Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Point ✦ Counterpoint: WILL NOTRE DAME MISS BOB DIACO OR CHUCK MARTIN MORE NEXT SEASON? Chuck Martin By Dan Murphy Bob Diaco By Andrew Owens Within the space of a week in early December, Notre Dame found itself in the unusual predicaNotre Dame lost both its offensive and defensive ment of filling both coordinator positions after coordinators. The vacant spots will be perma- Chuck Martin (offense) and Bob Diaco (defense) nently filled at some point accepted head coaching poin January. The adjustment sitions at Miami (Ohio) and period might be a little bit Connecticut, respectively. longer, though, for the man Although Martin will unin Martin's shoes. doubtedly be difficult to reOf those two men, Diaco place on the Irish coaching has the better coaching réstaff — there are few men in sumé. He has more Division the industry that Kelly trusts I experience and a Broyles more — Diaco's shoes are Award (nation's top assisthe tougher ones to fill. tant) to his name. But for While Kelly depended on Brian Kelly, hiring a new ofMartin to call plays and direct fensive coordinator is less the offense, that side of the about finding the best coach ball will always have Kelly's and more about finding the Erstwhile offensive coordinator Chuck fingerprints and influence on best fit. Martin's relationship with head coach it. Diaco — as well as the next Martin's greatest asset for Brian Kelly will make him tough to defensive coordinator — will the Irish in the last two years replace. be the de facto head coach of PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS the defense. Whereas Kelly's has been his long relationship with Kelly. They worked together for years top priority with an offensive coordinator is trust, at Grand Valley State before Kelly handed the he also needs a strong defensive mind to handle program he built to Martin. Kelly trusted him, and the duties there. As Kelly mentioned in a Dec. 14 Martin had a good enough rapport to speak his press conference, one of the top factors — more mind. That's crucial for an offensive coordinator important than experience — is the ability to adapt under a head coach who has always been very to the wide range of offenses the Irish face. "hands on" with that side of the ball. It's no secret that the quarterback position will go Diaco also had a strong relationship with Kelly a long way in determining how Kelly is ultimately and the rest of the staff. But Kelly's defensive viewed at Notre Dame. With Everett Golson returncoordinators have more space to run their unit as ing and shaking off the rust in 2014, plus a pair of they see fit. There are a handful of available de- other inexperienced signal-callers (current freshfensive coaches that can come to South Bend and man Malik Zaire and incoming freshman DeShone implement a good system. Finding the good offen- Kizer), expect him to pay especially close attention sive coordinator who can come and immediately to the quarterbacks, thus leaving the defensive be a trusted practitioner of the offense already in coordinator as the main man on the other side of place will be a bigger challenge. the ball.