Are position and coordinator coaching searches

Irishblooded

Well-known member
Messages
3,190
Insane when they happen at your school also?

Because ND is f'ing terrible at them. And I don't know how much it is about the school. And how much it is about the administration.

ND has a guy coming in to formally interview today to be the new O line coach. And he is replacing a legend for Notre Dame. So it is a big deal for ND fans since we have been considered O line U for a while under Harry Heistand.

But the guy coming in. Is currently at Vtech. And the HC at Vtech literally put on social media yesterday congratulating this guy on being hired at ND. Again. He doesn't interview until today. Let alone get offered the job. Let alone accept it. And as crazy as that sounds. That still isn't the most chaotic coaching hire of this off-season.
 
Insane when they happen at your school also?

Because ND is f'ing terrible at them. And I don't know how much it is about the school. And how much it is about the administration.

ND has a guy coming in to formally interview today to be the new O line coach. And he is replacing a legend for Notre Dame. So it is a big deal for ND fans since we have been considered O line U for a while under Harry Heistand.

But the guy coming in. Is currently at Vtech. And the HC at Vtech literally put on social media yesterday congratulating this guy on being hired at ND. Again. He doesn't interview until today. Let alone get offered the job. Let alone accept it. And as crazy as that sounds. That still isn't the most chaotic coaching hire of this off-season.
Michigan has won the Joe Moore Award the last 2 years. Much to the chagrin of the UGA O-line players. Michigan got the award, but UGA's OL won B2B natties. Just saying.

To answer your question from a UGA perspective, UGA went from Sam Pittman to Matt Luke, to Stacy Searals as O-line coach. Pittman and Luke were considered OL gurus in the CFB world. Searals was the OL coach under Mark Richt, years ago. Under Richt, UGA always had a well below average O-line. When he was hired by CKS, UGA fans lost their collective minds. Turns out that Searals has done an amazing job with development and recruiting since he was hired. Finding the right big uglies is an important job. The trenches decide success or failure even in today's CFB world.
 
Luke actually considered coming out of retirement to coach this O line room.

He came to campus the other week and hung out for a couple of days. But ultimately turned it down. Rumor was he didn't want to relocate his kids. And I can't wrong him for that. Guy has plenty of cash and doesn't need to work and can sit back and live the dream and spend time with his family
 
Sorry but I just saw this thread. I love Josh Pate's views on a lot of NCAAF. I don't necessarily agree with a lot of his stuff but I find that he has good, solid reasoning for his positions. Here is what he said about Notre Dame's OC hiring:
 
Sorry but I just saw this thread. I love Josh Pate's views on a lot of NCAAF. I don't necessarily agree with a lot of his stuff but I find that he has good, solid reasoning for his positions. Here is what he said about Notre Dame's OC hiring:

So here is what actually went down. And this is 100% on Swarbrick and the co-AD and ex ND QB Ron Powlus who will most likely take over for him when Swarbrick leaves.

Ludwig was the goal the whole time. There was other OCs brought in and about 10 guys on zooms meetings that ND talked to. But Ludwig was the goal from day 1. I only say that because it helps to underline how frustrating the rest is when you realize that. And I'm not going to give you everything I know, because some of what I do know, I have been asked not to share.

Ludwig met twice virtually with ND to talk with both Freeman and other coaches, as well as with the upper administration and everything went well. So then they scheduled to fly Ludwig to campus for face to face meetings and to actually see the campus and as long as everything went well, officially, offer the job.

Ludwig flies out, everything goes well. There is an 'understanding' that he will accept the job. But it has not been officially offered yet because that is how it is done in the big leagues, all of the contracts have to be sent to legal and agents, etc and all of them agree on everything, and then it goes to Ludwig and once he okays that, ND (or any other school) officially offers the job. This is done, so that no one has a black eye by either not being officially offered the job, or them having to turn down a shcool. However obviously that is not how this worked out.

While Ludwig is on campus and all of that is happening in the background, Ludwig is taken out in public, to a ND hockey game (not basketball) and sits with Freeman, and ironically Parker who this last season (and the intention for next season) was to be TE coach. And everyone reported this was a done deal.

