Notre Dame closing in on USC’s nightmare to replace Tommy Rees as OC

Notre Dame is on the verge of hiring USC’s kryptonite to be their next offensive coordinator.

With Notre Dame having to replace Tommy Rees, do not be surprised if Andy Ludwig leaves Salt Lake City for a more high-profile job over in South Bend.

Utah may be the two-time reigning Pac-12 champions, but this is Notre Dame, folks! While losing the former Fighting Irish quarterback to Alabama stinks, Marcus Freeman potentially being able to pry Ludwig out of Kyle Whittingham’s clutches would be … clutch. The Utes have a versatile and explosive offense. They do a terrific job of playing complementary football every step of the way.

ESPN’s Heather Dinich reported on Friday that Ludwig is the leading candidate for the Irish gig.

Notre Dame seems locked in on hiring Andy Ludwig as next offensive coordinator

What would make this potential hire especially interesting for Notre Dame is Ludwig would go from one rival program of USC’s to another. Although the Trojans will be running away from the Utes in 2024, they still play the Irish annually. The other crazy component in this is Ludwig is doing this with Utah’s players. They have talent, but nothing like Notre Dame’s nationwide talent pool…

Should Ludwig leave Salt Lake for South Bend, you better believe this will throw another wrench in Lincoln Riley’s plans at USC. The Trojans will still play a nine-game conference schedule in the Big Ten, but one would expect the massive rivalry game with national independent Notre Dame is not going away either. Ludwig has been a thorn in USC’s side for the last four years. It may continue.

Ultimately, when making a coaching hire, you need to ask yourself one very important question: Does this move make our rivals squirm? If it does, then it is probably worth pursuing. If not, well, that hire may not work out so well. By being in hot pursuit of Ludwig, it shows that Notre Dame is dead-set on maintaining its national relevance in the early Freeman years in a post-Brian Kelly era.

Conversely, losing Ludwig to Notre Dame would be a major blow to Whittingham’s Utah program.

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