Notre Dame has perhaps the best coordinator duo in college football.

What a difference a year makes for Notre Dame, who now boast one of college football’s best coordinator duos. Having two good coordinators has been an uncommon occurrence at Notre Dame, but head coach Marcus Freeman has established that as he enters his third season with the Irish. There have been times in the previous 15 years when the Irish had excellent coordinators on both sides of the ball. Chuck Martin (offense) and Bob Diaco (defensive) were successful in 2012 and 2023, while Chip Long (offense) developed a strong tandem with Mike Elko (defense, 2017) and Clark Lea (defense, 2018-20). Freeman had an unpleasant hunt for a coordinator last summer, and his top two candidates did not wind up at Notre Dame. The Andy Ludwig discussions were a disaster for the program, and it was the reason why the eventual hiring, Gerad Parker, was never going to receive a fair shake. Parker was always going to appear like the settle hiring, and the 2023 season was his first complete season in control of an offense.

Parker accomplished some wonderful things, but the offense wasn’t quite good enough in the key games to help the Irish finish better than 9-3 in the regular season. After Parker left to become Troy’s head coach, Freeman went all in and hired Mike Denbrock, a former coordinator at LSU (2022-23), Cincinnati (2017-21), and Notre Dame (2014-16). It was a perfect fit for Freeman, who worked as an amazing coordinator tandem with Denbrock in Cincinnati from 2017 to 2020. Freeman has only hired one defensive coordinator, Al Golden. His first season was solid, with Golden’s defense winning most weeks, but the team did not finish strong enough to be considered a top bunch. That changed in 2023, when Golden built one of the country’s strongest defenses. This resulted in a well-deserved salary increase this summer, and Golden will return for a third season.

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