Notre Dame Notebook: Gerad Parker Talks Game One, Sam Hartman, Gino Guidugli, Deion Colzie

The first game jitters are now behind Gerad Parker. Notre Dame’s first-year offensive coordinator called his first game in his new position in Notre Dame’s season-opening 42-3 win over Navy. Parker called plays for two years at West Virginia before a reunion with Irish head coach Marcus Freeman as Irish tight ends coach last season.

His elevation to offensive coordinator drew some side eyes due after Notre Dame’s first and second options publicly fell through. It's one thing to call plays from someone else’s offense off the beaten path in Morgantown, but it’s another thing altogether under the high-profile spotlight that comes with working in the shadow of the golden dome.

Parker’s debut took place in an even brighter spotlight as the Fighting Irish played their opener in Ireland with a record setting American crowd in attendance and the biggest NBC TV audience watching back home.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say there (were) nerves and certain thoughts of just because of the expectation of this place, and really an allegiance to our players and our staff,” Parker explained this week. "You want to do a good job for everybody. I want to make your guy's job fun. It's sure as hell a lot fun when we do what we do and play the way we played, for everybody. I get that. We all get that. So, I think the pressure is good. I would like to say that we handle the pressure the right way and dealing with and preparing. But there's an obligation to this place.”

Things went about as smoothly as they could have gone against the Midshipmen for the offense. None of the typical things that might be expected in such a debut never happened. No burning timeouts because the play wasn’t relayed to the field in time, no miscommunications with the quarterback, no extended time at the line of scrimmage. None of it. It all went smoothly.

"Certainly everything helps with success,” Parker began. "But as far as our communication and how we did in and out of the huddle and how we were on the headsets and trading out a lot of personnel changes, I'm sure you all saw. I thought it was a testament to our guys and the people who are working in our areas of communication with signals to help us get in and out.”

On Gino Guidugli

For the first time since 2019 when Chip Long was the offensive coordinator and Tommy Rees was the quarterbacks coach, Notre Dame has an offensive coordinator who is not also coaching the quarterbacks. Parker works from the press box on game day and quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli works on the sidelines. He is a vital part of that game day communication chain for the offense.

"I think it's a crucial job,” Parker said. "I think in helping that and doing that job last year. You get a newfound respect for it. So, it was really good to see him. Then go with it, he's the quarterbacks coach. So having him down there with our offense and our quarterbacks, I thought was huge and you could feel that, and our communication was wonderful.”

On Sam Hartman Working Under Center

New Fighting Irish quarterback started under center in a handful of plays against Navy. As college offenses have continued to evolve, it has become far less common for quarterbacks to go under center, opting instead for more shotgun and pistol formations. It was very foreign to Hartman, who played in Wake Forest’s slow mesh offense for the previous five years.

"Probably off the record, I'd give you more,” Parker said when asked why he had Hartman under center. "Just preparing for opponents would be a piece of it. If that would give you enough to say that part. On record, I would say that it's certainly going be a piece of who we are. There's a lot of things that happen, your ability to hide back alignment, play action certainly helps us from there and certainly, being able to get our guys downhill and what it brings to us and from the start of this thing with what (Freeman) and I had spoke about as far as taking the job here and what we believe this place is, it's also a brand of football that we want to be able to get under center and sell to our players that we're preparing them with the ability to have schematic things that they see that prepare them to play in the NFL. So there's a lot of it. And I know that's a broad answer. But it really is, it's important.

"So, as you bring in Sam Hartman as a new quarterback into this offense, and we build this all together, we wanted him to be able to grow,” Parker continued. "It's one of the reasons he came here. So to be able to see him do that and function in the way he did certainly shows what he's able to do. In the time he's been here.”

On Deion Colzie

Deion Colzie had three receptions for 45 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown on a tunnel screen in the second half. The junior receiver is already a third of the way to the career best nine receptions he had last season and he did it while playing just seven snaps against Navy.

"I think it's huge for the room,” said Parker. "The same thing with JG (Jaden Greathouse). JG had a limited amount of snaps with a lot of production as well. So, I think it tells him the importance of what it is just to be out there and take advantage of the snaps you get and trusting him. He earned that trust, especially the last 10 days. It's constant evaluation for all of us and really, he had some struggles and had to get healthy in camp there in a minute. Came back, practiced very efficiently and productive those last 10 days and he found some efficient plays out there.”

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