Harry Hiestand Returning To Notre Dame Is A Home Run For Marcus Freeman, Tommy Rees
Irish Breakdown readers and members have known this was coming, but more and more national reporters are learning what we've known for awhile, and what has been reported on Irish Breakdown for weeks, that Harry Hiestand is going to return to Notre Dame as its next offensive line coach.
Hiestand and Notre Dame have been working on a contract for weeks, and IB sources indicate all the hurdles have been cleared and the former Irish line coach will once again be the Irish line coach.
Of course, Hiestand was the Notre Dame offensive line coach from 2012-2017, and during that time the program came to be known as O-Line U for its success at producing elite lines and high NFL Draft picks.
Notre Dame won the 2017 Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation's best offensive line, during Hiestand's final season in South Bend. A case could be made that Notre Dame also had the nation's best offensive line in 2015, two years before that award was created. Of course, that award is named for a former Irish coach, one who was part of Notre Dame's last championship squad (1988) and also had a legendary career at Pittsburgh.
During Hiestand's six seasons at Notre Dame he developed four players that became 1st Round NFL Draft picks (Zack Martin, Ronnie Stanley, Quenton Nelson, Mike McGlinchey), including three that were Top 10 NFL Draft picks. Notre Dame also had a second and a third round draft pick during that tenure, and three more players that Hiestand recruited and coached for at least one season were drafted in the second (Liam Eichenberg, Aaron Banks) and third round (Robert Hainsey) a year ago.
Notre Dame's offenses averaged 204.1 rushing yards per game during Hiestand's tenure (minus sacks, team runs), compared to 191.8 in the four year since he departed and 142.7 in the four years prior to his arrival.
Notre Dame's offense also averaged 5.83 yards per carry (minus sacks, team carries) during his six seasons, compared to 5.41 in the four years that followed his departure and 4.74 in the four years prior to his arrival.
Notre Dame's 2015 team set a modern program record for yards per play (7.0). In 2017, Notre Dame's 6.25 yards per carry also set a modern program record.
Despite a narrative emerging about his recruiting passions, Hiestand landed top line classes year after year. He even recruited a player in Jerry Tillery that eventually became a first round pick at defensive line. Tillery, of course, was initially recruited to Notre Dame as an offensive tackle.
For Notre Dame to become a national title contender a major step was getting its offensive line back to the levels it had during much of Hiestand's tenure. The program has grown in other ways since he left, but the line steadily took steps back. Head coach Marcus Freeman and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees convincing Hiestand to come back gives the program a chance to get its line where it needs to be.
This is a coup for both coaches. For Freeman it gives him one of the best, and most respected names in the business. For Rees, more practically, it gives him an offensive line coach who will certainly be able to improve the physicality and production of the run game.
It's the first, and arguably most important, big coaching domino to fall for Notre Dame this offseason. It's step one towards Freeman building the kind of top-to-bottom elite staff that his predecessor never could build.
Hiestand and Rees clearly have a relationship. The former was the offensive line coach for the final two seasons of Rees' career, including overseeing the line that allowed Rees to be sacked just 8 times in 2013. They also worked together in 2017 when Hiestand was the offensive line coach and Rees was in his first season as the quarterbacks coach.
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