4thand1

NFL coordinator jobs are usually short lived and you bounce around the league city to city. Win a NC at ND and you will be celebrated forever. Golden would be paid very well, have stability and you would be working for a HC that has a great personality (unlike NDs previous HC) ! Season's greetings to all!

I want him to put the whole waiting for an NFL opportunity to come his way, to rest. For doing that, I would reward him handsomely. It would seem that ND will be entering a championship contending window and HC/coordinator stability will help tremendously. Forgot to mention that I would either have a conversation or have a recruiting clause in the contract. Probably I would handle it informally. Golden has to be willing to put the time in on the recruiting trail. I would ask Golden and Denbrock to be the recruiting lead for the essential recruits once they are identified. Wouldn't ask them to spend time on the trail with 3 stars or low 4s. Focus on showing the love to the clear needle moving recruits. Of course they would be involved with the lower level recruits when they visit ND. I am talking about in school or home visits.

I hope ND can extend Golden. I would put a big buyout clause in the contract if he were to accept a coordinator or positional coach offer for either the NFL or college. Applicable as long as Freeman is still the coach. I would either have no buyout or a very minimal one if he gets a HC job anywhwere. Also, I would compensate him in the top 2% of college DCs. Seems fair to me. I just need to know that ND is where he wants to be long term. If you are looking, we are moving on.

I haven't been this happy about the state of ND football in a while. Still need to produce results on the field but all I have been wanting is for those in control at ND to go after it like it's a priority. Win a championship at ND and you will be legends and celebrated for a very long time.

Hearing that ND really stepped up regarding the compensation required to hire Denbrock. Denbrock could be the highest paid OC in CFB. With ND being a private school, that likely won't be confirmed. Regardless, its nice that money isn't an issue this time around. Guessing that AD Bevacqua has to have something to do with this. If you want to compete for championships, you have to step up financially.

I just got an early Christmas present! Denbrock is a huge upgrade. This is an OC that ND can compete for a championship with. HS offensive 4 and 5 star skill players are going to want to play for him. Awesome job by Coach Freeman and the AD!!

Denbrock would be a great hire. Besides being good at his job, he would have a good chance of sticking around. If Kirby Moore were hired and has success, he's getting a HC job soon.

Parker seems like a great guy but I think ND needed a better OC. I hope they choose someone with a proven track record of success and with a diverse offensive scheme.

Do you think NDs passing offense would be a threat to any of the top 10 teams this year the way that Parker ran it? I don't. When will ND not allow opponents to stack the box because they aren't afraid of the passing game. For the record, I am for offensive diversity. I want to keep my opponent guessing and call plays that take advantage of their formations. I also want the OC to teach and allow the QBs to effectively call audibles. Plenty of play action and RPOS that cause the D to never know what ND is going to do. Maybe Parker isnt' capable of running an offense like that.

Whether or not ND has a solid running game has nothing to do with it. NDs style of offense was ok to beat a lot of teams but not top 10 level teams. Waaaay too predictable. Do you think NDs passing offense would be a threat to any of the top 10 teams this year the way that Parker ran it? I don't. When will ND not allow opponents to stack the box because they aren't afraid of the passing game. For the record, I am for offensive diversity. I want to keep my opponent guessing and call plays that take advantage of their formations. I also want the OC to teach and allow the QBs to effectively call audibles. Plenty of play action and RPOS that cause the D to never know what ND is going to do. Maybe Parker isnt' capable of running an offense like that.

Nice additions so far. Hopefully it will encourage the staff to open up the offense a little more.

Hartman (sure as hell hope) was brought it to open up the passing game and allow the offense to be less predictable. The numbers you posted are a regression from the standpoint that there were fewer attempts, yards and tds. This year's ND offense was still way too predictable. Parker will not be the OC that gets ND to the point that they compete for championships.

I can't get over Hartman's regression from Wake to ND. Even if a lot of that is on Hartman, I would then criticize the evaluation and decision to bring him in. If this style of offense continues, I question NDs ability to continue to get commitments from top QB and WR recruits. I get that there was a lack of WRs this season but there were enough options when including TEs to have a more unpredictable offense. In the end I think you can do worse than Parker but you can certainly do better. I just don't view Parker as an OC that will help ND compete for a national championship.

