How Gerad Parker’s promotion helps Marcus Freeman keep building Notre Dame in his image

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A year ago, Marcus Freeman made a statement about Gerad Parker, though few people noticed when he did.

Back then, as Notre Dame’s head coach filled out his first staff, the attention went to who stayed (offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, director of football performance Matt Balis) and who left (defensive line coach Mike Elston) as Freeman’s version of Notre Dame football began to take shape. Rees turned down Brian Kelly’s offer to join him at LSU for reasons that included Notre Dame paying fair market value and Freeman offering his first offensive coordinator more autonomy than his old boss would. The chance to shape a staff and edit a playbook appealed to Rees. He brought back offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, a move endorsed by Freeman.

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But when Rees presented his preferred candidate for tight ends coach, Freeman didn’t defer. He put his foot down. Rees’ candidate had offensive coordinator and tight ends coaching experience. So did Freeman’s. And even though Freeman would go on to let Rees have ample sway over the offense during the 2022 season, Freeman wasn’t going to let Gerad Parker get away.

Freeman and Parker had shared a sideline at Purdue for four seasons, a run that ended with Parker promoted to interim head coach after the Boilermakers went 9-33 under Darrell Hazell from 2013 to the midpoint of ’16. (They went 0-6 down the stretch of 2016 with Parker as interim.) When Freeman moved to Cincinnati to join Luke Fickell’s staff the next season, Parker briefly followed before bouncing to Duke and West Virginia. When the Mountaineers made an offensive coordinator change after the 2021 season, the door cracked open for Freeman and Parker to reunite. What Rees wanted mattered less than what Freeman needed.

“I have been fortunate enough to coach with Gerad previously in our careers,” Freeman said back then. “The energy he brings each and every day is contagious. It is part of what makes him a great leader. He is also a very detailed teacher, and that combination of skills is going to make us a better program.”

Parker’s hire was neither celebrated nor panned when it happened, making news mostly as the final piece of the offensive coaching staff. But after Parker’s promotion from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator over the weekend, with a press conference scheduled for Monday morning with Freeman and Parker, it feels like something more.

Say what you will about the process Notre Dame used to get to Parker, a search that went so sideways that athletic director Jack Swarbrick sent out an email clarifying Notre Dame’s willingness to pay the $3 million buyout it would’ve taken to hire Andy Ludwig after The Athletic reported a reluctance to engage in that level of arms-race spending. Parker wasn’t brought to Notre Dame a year ago to make a splash. He was called in part to add a loyal voice in the offensive meeting room for Freeman, and just maybe to give Notre Dame an offensive coordinator option after Rees’ inevitable departure.

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Parker’s promotion may be short on style but long on substance. Notre Dame’s new offensive coordinator is less a brand than a manifestation of what Freeman wants his program to be. More than anything, Parker is another step in Notre Dame’s hard turn toward becoming a program that’s not just led by its head coach but personifies him.

There’s a misconception when it comes to college football hiring that familiar equals lazy, that tapping into a head coach’s network shows a lack of imagination. But talk to coaches who have tried to fill out a staff, and the viewpoint changes, even if Kelly was panned for bringing one too many former colleagues from Grand Valley State to South Bend. The best head coaches aren’t looking for affirmation in hiring as much as loyalty. They’re looking for coaches who understand their language and can speak it fluently.

After his first year at Vanderbilt, former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea lost both his coordinators plus a handful of position coaches. Before his first season, he had hired defensive coordinator Jesse Minter from the Baltimore Ravens off a recommendation. He’d hired David Raih from the Arizona Cardinals to run the offense, but he didn’t have much of a relationship with either beforehand. Minter turned out to be so good that Michigan hired him away last winter. Raih was such a poor fit for the offensive coordinator post that Lea reshuffled the staff in his first training camp. Raih resigned after the season.

Amid last winter’s staff turnover, Lea hired linebackers coach linebackers coach Nick Lezynski and defensive line coach Larry Black, two coworkers from Lea’s final seasons at Notre Dame. Neither had much full-time experience as position coaches, but both spoke Lea’s language and had Lea’s back.

“Once you elevate into the top seat, you’re totally dependent on the people you hire to be the echo chamber of your message,” Lea told The Athletic last year. “You realize quickly that the ability of the staff to do that either dilutes the culture or strengthens the culture. And it’s every day, it’s a steady drip.

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“Initially, I felt if you found qualified people, you could kind of plug them in and things run the way that you intend for them to run. What I learned was way more effort has to be put into the chemistry around what you’re trying to get done. The chemistry on the staff bleeds into the chemistry on the team.”

Vanderbilt improved from 2-10 in Lea’s debut season to 5-7 in his second, snapping a 26-game SEC losing streak in the process by beating Kentucky and Florida back-to-back.

The improvement Freeman needs to see won’t be so obvious, after a 9-4 debut that included Notre Dame winning six of its final seven games, blowing out Clemson at home and prevailing in a thrilling Gator Bowl against South Carolina. The Irish aren’t doing a tear-down rebuild; they’re trying to make the College Football Playoff with an offense that should include the ACC’s all-time leader in touchdown passes, two future NFL offensive tackles and an abundance of talent at running back. That’s the challenge for both Freeman and Parker. It’s also their opportunity.

And starting Monday, Freeman will have absolute trust in his next offensive coordinator to deliver the results he needs by using the process he demands, a trust built by that assistant having had the head coach’s back for the better part of a decade.

So no, the Irish didn’t make the biggest name hire they could, even though Parker has more Power 5 offensive coordinator experience than Notre Dame’s past seven OC hires combined. And yes, the journey to get to this point was not pretty. What matters most moving forward is that Freeman makes Notre Dame football more his own by hiring coaches who understand what he wants this program to be. To that end, Parker brings more to the table than the reaction to his promotion might suggest.

You just have to know how to look at it.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Cashore)