Sources tell FootballScoop Iowa State defensive coordinator Jon Heacock has opted to remain at Iowa State (and is expected to receive a raise in connection with the decision).

Freeman going to have to pivot quickly., losing Elston and Heacock in one day!

Not looking good. I am sure things will work out, but to not beable to get Heacock to leave Iowa State is a pretty sad development.

1 hour ago, ndfanatic78 said:

Not looking good. I am sure things will work out, but to not be able to get Heacock to leave Iowa State is a pretty sad development.

Motivations are vastly different from person to person though, so who knows why he would choose not to come. At the end of the day, there might be several reasons outside of the professional opportunity that had him say "No thanks."

3 hours ago, ndfanatic78 said:

Not looking good. I am sure things will work out, but to not beable to get Heacock to leave Iowa State is a pretty sad development.

ya, that is a pretty negative (and inaccurate) way of looking at it. Notre Dame simply wasn't willing to give Heacock what he wanted. Iowa State didn't "beat" Notre Dame at anything, Notre Dame was in the driver's seat and wasn't willing to take Heacock where he wanted to go.

any idea what the disagreements were?

33 minutes ago, Synoptico said:

any idea what the disagreements were?

I read he wanted to bring some of his coaches and ND said no. Reading into this it was probably secondary coaches.  We are locked in there and like who we have.

Offering Heacock and not others and then not landing him and now having to move on to secondary choices is not a good look. That is not negative that is the fact of the situation. ND should have asked what he was looking for before announcing they were offering him the position. If it truly was about him wanting to bring his coaches ND should have known that before offering him the position. Thats why you have negotiations. Also losing Elston on the same day is just not good optics. Not the end of the world or anything and hopefully ND can still find a quality DC but it was a bad day for the Irish and Freeman. Nothing more and nothing less. Is what it is. 

Everything reported is simply insider information, Notre Dame has not publicly said anything about Heacock and they were looking at other people. Maybe Freeman thought he could convince Heacock to come without his fellow coaches.

Most of the fanbase was not super happy with Heacock, just a neutral day in my opinion. Just want the coaching positions filled soon, but they gotta be the right hire.

1 hour ago, nd1989 said:

I read he wanted to bring some of his coaches and ND said no. Reading into this it was probably secondary coaches.  We are locked in there and like who we have.

I’m hearing the same things. Some of us need to step back from the ledge a little bit. If the issue was that he wanted to bring some of his coaches and we are already set there than it is what it is. I don’t think this is a who is our second choice or third choice situation.

41 minutes ago, mcgov12 said:

I’m hearing the same things. Some of us need to step back from the ledge a little bit. If the issue was that he wanted to bring some of his coaches and we are already set there than it is what it is. I don’t think this is a who is our second choice or third choice situation.

Honestly it's kind of hard for me to believe that this guy wouldn't come to ND because ND wouldn't allow him to bring other coaches.  I probably don't pay attention to situations at other schools enough, but I don't remember ever hearing of a very mid-tier coach being offered a coordinator position at a top tier program who thought he'd be able to bring his buddies along.  It seems like a mid-tier coach almost always jumps at a chance to go to a major brand school.

Maybe he has major ties to Iowa.  Maybe he didn't want to disrupt his family's situation with schools.  Maybe Iowa State offered him a lot more money than ND did.  Maybe he just didn't like Marcus or the weather in South Bend (more snow than in Ames?).  But, it's going to take a lot to convince me that he didn't go to ND just because he couldn't bring assistant coaches with him.

5 hours ago, NDNorm said:

Motivations are vastly different from person to person though, so who knows why he would choose not to come. At the end of the day, there might be several reasons outside of the professional opportunity that had him say "No thanks."

Very true. He is 61 and got a raise from ISU to stay there, so he might be contemplating retirement soon, and starting all over at another stop may have been the reason why he said when he found out they would give him a raise to match or come close to ND's offer

1 hour ago, mcgov12 said:

I’m hearing the same things. Some of us need to step back from the ledge a little bit. If the issue was that he wanted to bring some of his coaches and we are already set there than it is what it is. I don’t think this is a who is our second choice or third choice situation.

I haven’t seen anyone anywhere near a ledge. The fact is he was offered the position and turned it down. We are now onto the second tier of choices. Every coach that interviewed already knows that Heacock was offered the position and chosen over them. That means ND is onto their second choices now. Add in that they lost Elston and it was a bad day for ND. That’s it again nothing more. Everyone has bad days and Freeman and ND had one. We will see who we get at DC I just don’t believe it will be anyone that was mentioned before with the exception of the possibility of Tressel from Cincinnati. No ledge, no end of the world, just a bad day. It happens. Let’s see who we get. That’s all I want to know.

Edited January 14, 20223 yr by ndfanatic78

47 minutes ago, ndfanatic78 said:

I haven’t seen anyone anywhere near a ledge. The fact is he was offered the position and turned it down. We are now onto the second tier of choices. Every coach that interviewed already knows that Heacock was offered the position and chosen over them. That means ND is onto their second choices now. Add in that they lost Elston and it was a bad day for ND. That’s it again nothing more. Everyone has bad days and Freeman and ND had one. We will see who we get at DC I just don’t believe it will be anyone that was mentioned before with the exception of the possibility of Tressel from Cincinnati. No ledge, no end of the world, just a bad day. It happens. Let’s see who we get. That’s all I want to know.

We don’t know that he was offered the job. Reports were that ND was zeroing in on him. Haven’t seen a confirmed offer anywhere

He wasn't offered the position. He wanted to bring his own coaches in, Freeman wanted to keep Mickens and O'Leary (plus that new LB assistant, the OSU LB), so they both went their separate ways. Why are you being so pessimistic about this? It is almost a non-issue.

Edited January 14, 20223 yr by NDhoosier

No one’s being pessimistic. It was reported by multiple people that he was offered the DC position and your naive if you don’t think the other candidates agents didn’t inform their clients of this. How do you think reporters and message boards found out? It wasn’t just based on baseless rumors. Multiple reliable sources reported on it. Realism based on the facts is not pessimism. No where do I act like freeman sucks or ND f—-ed everything up. I simply said it was a bad day. Thats what it was. You all are making my remarks out to be so much more then they are. So with that I’m done with this. I look forward to finding out who the new DC is and that we find soon as I like resolution. Beyond that the offensive hires appear to be completed and all seem to be extremely solid hires.