I hear all of the differing opinions on R. Leonard. Makes me feel better that OSU wanted him. If ND gets him, I hope they didn't have to tell him the job is his. There should be a competition with Leonard, Angeli and Minchey. I don't consider Carr being a viable option in year one.

If ND gets Leonard and he starts despite not being the best QB over the offseason, the problem isn't the QBs on the roster. It would be the coaches. Everyone gets a shot and best QB starts game 1.

Chicken or the egg. Yes, the WR production wasn't good for those that are transferring. Is that on them or the offense? Why would a WR want to play in this offense? Mich is the elite example of the offense that Freeman seemingly prefers. Let's see if that allows Mich to win in the playoff. To me a top team will load the box and prevent the running game from dominating. For ND, I would preach balance. Spread the wealth. I will put it this way, in any championship type season, there will be games that you are down with less than 2 minutes to go. You will need a very good passing game to win those games. I realize ND marched down the field in a situation like that against Duke but I still see the passing game needing more ability and production.

I should probably wait to post anything till more news comes out but I am just too frustrated. I would be interested in determining if the # of players ND is losing in the portal is a normal amount or excessive. When things like this happen, it falls back on do I trust the staff. If I did, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. From what I have seen, read and heard I don't trust the staff. I am tired of Freeman and the staff learning on the job while things fall apart. I am tired of continuously being told to give it another year over and over again. At the very least it would seem that Freeman had no feel for the state of the WR room. There has to be some oversight and monitoring in place to avoid terrible surprises and death spirals.

I should probably wait to post anything till more news comes out but I am just too frustrated. I would be interested in determining if the # of players ND is losing in the portal is a normal amount or excessive. When things like this happen, it falls back on do I trust the staff. If I did, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. From what I have seen, read and heard I don't trust the staff. I am tired of Freeman and the staff learning on the job while things fall apart. I am tired of continuously being told to give it another year over and over again. At the very least it would seem that Freeman had no feel for the state of the WR room. There has to be some oversight and monitoring in place to avoid terrible surprises and death spirals.

If I am the AD and/or the HC, I only make coaching staff changes when I am fairly certain I have a candidate interested that is or likely is an upgrade. Everyone knows who the stars in the coaching profession are but you better be able to identify the up and coming stars. Or, at least have a reliable connection that can help with that. That's why I would avoid hiring friends as often as possible because I have to be able to replace someone without hesitation when warranted.

According to a free ND podcast, multiple WRs that ND wants to keep were going to transfer if Stuckey remained. Also heard that Stuckey did little to develop relationships with the players.

It is a peculiar situation. Last year had Rees as the OC and this year it's Parker. I was in favor of replacing Rees but I do favor him over Parker. How many pass attempts last year vs this year? Hartman has been successful so it's a bit damning for ND that he regressed. Some have said that Wake Forest actually had better WRs than ND has which is a sad state of affairs and hopefully not the case in the upcoming years. The passing game has been broken most of this season from my viewpoint which is to say I haven't analyzed it thoroughly.

Every time Angeli gets a chance to play he looks confident, poised and accurate. If it were my decision, I would only bring in a transfer that understands he will have to compete for the job. Look at next year's schedule. Seems like a great schedule to break in Angeli or Minchey combined with the fact that the CFB expands next season. At some point you have to send the message to recruits that we believe in the recruited QBs and that the team is dedicated to their development. I think there's a good chance that Angeli could be as good or better than the QBs mentioned as likely being in the portal. I believe Riley will likely follow Elko to whichever team he joins in the offseason.

Parker wasn't going to be considered for the OC till at least 2 other candidates were eliminated from consideration. I don't see anything that happened with the offense this season that would cause Freeman to think Parker is the guy for the job. If Coach Freeman wants to put his job on the line by retaining Parker, that's on him and he will have to deal with the consequences if it doesn't work out.

Read an article recently that mentioned players Deuce Knight was working to bring in to the class. He mentioned WRs Meadows and trying to flip French. I thought it was interesting that Talyn Taylor was not mentioned. ND doesn't seem to be gaining any traction with Taylor. I would have though that Cam Williams might have helped with that recruitment since their high schools are in the same area.

I look at it this way. If ND were to fire Parker, which top 25 team would hire him? The answer is likely it wouldn't happen. If that's the case, why would he be retained?