Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1503982
18 AUGUST 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED the 1988 national championship. Even though Brown was not a part of the team that ultimately won it all, he laid signifi- cant pieces of the foundation required to achieve something so monumental. Swarbrick has been working with head coach Marcus Freeman and the rest of the higher-ups at Notre Dame to put a plan in place for a new facility. Everything he's done for 15 years has been with Notre Dame in mind. There have been missteps. Nobody is perfect. But in the end, he only wanted what was best for Notre Dame. The best part for Swarbrick? He still has one more shot at the elusive football natty. He'll be around for another set of basketball seasons and everything else that takes place between now and March, which is likely when Bevacqua will officially succeed him. There are plenty more opportuni- ties for Notre Dame to have success on Swarbrick's ledger. "We want to be involved in shaping the future," Swarbrick said. "We focus on that as much as anything. Notre Dame should help lead. We get the op- portunity to do that. As long as we're in that position, we'll manage." ✦ An athletics director's legacy often comes down to not necessarily things he did himself but things those whom he hired accomplished — or didn't accomplish. Let's take a look at the major hires by Notre Dame's director of athletics Jack Swarbrick, who is stepping down in 2024 after 15 years on the job, made and how they fared in South Bend. The definition of "major" in this instance de- notes head coach hires made in the top three revenue-producing sports — football and men's and women's basketball. FOOTBALL Brian Kelly Years: 2010-21 Record: 113-40 Notable: Kelly left on his own accord at the end of the 2021 regular season. His timing — one week before the College Football Playoff field of four was announced with Notre Dame still having a shot to sneak in as a semifinalist — rubbed people the wrong way. It has since overshadowed one of the most successful (and one of the longest) head coaching careers in Notre Dame history. Kelly won more games than anyone else in Fighting Irish history ever has (including 21 games that have been vacated by the NCAA for internal rules infractions). The only thing he didn't do was win a national championship, and that is how he will be remembered — especially after the way he departed. Still, Swarbrick made an excellent hire at a time when Notre Dame desperately needed one. The Irish went 16-21 (in- cluding a 3-9 season in 2007) in the last three years of the Charlie Weis era. Notre Dame was floundering, and Kelly righted the ship. Swarbrick should be lauded for going out and getting him from Cincinnati. Marcus Freeman Years: 2022-Present Record: 9-5 Notable: Freeman was the first Notre Dame head coach in program history to begin his career with an 0-3 record. Two of the losses came to top-10 teams in Oklahoma State (Fiesta Bowl) and Ohio State (2022 season opener). Losing to Marshall in the third of the three consecutive losses was the backbreaker. The belief in South Bend and in the minds of Notre Dame fans everywhere is that Freeman was still the right guy to replace Kelly. He has the energy for the job and the passion for the program. Recruiting has been excellent with Freeman at the helm. Excitement for his tenure is off the charts. It just has to translate to on-field success. All of that said, there was nobody around the program and there were very few people who support it externally who thought Swarbrick made the wrong move in promoting Freeman from his previous post as the defensive coordinator in December 2021. MEN'S BASKETBALL Micah Shrewsberry Years: 2023-present Record: N/A (37-31 in two years at Penn State) Notable: As it turned out, Swarbrick didn't have to make a men's basketball hire until the final year of his tenure. Mike Brey was already firmly entrenched for nearly a decade when Swarbrick took over, and he almost outlasted Swarbrick's entire era as the AD. Shrewsberry is an Indianapolis native who spent three seasons as the head coach at IU South Bend (2005-07). He was also an assistant at Butler under Brad Stevens (2007-11) and at Purdue (2019-21). He knows the lay of the land, and he's only 46. This has the potential to be a long-term solution, just like Brey ended up being. Only this time, Swarbrick will get the credit for the pickup. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Niele Ivey Years: 2020-present Record: 61-25 Notable: Muffet McGraw will likely go down as the program's greatest coach of all time. She won two national championships and had a re- cord of 848-252 in 33 seasons. Ivey was a part of both national titles as the starting point guard in 2001 and as an assistant coach in 2018. It was a no-brainer for Swarbrick to pull her back to South Bend from the NBA after McGraw retired in 2020. Ivey was an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies at the time. After McGraw ended her career with a frustrating 13-18 season, Ivey started hers with a tough 10-10 campaign of her own. Since then, the Irish are 51-15 under her watch with back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances. Mo- mentum within her program is only growing. OTHER MEMORABLE HIRES • Swarbrick hired three baseball coaches at Notre Dame: Mik Aoki (2011-19), Link Jarrett (2020-22) and Shawn Stiffler (2023-present). Jarrett brought Notre Dame to its third College World Series appearance in program history in 2022. Notre Dame had the second-best winning percentage (.729) in the country in the three years he was at South Bend. Tennessee was No. 1 at .809, but the Irish beat the Volunteers in Knoxville in the 2022 Super Regional to reach the CWS. • Notre Dame has won five of the last six national championships in fencing since Swarbrick promoted former Irish assistant Gia Kvaratskhelia to head coach in 2014. — Tyler Horka Major Hires Made By Jack Swarbrick Swarbrick's promotion of Marcus Freeman from defensive coordinator to Notre Dame's head coach in 2021 took col- lege football by storm. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS