was his job.He knows about it, and so it's
that much easier for him to stayin charge of that position. And Al
Golden will be there to help himwith, you know, head coaching stuff
because he has that experience. AndI mean, you look at somebody like
Alabama, most of their coordinators arehead former head coaches. So let me
(06:18):
just see how that all works out. But yeah, just across where you
keep hearing about how these guys whata good job they do with recruiting,
and recruits are excited about it andtalking about it, and you know it's
already paying off. You look atsome of the future classes, like the
twenty three classes still is right nowas the top class in college football.
So they're doing a good job already. All right, did we actually go
(06:44):
through the entire I don't even thinkwe can just kind of go through the
list. Do you want to dothat? You want me to read it
all? You? Go ahead?Go ahead? Um, if you haven't
heard, Marcus Freeman is the headfootball coach, and obviously have al Al
Golden as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, which is what he coached with the
Bengals. And they're two linebackers totheir linebacker for the top tacklers in the
(07:08):
playoffs. So then Tommy Reese offensivecoordinator and quarterbacks Brian Mason special teams coordinator.
Harry he stands back as the offensiveline coach. Deelan McCullough is a
running back coach. Mike mckens isstill here with as a cornerbacks coach.
Chris O'Leary is defensive backs and safeties. Gerard Parker or Garrett Parker is tight
(07:31):
ends coach. Chance He's Stuckey iswide receiver coach. Al Washington is defensive
line coach and defensive run game coordinator. And then you have quite a few,
you know, analysts and grad assistantsand things like that. I mean,
there's quite a list, but yeah, there you have it. Their
(07:51):
dame has assembled their staff and nowthey can move on from all that and
spend more time in recruiting and honestlygetting ready for spring practice that's not that
far away. So okay, whatelse do we want to cover on today's
(08:13):
podcast? Um, there's there's nota whole lot, I said. I
mean, there's been a lot oftalk with all these coaches, and I
guess we just kind of have towait and see how this coaching staff is
going to work out. Definitely waymore changes than I expected, but I
think it's exciting. Have you heardanything about any incoming transfers that they were
(08:35):
names looking to fill any positions?No, I mean obviously they got a
safety but like as of now,it doesn't seem like they're getting more transfers.
So, I mean, there wassome talk about why they aren't getting
more, but as of right now, I haven't heard anything. So all
right, Okay, Well, nextweek I'm gonna be on vacation, so
(08:58):
we won't be recording next week.Les there'd be some major, major news,
we probably would be able to makeit work, but then we plan
to be back a week after that. So March Madness is coming up.
Some basketball, I mean, theteam. I've been surprised by the team.
I haven't really watched them much,but they have been doing good.
They were tied for first in theACC and then they did lose a game,
(09:22):
so but they have been playing well, which is I didn't really expect
it from them this year. Sohopefully they make it to March Madness and
we have a normal March Madness thisyear. But as far as I know,
it should be so yeah. Allright, well, thanks guys for
listening. Until next time, GoIrish, so Irish,
You're listening to Irish Sports Talk.Hello Nordame fans, Welcome to Irish Sports
Talk, Episode six and twenty two. I'm Rubin and I'm joined by Randall.
Randall, how's it going. It'sgoing. Um, it's been a
little while. Yeah, it's beenover a month. Lots of different faces
(00:22):
on the Notre Dame football team,and I think we'll yeah, we'll go
through that list of coaches and itreally it's a different team, like you
would think that Notre Dame made aton of progress over the last number of
years. And the story after theMarcus Freeman higher was that, hey,
(00:43):
it's just basically it's just a differentface at the top. You know,
the core is still there and it'snot anymore. This is a very different
this is a different coaching staff.Yeah. I mean initially it seemed like
it because you know, there weren'ta lot of changes, and going into
the bowl game, it didn't seemlike they're that made changes. You know,
nobody, well hardly anyone went withBrian Kelly tell us you and it
(01:06):
was like, oh, this iswhat Notre Dame needed. Well then,
especially after the bowl game, thingsjust started to change and all of a
sudden you're looking at Tommy Reeves beingthe only coach on the offensive side of
the ball is still there, andthere's only what like two or three guys
on defensive side, and one ofthose would be Marcus Freeman, who had
been the defensive coordinators now the headcoach. You know, so you've got
(01:26):
to find defensive coordinator. And sothere's been a lot of a lot of
dust the last while, and likeit's all starting to sell. It seems
like the whole staff is in placenow. They did have a press conference
and all the coaches were available tothe media, and you know, one
thing you keep hearing is that theyhave the media has more access to the
(01:48):
coaches and assistant coach than they everhad with Brian Kelly. They were all
available, and so I think norDame is very should be grateful or is
fortunate. It is fortunate to havean experience They don't have an experience head
coach. They have a brand new, mostly brand new coaching staff, but
they do have an experienced athletic directorin Jack Scorbreck, and I think that's
(02:13):
gonna help a lot. There's gonnabe there's gonna be ups and downs,
there was a down in the inthe ball game, a big disappointment in
second half. And I mean,I think Marcus Freeman as a first time
head coach, like, there's gonnabe times when you know, there's gonna
be some struggles for sure, ButI think having Jack's experience of watching Brian
Kelly struggle and then eventually succeed andcontinue to make progress is going to help.
