Marcus Freeman Talks Gerad Parker, OC Search Criteria, Notre Dame's Commitment To Championships
The most important decision of Marcus Freeman’s second year as Notre Dame’s head football coach is complete. On Monday morning, with athletic director Jack Swarbrick looking on from the back of the room, Freeman officially introduced his former tight ends coach Gerad Parker as Notre Dame football’s new offensive coordinator.
Freeman said what every coach who announces such a hire is going to say. He is “excited about the hire”. Parker was the third of three candidates who interviewed for the job after Tommy Rees vacated the position to take on the same role at Alabama a little more than two weeks ago.
"I had a criteria and a vision for when this process started of what I was looking for,” Freeman began. "I wanted to see on film a pro-style type offense. What does that mean? It’s multiple. Multiple formations, multiple personnels, pro-style type concepts in the pass game, multiple running schemes. But it is not just one thing that you’re looking for. It’s multiple different things that I feel will help our guys translate as they move forward to the NFL. So, when I say pro style type offense, that’s what I was talking about.”
Finding The Right Fit
The other two candidates Freeman interviewed were Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig and Kansas State offensive coordinator Collin Klein. Both visited Notre Dame’s campus during the search process, but both wound up staying in their current positions.
"The criteria was, we wanted to search nationwide. We wanted to see an offense displayed, right?" Freeman explained. "I wanted to see a coordinator call it. I wanted to see somebody run it at a high success rate. That’s the criteria I had when I was looking for this offensive coordinator. The top two offenses that (I) saw on film were Kansas State and Utah and we interviewed both of those guys. We brought them both to campus. For their own reasons, they decided not to come. So, we reconvened and looked at all these different candidates that we were looking for and at some point during that process, Gerad Parker rose to the top. We put him through a long, tough interview. What he was able to display to me in where we’re at, currently, as an offense, his understanding of the terminology and our offensive philosophy in the past year, but also the vision for how he can enhance it with what he’s done and what he believes it takes to be successful as an offensive coordinator.
"It was halfway through the interview, I kind of .... and my mind was made up,” Freeman continued. "I said, this is our next offensive coordinator, but I wanted to take some time and really sleep on it and think about it and not make an emotional decision. I woke up in the morning ... I remember I called Jack and I said, I think we found our next offensive coordinator.”
Getting Past Parker’s Inexperience
Ludwig’s resume speaks for itself. His coaching career began at about the time Parker was transitioning from kindergarten to first grade. Freeman said he initially prioritized experience but he ultimately hired the least experienced of the three candidates to interview.
"I think it started with the interview,” Freeman said when asked about how he got past Parker’s relative inexperience. "He's called plays. He was coordinator obviously at West Virginia for a couple years and actually called it for a certain amount of games. His ability to really say, hey, here's how I would implement our system as a coordinator and here's how I would implement my system as the offensive coordinator. Here's where I believe we are as an offense and here's the vision for how it will enhance. That to clearly really display that and to get that conveyed over to myself and the offensive staff is really what it took. There's a lot of people out there that have had success and maybe not in the type of offense that I want to run here at Notre Dame. But to have somebody that can really understand where we're at to help our guys with the learning curve and understand and really convey how we'll improve is really why I chose him.”
Parker’s Imprint On The Offense
Parker’s one season of experience at Notre Dame as the tight end coach gives him detailed knowledge of the personnel he inherits as well as the scheme in place. Freeman drove home the fact that the pro-style system Parker will implement will at least have tentacles into the system Rees ran for the last three years, but the head coach also made it clear that Parker’s offense will be his own.
"I'm not hiring Gerad Parker to run Tommy Rees or anybody else's offense,” Freeman noted. "I'm hiring Gerad Parker to implement his offense. The ability for him to clearly explain to me where we're at as an offense, because it's all about teaching progression. Right? (If) you bring somebody in here that wants to start from ground zero and label things differently. Now, it takes time for our kids to learn what they want. So, the ability for him to say, here's what our kids know, here's exactly what they know, here's what they understand, here's how we can enhance and progress. That's why I hired him.”
Freeman’s “Buddy” Factor?
Parker is the latest hire on Marcus Freeman’s staff who Freeman had a direct connection with prior to being hired or in this case, promoted, at Notre Dame. Cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens, special teams coach Brian Mason, defensive line coach Al Washington, and Director of Recruiting Chad Bowden are among the others. Freeman responded to how much the “trust” he has with Parker, who he has known for a decade, played into the decision.
"I'm not hiring a buddy,” Freeman declared. "You know, let's make sure we're very clear. Because I've known him for a long time, I had a comfort level with who he is as a person. Because that's important to me that you treat our kids the right way. You treat them with respect. You love them. But you're hiring a guy to run the offense and to have a dang good offense. At the end I have a strong belief that we will under his direction.”
A Commitment To Championships?
Since Swarbrick was present, but did not answer questions from the media, Freeman was left to answer questions about the buyout as well as the attitude and commitment of Swarbrick of the administration to winning national championships.
"I don't see if there's any other way that they can show more commitment to us having success,” Freeman said. "That could be with coaching salaries, that can be with NIL, that can be with the support of our football program and continuing to enhance everything 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 by the administration and Jack.”
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