Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 MAY 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED C omplete with his Indiana roots, a steady and success- ful rise through the coaching ranks, and a terrific turnaround of a flat-lined Penn State program, new Notre Dame head men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry checks all the boxes of being a home-run hire. Shrewsberry, an Indianapolis na- tive, was Notre Dame's top target to replace 23-year head coach Mike Brey all along, and the university re- portedly rolled out the Brink's truck to make sure he didn't get away. According to Stadium basketball insider Jeff Goodman, Notre Dame will pay Shrewsberry more than $4 million a season over seven years, the richest-ever basketball invest- ment at this football-first school. And according to Matt Fortuna of The Athletic, Notre Dame also paid a $4 million buyout to Penn State to bring Shrewsberry to South Bend. But beyond the aggressive finan- cial commitment the university made to pull Shrewsberry away from his ascending program at Penn State, Notre Dame also demonstrated again an important willingness to remain open- minded when filling its most visible coaching vacancies. It's an inclusive approach to coaching searches that runs counter to the long- time perception that Notre Dame is too inflexible and unimaginative with its business decisions and coaching hires. Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick gave both Marcus Freeman (football) and Niele Ivey (women's bas- ketball) their first head coaching jobs. And when Shrewsberry was officially in- troduced to his new post March 30, Notre Dame joined Syracuse as the only two Power Five schools in the country with a Black head coach for each of its three most visible athletic programs — men's and women's basketball, and football. Swarbrick, all the ADs that came before him, and the entire Notre Dame athletics administration have forever been accused of being tight with their finances, timid with their coaching searches and often out of touch with their hires. But these three important and recent coaching hires — all made by Swarbrick within the last three years — suggest that these longtime assertions of Notre Dame being narrow-minded with its coaching searches and always driven by budget considerations more than candi- date qualifications no longer apply. GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW Of the six offensive assistant coach- ing positions, Freeman had to fill three this offseason, each of which didn't come open until February had arrived. A disjointed search for offensive co- ordinator after Tommy Rees left for Ala- bama ended with the promotion of Irish tight ends coach Gerad Parker to the po- sition. The late and unexpected retire- ment of offensive line coach Harry Hies- tand in mid-February led to the hiring of former Wisconsin and Virginia Tech line coach Joe Rudolph. The quarterbacks coaching vacancy, also left open by Rees, wasn't filled until March 1, when Gino Guidugli was hired to the post. And finally, four days after Guidugli was hired, Freeman faced another va- cancy to fill when former special teams coach Brian Mason moved on to the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. Marty Biagi was hired to fill Mason's va- cancy less than a week later, pre- sumably finishing Freeman's off- season staff shuffling. So how is Freeman handling the reconfiguration of his offensive staff this spring? By staying in his own lane, he ex- plained, and by allowing the new coaches to familiarize themselves at their own pace instead of trying to rush or force a connection. It's a hands-off approach that Freeman said he can take because of the pre-existing connections he shares with both of his new offen- sive coaching hires. Guidugli worked together with Freeman at Cincinnati, while Ru- dolph was a graduate assistant at Ohio State when Freeman played linebacker there. "I think there's nothing more important than experience with somebody," Freeman said. "I don't have to wonder what this person is like when I'm not around." Freeman may have felt blindsided some when each of his three offseason coaching vacancies opened in February. But he's already shown a gift for mak- ing good coaching hires, evidenced by the fact that each of the 10 assistants from his 2022 staff were contacted by NFL teams or college programs about a possible relocation, and only Rees and Mason moved on. Yeah, there will always be staff turnover in this profession. Outside interest, new opportunities and subsequent departures are actually traits of a healthy program. But with a search-and-hire formula that puts familiarity first, Freeman be- lieves he's well equipped to successfully fill all his future coaching vacancies in the same way he did this offseason. "You need to know that when you are not around, you can trust the guys you're working with," he said. ✦ Shrewsberry signed a seven-year contract worth more than $4 million per season — the richest-ever basketball investment at Notre Dame, a football-first school. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE Micah Shrewsberry Hire Shows Irish Hoops Matter UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com