Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/998819
BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 5 UNDER THE DOME It was such a wrong fit that he became the first assistant at Notre Dame to be dismissed from his post before the season elapsed (fol- lowing a 1-3 start in 2016). • When line coach Mike Elston and ana- lyst Greg Hudson collaborated in place of VanGorder for the final eight games of 2016, the simplified attack improved enough to rank 44th nationally in total defense for the 4-8 team. • Mike Elko was Kelly's top target to be the coordinator in 2017, and he demon- strated why while the defense became much more fundamentally focused and sound — and was the only one in the country through the first eight games not to yield more than 20 points in a contest. Others took notice, too, and an extremely lucrative offer from Texas A&M had Elko heading to College Station as a "one and done" figure at Notre Dame. The moral of the story is whether a coor- dinator is seasoned with a proven dossier or is in the nascent category, if he has the chops for the business, embraces the school's mis- sion and is part of a winning culture directed by the head coach that includes recruiting and developing personnel to the system, he can thrive. Exhibit A always has been Barry Alva- rez, who was first hired as the outside line- backers coach at Notre Dame in 1987 under second-year head coach Lou Holtz. One year later when Irish coordinator Foze Fazio departed for the NFL — in good part because of the financial package, much like Elko — the 41-year-old Alvarez was promoted to coordinator despite never hav- ing had such college experience. Two years later, after a record 23-game winning streak, national title and defenses that allowed about 13 points per game (among the top 10 combined nationally), Alvarez would begin a Hall-of-Fame head coaching career at Wisconsin. Rick Minter (1992-93) came from Mid- American Conference school Ball State … yet both of his scoring defenses at Notre Dame ranked among the top 20 before he was named to the head coaching post at Cincinnati. On the flip side, it didn't work out for first-time coordinator Corwin Brown (2007-09), especially when he then became co-coordinator in 2009 with one of the most touted and grizzled figures in the business in Jon Tenuta. That Irish unit finished 86th overall. It's the overall culture and the direction the head coach provides that ultimately dic- tates the trajectory not only of a defense but the entire operation. ✦ Cashing In The Chip Whereas Notre Dame defensive coordinators make the calls on game day, Fighting Irish offen‑ sive coordinators for the most part have been in the shadows of the head coaches. Ara Parseghian (1964‑74) and Lou Holtz (1986‑96) mostly handled the offense, with valued input from assistants, and the same has held true for the two most recent Irish head coaches, Charlie Weis (2005‑09) and Brian Kelly (2010‑present) — or at least for the most part under Kelly. During the nightmare 2016 campaign, there was an acknowledgement that perhaps there were too many cooks in Notre Dame's kitchen when it came to calling the plays on offense with Kelly, quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford (now the head coach at Western Kentucky) and assistant head coach Mike Denbrock (now the coordina‑ tor at the University of Cincinnati). In 2017, Kelly handed the keys over to Chip Long, whose lone previous coordinator experience was a quality one‑year stint at Memphis in 2016. The re‑ sult was a 34.2 scoring average that tied the best in the Kelly era, with the hope the best is still to come. "Chip has a style of his own — he likes to at‑ tack," Kelly said. "I said in my first year that I'm about players over plays, and Chip's a pretty smart guy. He's not going to get caught up in scheme over players." — Lou Somogyi