This is where it falls apart. The buyout........... For whatever reason, and none of us will find out anytime soon. The bean counters had the buyout firgures of his previous contract which was about $500,000. Not his current contract which was just a little over 2million. There is too much speculation there for me to say one way or another what happened for sure. So when Swarbrick and Powlus found out they were working with inaccurate information. They basically killed the deal. I mean it isn't like ND couldn't afford the buyout. They just got paid by Alabama for the buyout on Coach Rees that had just left to go to Bama which opened this position in the first place. And the rumor is that, that buyout was between 1.5, and 1.75 million. No one reached out to the Alumni base, no one reached out the fund raising branch of ND to talk about others chipping in money for this change in the buy out. So instead ND tries to negotiate down the buyout with Ludwig and his agent / lawyer, which of course Ludwig says no (as he should have). And the deal basically dies on the table right there. And Ludwig is labeled as not a team player.

Word gets out, that the buyout is why the deal died. Which happened over a weekend. So then either Sunday or Monday Swarbrick then reaches out to the donor pool after HUGE internal backlash from donors, previous players, boosters, etc. About the black eye that this is now. And then, and only then. Does Swarbrick go back to Ludwig and only then offers to pony up the price of the full buy out (with taxes about 2.8 million). Ludwig then turned it down on Tuesday. And I can't blame him. I would have also. Because if you can't trust the administration of the school that is trying to hire you on day 1. Then why work there? You have a good deal where you are.

So then the funny part happens. A few days later this all kind of dies out, labeled under 'it is what it is'. And then about a week later Swarbrick issues a statement about it! And reignites the whole thing! And then after about a week has a phone meeting with newspapers about just sports in general but was supposed to be about our Mens BB coach leaving the process to replace him, and then spends 10 minutes talking about this, and reignites the whole thing! And then about a week after that, they 'hire / promote' Parker, and have a PC for him, and Freeman spends like the first 10 minutes of 'introducing' him, talking about this reigniting this all over again. They just refuse to let this die!

So there you go. How not to hire the OC you want.
 
So here is what actually went down. And this is 100% on Swarbrick and the co-AD and ex ND QB Ron Powlus who will most likely take over for him when Swarbrick leaves.

Ludwig was the goal the whole time. There was other OCs brought in and about 10 guys on zooms meetings that ND talked to. But Ludwig was the goal from day 1. I only say that because it helps to underline how frustrating the rest is when you realize that. And I'm not going to give you everything I know, because some of what I do know, I have been asked not to share.

Ludwig met twice virtually with ND to talk with both Freeman and other coaches, as well as with the upper administration and everything went well. So then they scheduled to fly Ludwig to campus for face to face meetings and to actually see the campus and as long as everything went well, officially, offer the job.

Ludwig flies out, everything goes well. There is an 'understanding' that he will accept the job. But it has not been officially offered yet because that is how it is done in the big leagues, all of the contracts have to be sent to legal and agents, etc and all of them agree on everything, and then it goes to Ludwig and once he okays that, ND (or any other school) officially offers the job. This is done, so that no one has a black eye by either not being officially offered the job, or them having to turn down a shcool. However obviously that is not how this worked out.

While Ludwig is on campus and all of that is happening in the background, Ludwig is taken out in public, to a ND hockey game (not basketball) and sits with Freeman, and ironically Parker who this last season (and the intention for next season) was to be TE coach. And everyone reported this was a done deal.

This is where it falls apart. The buyout........... For whatever reason, and none of us will find out anytime soon. The bean counters had the buyout firgures of his previous contract which was about $500,000. Not his current contract which was just a little over 2million. There is too much speculation there for me to say one way or another what happened for sure. So when Swarbrick and Powlus found out they were working with inaccurate information. They basically killed the deal. I mean it isn't like ND couldn't afford the buyout. They just got paid by Alabama for the buyout on Coach Rees that had just left to go to Bama which opened this position in the first place. And the rumor is that, that buyout was between 1.5, and 1.75 million. No one reached out to the Alumni base, no one reached out the fund raising branch of ND to talk about others chipping in money for this change in the buy out. So instead ND tries to negotiate down the buyout with Ludwig and his agent / lawyer, which of course Ludwig says no (as he should have). And the deal basically dies on the table right there. And Ludwig is labeled as not a team player.

Word gets out, that the buyout is why the deal died. Which happened over a weekend. So then either Sunday or Monday Swarbrick then reaches out to the donor pool after HUGE internal backlash from donors, previous players, boosters, etc. About the black eye that this is now. And then, and only then. Does Swarbrick go back to Ludwig and only then offers to pony up the price of the full buy out (with taxes about 2.8 million). Ludwig then turned it down on Tuesday. And I can't blame him. I would have also. Because if you can't trust the administration of the school that is trying to hire you on day 1. Then why work there? You have a good deal where you are.

