Should Notre Dame OC hire have fans worried about the Irish?

Notre Dame is going with tight ends coach Gerad Parker as its new offensive coordinator.

After striking out on Andy Ludwig and others, Notre Dame opted to promote Gerad Parker from within to be the Fighting Irish’s next offensive coordinator.

Parker replaces Tommy Rees who left his alma mater to become the next Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator. Rees nearly followed former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to LSU last offseason, but it took an opportunity with Nick Saban a year later to bring him into the SEC West. Parker does coach one of Notre Dame’s strongest positions groups, but this hire is still a bit telling.

Promoting from within can be a viable organizational tactic, but it can also leave one in the dust.

Notre Dame promotes Gerad Parker from within to be next offensive coordinator

Parker played his college ball at Kentucky in the early 2000s. He has coached running backs, receivers and tight ends in his professional career. Prior to arriving in South Bend, Parker had been the West Virginia Mountaineers’ offensive coordinator under fellow Wildcat Neal Brown from 2020 to 2021. Unfortunately, WVU has been one of the worst teams in the Big 12 under Brown…

Fate would have it, Notre Dame also promoted its head coach from within after only being on the staff for one season prior. Marcus Freeman had been Luke Fickell’s defensive coordinator at Cincinnati before to coming over to South Bend in 2021. With Kelly abruptly leaving for LSU when a College Football Playoff appearance was still in play for the Irish, Notre Dame had to act swiftly.

Admittedly, it was a rocky start for Freeman at the helm of the Golden Domers. He lost his first three games as head coach, including a collapse to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. Eventually, he did find his footing, as Notre Dame was a top-25 team throughout much of the final month of the season. The hope is that some level of continuity will help Parker achieve all that he can here.

Truth be told, tight end is a major position group of strength for this program. Factor in Parker being a former recruiting coordinator himself and you can understand why Notre Dame tabbed him for this promotion from within. However, Notre Dame cannot afford to get lapped by other college programs on the come-up in the dawn of name, image, likeness, as well as the collectives.

For a program that views itself as favorably as Notre Dame does, two of their last three coaching moves of note do feel a bit of the settling variety. While getting former Miami head coach Al Golden off Zac Taylor’s Cincinnati Bengals staff felt like a big splash, Freeman kind of felt shoehorned into the big chair a bit prematurely, while the Parker promotion feels disappointing.

Overall, Notre Dame doubling down on relative continuity is not the worst thing in the world. The Irish have been a top-eight program in the College Football Playoff era, so they have earned the right to go in that direction. However, we are embarking on year two without Kelly at the helm. We all know the challenges that come from replacing a legendary head coach, especially from within.

Ultimately, Notre Dame is going to be as good offensively as Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman allows them to be. He left Winston-Salem for a bigger stage. Few are bigger than the playing quarterback for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. If he can master Parker’s offense very quickly, then nobody will have any issues about the promotion and Freeman will look like a genius.

Of course, Freeman is one bad season from being put on the hot seat leading the Golden Domers.

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