An impassioned Marcus Freeman sought to set straight the “narrative” that surrounded Notre Dame’s search for an offensive coordinator to replace the departed Tommy Rees, one that ultimately culminated last week with the Fighting Irish turning inward to Gerad Parker.
At Parker’s introductory press conference Monday beneath Notre Dame Stadium in the media room, Freeman peered inside the Notre Dame process – which included vetting double-digit candidates, having in-depth talks with multiple ones and bringing no less than two external candidates – Kansas State’s Collin Klein, Utah’s Andy Ludwig – to campus.
Freeman and the Irish offensive staff had extremely in-depth conversations with Klein, Ludwig and Colorado’s Sean Lewis before Parker landed the job last Wednesday, as first reported by FootballScoop, on the strength of Parker’s formal interview the previous day.
“I had a criteria and vision for what I was looking for,” Freeman said. “I wanted to see a pro-style on film with multiple formations. … The criteria was I wanted to search nationwide, and I wanted to see that offense displayed, wanted to see a coordinator call it and to see someone run it at a high success rate. …
“The top two offenses we saw on film were Kansas State and Utah. We interviewed both, brought them to campus and for their own reasons they decided not to come. We reconvened at some point during that process, and Gerad Parker rose to the top. We put him through a long, tough, extensive interview.”
While Parker ascended to the post from within the Irish organization, Freeman specifically took aim at pervasive reporting that tabbed Notre Dame’s inability to land Ludwig, a Utah native, to the veteran play-caller’s hefty $2.8 million buyout.
“At no time during this process did I not have the support of (Irish athletics director) Jack Swarbrick and the administration,” said Freeman, 9-4 in his first full season at the Irish helm. “(Swarbrick) has offered to pay whatever buyouts there’s been. That’s part of the business.”
Though Parker does not have extensive play-calling history, the former University of Kentucky wideout has multiple seasons’ experience as West Virginia’s offensive play-caller in the red zone (2020-21) and also exclusively called the plays for the Mountaineers in the final six games of their 2021 campaign.
All six of those contests came against Power 5 competition; all six were Big 12 foes, and the stretch included wins against both TCU and Texas.
“Nobody is more charged to do this job than I am,” said Parker, friends with Freeman now for the past decade since the two were colleagues at Purdue starting in 2013. “Every morning I wake up from this point forward, (my goal) will be to put my feet on the ground and make this the right here for Coach Freeman and everybody in this organization.”
While Freeman extolled the benefits of having someone he trusts inherently in such a key position, he likewise emphasized he’s “not hiring a buddy” and defended the joint decision to take Ludwig to the Notre Dame-Ohio State hockey game Feb. 10 at Compton Family Ice Arena on the Notre Dame campus.
“We brought guys in that we wanted, correct?,” Freeman said. “So, we bring our top recruits into this place. And guess what we did on junior day? We took them to the hockey game, because Coach (Jeff) Jackson does an excellent job and that’s a great environment. So we’re not hiding the point of, we brought a guy in that we wanted so we took him to the hockey game.
“And he ended up not coming here. That’s OK. I don’t want to hide because I’m worried about, well, somebody might think this guy turned us down. He made a decision that’s best for him. But I don’t want to hide the fact of what makes Notre Dame great. If we’re going to bring our top recruits to the hockey game, then why not bring an offensive coordinator candidate the hockey game? Why, because if we don’t get him, people are going to say well you tried and you lost. That’s life.
“I wouldn’t change that if I had to. We want to put our best foot forward.”
Freeman, who also made clear he didn’t elevate Parker just to run the offense of Rees, also professed he has the full backing of Notre Dame’s administration in a quest to end the Irish’s 35-year national championship drought.
“I don’t see that there’s any other way that they could show more commitment to us having success,” Freeman said. “That can be with coaching salaries, that can be with NIL, that can be with the support of our football program and continuing to enhance everything that we do, facilities, training table, whatever it is that we believe our program needs to continue to climb to the mountaintop.
“I’ve had full support of our administration and Jack.”