So then the funny part happens. A few days later this all kind of dies out, labeled under 'it is what it is'. And then about a week later Swarbrick issues a statement about it! And reignites the whole thing! And then after about a week has a phone meeting with newspapers about just sports in general but was supposed to be about our Mens BB coach leaving the process to replace him, and then spends 10 minutes talking about this, and reignites the whole thing! And then about a week after that, they 'hire / promote' Parker, and have a PC for him, and Freeman spends like the first 10 minutes of 'introducing' him, talking about this reigniting this all over again. They just refuse to let this die!

So there you go. How not to hire the OC you want.
Is there anything that Josh Pate said that is factually wrong? Not asking if you agree with his conclusions, just the premise he outlined.
 
Is there anything that Josh Pate said that is factually wrong? Not asking if you agree with his conclusions, just the premise he outlined.
Other than the hockey vs the basketball and then kind of hinting at the time line and process. He didn't outright lie. But I also don't think he did a good job at presenting the actuality of it.

But I also can't stand Irish Illustrated. As they are part of 24/7. And their reporters are 'not great' to put it nicely. They are from that group that are much more worried about being the first to report than they are to wait and be correct in their reporting. So Pate kind of lists it as ND being poor. And that isn't true. But it was more of ND poison pilling themselves at the Administration level. And Freeman being given marching orders.
 
Other than the hockey vs the basketball and then kind of hinting at the time line and process. He didn't outright lie. But I also don't think he did a good job at presenting the actuality of it.

But I also can't stand Irish Illustrated. As they are part of 24/7. And their reporters are 'not great' to put it nicely. They are from that group that are much more worried about being the first to report than they are to wait and be correct in their reporting. So Pate kind of lists it as ND being poor. And that isn't true. But it was more of ND poison pilling themselves at the Administration level. And Freeman being given marching orders.
I wasn't sure if he was accurate with what really happened. I didn't take him as saying ND was poor but rather the AD was ill prepared for the interview and made poor decisions after he found out the real buyout. He never talked to boosters or the money people and just made a unilateral decision that was wildly unpopular. TBH, the working theory that the coach was flown out to pressure the AD makes a lot of sense. Josh presented but did not endorse it.
 
I get it. I can tell you, on about as good of authority as there is. That what I explained is how it rolled. Again there was more to it, and some of it I have been asked not to share publically. But I can tell you this was 100% on the ND administration that it was bungled. The only thing I can't say for certain (but I have my personal opinions on.) Was it ND proactively that ran with the wrong information? Or if someone at Utah purposely or accidentally sent the wrong buyout information over and ND didn't catch it at first.

That is the only part of it that I can't 100% put on the ND administration. But again I have my own beliefs on it from conversations I have had with others.
 
I get it. I can tell you, on about as good of authority as there is. That what I explained is how it rolled. Again there was more to it, and some of it I have been asked not to share publically. But I can tell you this was 100% on the ND administration that it was bungled. The only thing I can't say for certain (but I have my personal opinions on.) Was it ND proactively that ran with the wrong information? Or if someone at Utah purposely or accidentally sent the wrong buyout information over and ND didn't catch it at first.

That is the only part of it that I can't 100% put on the ND administration. But again I have my own beliefs on it from conversations I have had with others.
To me, getting the incorrect information at the start doesn't matter quite as much as the reaction when the correct information was found out. Why kill the deal only to change your mind two days later? To me this seems like nothing but a series of AD blunders. I do believe that ND will be fine either way though.
 
To me, getting the incorrect information at the start doesn't matter quite as much as the reaction when the correct information was found out. Why kill the deal only to change your mind two days later? To me this seems like nothing but a series of AD blunders. I do believe that ND will be fine either way though.
You are 100% correct that it was on ND.

Either they received the wrong information and on their end didn't realize it, and once realized then didn't proceed with the best intentions of everyone involved. Or they were given the wrong information and didn't correct it right away.

But either way. Making it look like Ludwig walked away was only correct in that, he turned down the job, after ND poison pilled themselves by not offering to pay the initial buy out, and then trying to negotiate down the buy out, and then doubling back on themselves only after the boosters / alum backlash.

Now I'm sure this is the first or last time this will ever happen. But ND is known as the school 'that does it their own way' and holds themselves to an insane standard. So if you want to make yourself an extra left thumb. You better be ready to measure up when events like this happen.

Now that said, Parker was already in the running for the job and it isn't like he doesn't have previous experience, or that it wasn't the goal to one day make him the OC. But, this wasn't the time that was planned for.
 
Top