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.