Coaching Candidate Profile: John McNulty
Notre Dame has interviewed a second coach for the open offensive assistant position. Current Penn State analyst John McNulty has interviewed with the Notre Dame staff.
He is the second coach to interview for the position, joining Bowling Green offensive coordinator Terry Malone, who was the first coach to interview for the opening.
Let’s take a look at the McNulty resume:
McNulty began the season as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Rutgers, but he and head coach Chris Ash were fired following the team’s 52-0 loss to Michigan. He then moved to Penn State as an analyst, and that is where he finished the season.
Rutgers averaged 14.1 points per game, 275 yards per game and 4.4 yards per play in his 16 games running the offense. The offense averaged 125.9 rushing yards per game, 3.7 yards per rush, 149.4 passing yards per game, 5.1 yards per pass attempt, 9.8 yards per completion and accounted for eight passing touchdowns against 28 interceptions during his brief tenure.
Prior to his stint at Rutgers, McNulty spent two years with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers. During his time there he coached Hunter Henry, who earned NFL All-Rookie honors in 2016 under McNulty’s tutelage. Henry combined for 81 catches, 1,057 yards and 12 touchdowns in his first two seasons while working with McNulty.
The Chargers ranked 9th in scoring offense in 2016 and 13th in 2017. The offensive quality control coach for the Chargers in 2016 was Tommy Rees, who is now the offensive coordinator for the Irish.
McNulty coached quarterbacks for the Tennessee Titans. During his two seasons in Nashville, the Titans quarterbacks passed for 45 touchdowns and 33 interceptions. The Titans ranked 28th and 30th in scoring offense, and 22nd and 26th in passing offense during those two campaigns.
He spent one season as the quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013. During that season the Buccaneers finished 30th in the NFL in scoring offense, 32nd in total offense and 32nd in passing yards. Quarterback Mike Glennon ranked 21st in quarterback rating.
McNulty spent the four previous seasons (2009-12) with the Arizona Cardinals. He coached wide receivers from 2009-11 and quarterbacks in 2012. Arizona ranked 11th in scoring offense and 14th in total offense in 2009, but never finished higher than 24th in scoring offense the next three seasons. McNulty coached future Hall of Fame receiver Larry Fitzgerald while with the Cardinals.
The longest stint McNulty had in college was at Rutgers from 2004-08. He served as the wide receivers coach from 2004-06 before being promoted to offensive coordinator (while also coaching quarterbacks) in 2007-08.
McNulty’s 2007 Rutgers offense ranked 33rd nationally in scoring offense (32.8 PPG) and 18th in total offense (449.3) on the shoulders of running back Ray Rice, who rushed for 2,012 yards and 24 touchdowns that season. Rice went to the NFL following that season, and Rutgers saw a dip in production, ranking 39th in scoring offense (29.0 PPG) and total offense (398.4 YPG).
What you notice about the two offenses is that Rutgers ranked 26th nationally in rushing offense in 2007 but that fell to 80th in 2008. The offense became more reliant on the pass, ranking 18th in passing yards per game and 20th in pass efficiency. Wide receiver Kenny Britt racked up 87 catches for 1,371 yards and seven touchdowns. The ability to adapt to different personnel is a positive in McNulty’s resume.
McNulty coached wide receivers for the Dallas Cowboys in 2003 and was a wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2001-02. He was an offensive quality control coach from 1998-2000 for the Jaguars.
His first full-time coaching job was at Connecticut (1995-97), which came after he served four seasons as a graduate assistant at Michigan.
McNulty has spent the majority of his career in the NFL, so there are going to be obvious questions about his recruiting ability. I’m of the belief that recruiting is more about personality and work ethic than it is experience. During my time as a coach and in my decade of covering Notre Dame I’ve seen inexperienced coaches that recruit extremely well and veterans who don’t. If McNulty has an engaging personality and is willing to grind the transition to recruiting will be easy.
His most recent experience at Rutgers was a major black eye. He’s had jobs where his offenses were quite good and jobs where the offenses were below average. It’s hard to gauge much about an assistant coach that isn’t the coordinator or play-caller from overall unit production.
Remember, Harry Hiestand’s 2011 offensive line at Tennessee barely topped 100 rushing yards per game and the Volunteers ranked 106th in scoring offense. The next year at Notre Dame the Irish finished the regular season over 200 yards rushing and had an undefeated record.
I don’t know McNulty at all, so any evaluation I can provide is simply based on his resume and numbers/production at those stops. The one thing that concerns me is that he has moved around quite a bit, and he’s spent most of his career in the NFL. If he comes to Notre Dame and a NFL team comes calling, how long will he stay in South Bend?
Also, none of McNulty’s moves were promotions, at least at the NFL level. That has to raise questions about how he is viewed in the industry. The other way of looking at it is he moved a lot because he was coveted for his work as a position coach. McNulty has coached at least two future Hall of Famers (Fitzgerald and Chargers tight end Antonio Gates) and coached under two Super Bowl winning coaches (Bill Parcells, Tom Coughlin), resume points that should not be easily dismissed.
I think his resume shows some very positive things, but it also raises questions. I think his background working with Rees is something Notre Dame will put great value on.
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