(02:36):
And I think he'll be able tohelp hopefully level out those dips,
those lows, and maybe elevate thosehighs. With Marcus Freeman, well,
one of the things we've already discussed, um not on the podcast but otherwise
is, you know, there's alot of time how much you know the
changes under Brian Kelly, how muchof that was actually Jack Horbick versus Kelly,
(02:58):
and so you can kind of youknow, so we still don't know
for sure, but like what youwere just saying about sword rate being involved,
you know, depending which side you'reon with that would you know,
is also gonna help make up youropinion on how much he's gonna be involved
here. But like you said,Mars Freeman is a new head coach,
but he's surrounded himself with guys thathave experienced I mean, I was a
(03:21):
Tommy Rees has been around Notre Dame, knows Notre Dame, so to have
him as an offensive coordinator was huge. To be able to keep him at
Notre Dame is huge, And alot of people think he'll be gone the
next few years to the NFL oranother job, which you know what,
that's normal. You have a goodteam. That's what happens with a good
team. The coaches leave and youknow, just like with the defensive new
(03:45):
defensive coordinator Al Golden, I meanhis team. He was with the Bengals
as a linebackers coach. They werein the Super Bowl. But you know,
now he has a different job,like now he's defensive coordinator at Notre
Dame. When you have success,that also means you're and lose coaches to
other jobs. And it's because they'redoing such a good job. Yeah,
(04:05):
but it also makes it that mucheasier to replace them with someone qualified and
willing to I mean, that canhelp advance the program even further. So
with all these hires, Marcus Freeman'sI think promise was that they were going
to me. The thing that startsto me the most in the hiring process,
(04:28):
and Marcus Freeman's promise was that ThereDame's recruiting is going to get better.
They're going to get better player.You look at this coaching staff and
yeah, you can say that.So you feel pretty confident and excited about
that. The guys that the guyto come in are going to increase or
or make improve the recruiting. Overall, the recruiting impact for Notre Dame.
(04:49):
Yeah, I mean it's not likea lot of these guys, I don't
know a lot about them, butguys you know, like Al Washington coming
from Ohio State, UM, someof the good friends Marcus Freeman like that.
That's made a splash with the recruits. Like recruits. He was recruiting
a lot of players of Ohio State, and we all know that Ohio State
gets top recruits, so they wereyou know, he was in contact with
(05:10):
a lot of these big names.And then you know, even back to
Al Golden, Um, here's aguy that has head coaching experience. Yes,
he it wasn't the best, likeat Miami, it didn't turn out
the best, but you know hedid take some other jobs. He was
in the NFL the last few yearssince twenty sixteen. I believe with the
(05:31):
Lions and then with the Bengals lasttwo years there has had success again,
and I think that was a greatIt'd be interesting to see how this defense
were There's a lot of talk aboutthat because they're they're saying, this is
Marcus Freeman's defense, and I thinkit will be. I think if you
were going to hire a former headcoach, that was the position to do
(05:53):
it, just because it's easier forMarcus Freeman to stay in control of that
because that's that was his job.He knows about it, and so it's
that much easier for him to stayin charge of that position. And Al
Golden will be there to help himwith, you know, head coaching stuff
because he has that experience. AndI mean, you look at somebody like
Alabama, most of their coordinators arehead former head coaches. So let me
(06:18):
just see how that all works out. But yeah, just across where you
keep hearing about how these guys whata good job they do with recruiting,
and recruits are excited about it andtalking about it, and you know it's
already paying off. You look atsome of the future classes, like the
twenty three classes still is right nowas the top class in college football.
So they're doing a good job already. All right, did we actually go
(06:44):
through the entire I don't even thinkwe can just kind of go through the
list. Do you want to dothat? You want me to read it
all? You? Go ahead?Go ahead? Um, if you haven't
heard, Marcus Freeman is the headfootball coach, and obviously have al Al
Golden as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, which is what he coached with the
Bengals. And they're two linebackers totheir linebacker for the top tacklers in the
(07:08):
playoffs. So then Tommy Reese offensivecoordinator and quarterbacks Brian Mason special teams coordinator.
Harry he stands back as the offensiveline coach. Deelan McCullough is a
running back coach. Mike mckens isstill here with as a cornerbacks coach.
Chris O'Leary is defensive backs and safeties. Gerard Parker or Garrett Parker is tight
(07:31):
ends coach. Chance He's Stuckey iswide receiver coach. Al Washington is defensive
line coach and defensive run game coordinator. And then you have quite a few,
you know, analysts and grad assistantsand things like that. I mean,
there's quite a list, but yeah, there you have it. Their
(07:51):
dame has assembled their staff and nowthey can move on from all that and
spend more time in recruiting and honestlygetting ready for spring practice that's not that
far away. So okay, whatelse do we want to cover on today's
(08:13):
podcast? Um, there's there's nota whole lot, I said. I
mean, there's been a lot oftalk with all these coaches, and I
guess we just kind of have towait and see how this coaching staff is
going to work out. Definitely waymore changes than I expected, but I
think it's exciting. Have you heardanything about any incoming transfers that they were
(08:35):
names looking to fill any positions?No, I mean obviously they got a
safety but like as of now,it doesn't seem like they're getting more transfers.
So, I mean, there wassome talk about why they aren't getting
more, but as of right now, I haven't heard anything. So all
right, Okay, Well, nextweek I'm gonna be on vacation, so
(08:58):
we won't be recording next week.Les there'd be some major, major news,
we probably would be able to makeit work, but then we plan
to be back a week after that. So March Madness is coming up.
Some basketball, I mean, theteam. I've been surprised by the team.
I haven't really watched them much,but they have been doing good.
They were tied for first in theACC and then they did lose a game,
(09:22):
so but they have been playing well, which is I didn't really expect
it from them this year. Sohopefully they make it to March Madness and
we have a normal March Madness thisyear. But as far as I know,
it should be so yeah. Allright, well, thanks guys for
listening. Until next time, GoIrish, so Irish,
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