Notre Dame's Offensive Coordinator Focus Has Turned To Andy Ludwig

Notre Dame is still searching for its next offensive coordinator, and the focus for the Irish at the moment is Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig. The 58-year old Utah native is currently on Notre Dame's campus as part of a formal two-day interview.

Ludwig spent the last four seasons as the offensive coordinator at Utah. Over the last two seasons the Utes have won the Pac 12 championship, beating USC twice for the title in 2022 and Oregon twice en route to the title in 2021.

It's his second stint in Salt Lake City, with the first coming from 2005-08. During the first stint, Ludwig was in charge of a Utah offense that fueled a 13-0 record and a Sugar Bowl victory. Utah blasted Alabama 31-17 to finish off that season, which also included a 25-23 road win at Michigan and wins over ranked opponents TCU and BYU. At the time the Utes were still a member of the Mountain West Conference.

Utah scored 36.9 points per game that season, which ranked 15th nationally. It was the most points per game scored by a Utah offense since the 2022 Ute offense scored 28.6 points per game. From 2009 to 2018, which is all the seasons between Ludwig's two tenures with Utah, the offense averaged over 30 points per game just three times (2010, 2014, 2015). Ludwig's offense scored over 30 points per game in all four of his most recent seasons in charge, and in his last five seasons running the Utah offense.

In between he served stints as the offensive coordinator at California, San Diego State, Wisconsin and Vanderbilt. He has a long track record of putting out offensive production that surpasses what happened before and after he took over.

Ludwig's first FBS offensive coordinator job was with Fresno State, where he was in charge of the offense from 1998-2001. In his last season, the Bulldogs scored 40.0 points per game and finished with an 11-3 record. His quarterback at Fresno State was David Carr, who passed for 4,839 yards and 46 touchdowns in 2001 before becoming the No. 1 overall pick of the 2002 NFL Draft.

Ludwig has also had offenses that thrive running the football. Utah averaged over 217 rushing yards per game in each of the last two seasons, and in 2019 Utah running back Zack Moss was Pac 12 Offensive Player of the Year honors while rushing for 1,416 yards and 15 touchdowns.

In 2014, Ludwig was the offensive coordinator at Wisconsin. That season his star running back, Melvin Gordon, rushed for 2,587 yards and 29 touchdowns and won the Doak Walker Award while earning unanimous All-American honors. His 2,587 rushing yards ranks second all-time, trailing only Barry Sanders (Oklahoma State).

During his tenure, Ludwig also coached Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemons for three seasons, who finished third in Oregon history in passing yards and second in career passing touchdowns (now ranks fifth in both) and went on to be a second round draft pick in the 2005 NFL Draft.

At this time sources indicate that no formal offer has been made, but that kind of thing usually comes closer to the end of the interview, which would be tomorrow. Ludwig's style of coaching and offensive philosophy would fit in extremely well with Notre Dame's current roster. His experience would also be welcome for an Irish offense that needs to make a big step in 2023. His track record of making improvements to offenses he inherits also tracks with what Marcus Freeman needs out of this hire.

Here is a video breaking down Freeman that Irish Breakdown recorded last Friday.

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