Warning, this will be long...
There has been plenty of speculation about who the new DC could be, so rather than further beat that topic to death, I want to focus on other related points.
Whoever the next guy is, Kelly and Swarbrick have to make that hire immediately. The research needs to be done NOW and the guy needs to be hired immediately upon the conclusion of both his and ND's seasons. If ND somehow makes it to a bowl, I would push to name said DC prior to the bowl, even if he stays to coach with his current team through a bowl game. Maybe that's unrealistic, but I would do my damn best to make it happen.
Here is why...
Contrary to some of the doom-and-gloom on the board right now, which by the way is COMPLETELY justified and understandable, ND still has a shot to land some really quality defensive recruits to close its class. For the sake of the next DC moving forward, and the rebuilding of ND's defense it's vital that said guy have as close to 2 months as is possible, to make his mark on the recruiting class. I think any reasonable fan has to like the fact that the defense has improved greatly after getting a shot of structure and integrity after BVG's firing and the key ingredient in that has been the emergence of a freshman class that has not only seen significant playing time, but have played at a high level (relative to freshman). I don't think anyone can be disappointed with the play and progress of Julian Love, Donte Vaughn, Daelin Hayes, Devin Studstill, Jalen Elliot, Chase Claypool (who I pray moves to defense in the off season, which is a change from how I felt at the beginning of the the year) and to a lesser extent, Julian Okwara, Jamir Jones and Khalid Kareem. Lets face it, the defense has shown steady improvement all season, on the backs of a TON of snaps by true freshmen who shouldn't even be playing at this point. This bodes well for the future if Kelly makes a quality DC hire who comes with a plan, a new assistant, or two, an energy about him that can be infused into his players, and above all else, a scheme that gets his best 11 on the field and his next best 11 in a position to make contributions behind them. This doesn't need to be a "homerun" hire. ND needs to play top 25-30 defense to win a lot of games moving forward. Are there 30 teams with more individual defensive talent than Notre Dame? No. Disagree? That's fine, but the NFL draft will support my assertion over the next number of years. Now, should 30 programs have a better DC than ND? Of course not. The 3 ingredients to good defense are 1. Coaching. 2. Talent. 3. Health. Does ND need a young Bud Foster or Pat Narduzzi to field a top 30 defense? NO (although I'd love to get a guy like that). Does ND need Alabama's defensive talent to field a top 30 defense? NO (proven by the other 29 teams without Alabama's defense who also rank in the top 30 defensively).
I'd be happy with a young, hungry, DC, who is fully use to coaching without the luxury of Alabama, Florida State or Ohio State talent at every position and I want a guy who is passionate about recruiting. A grinder who puts in the effort. He doean't have to be a guy who is on the road a lot, but I want a guy who relates to recruits and doesn't mind sitting in his office for an hour a day in season and a couple hours a day in the off season, firing off dozens of text messages, tweets, Facebook messages, etc, etc. Get out on the road twice a year to see key defensive prospects, but let postion coaches do most of that travel. But be engaged in the social media game where recruiting lives today and be present, excited and engaged when defensive prospects are on campus... People rag on Harbaugh about his borderline creepy recruiting tactics but that's what recruiting is. It's weird. It's unorthodox.It's about differentiating oneself. As long as ND gets a DC who understands how to put college kids in positions to win, who stresses player development over scheme implementation and is an active recruiter, they'll have defensive success... Hell, Bob Diaco did only 2 of those 3 things and he built an awesome defense at ND.
With that said, the first thing the new DC needs to do is finish this class and land a couple of key guys left on the board. Furthermore, I'd like to see the new hire open ND up as a possibility to 3-4 new recruits that he was in on at his former program, maybe help flip a kid or two, and potentially bolster the interest of some guys that both he and ND have been "in on" mutually throughout the process. People keep wondering where the final 3-4 defensive guys in this class are going to come from and while I think a couple of them will need to come with the new DC, I also think there are three extremely important pieces left on the board for ND to close with and I believe ND leads or is in the top 2 for each.
There has been plenty of speculation about who the new DC could be, so rather than further beat that topic to death, I want to focus on other related points.
Whoever the next guy is, Kelly and Swarbrick have to make that hire immediately. The research needs to be done NOW and the guy needs to be hired immediately upon the conclusion of both his and ND's seasons. If ND somehow makes it to a bowl, I would push to name said DC prior to the bowl, even if he stays to coach with his current team through a bowl game. Maybe that's unrealistic, but I would do my damn best to make it happen.
Here is why...
Contrary to some of the doom-and-gloom on the board right now, which by the way is COMPLETELY justified and understandable, ND still has a shot to land some really quality defensive recruits to close its class. For the sake of the next DC moving forward, and the rebuilding of ND's defense it's vital that said guy have as close to 2 months as is possible, to make his mark on the recruiting class. I think any reasonable fan has to like the fact that the defense has improved greatly after getting a shot of structure and integrity after BVG's firing and the key ingredient in that has been the emergence of a freshman class that has not only seen significant playing time, but have played at a high level (relative to freshman). I don't think anyone can be disappointed with the play and progress of Julian Love, Donte Vaughn, Daelin Hayes, Devin Studstill, Jalen Elliot, Chase Claypool (who I pray moves to defense in the off season, which is a change from how I felt at the beginning of the the year) and to a lesser extent, Julian Okwara, Jamir Jones and Khalid Kareem. Lets face it, the defense has shown steady improvement all season, on the backs of a TON of snaps by true freshmen who shouldn't even be playing at this point. This bodes well for the future if Kelly makes a quality DC hire who comes with a plan, a new assistant, or two, an energy about him that can be infused into his players, and above all else, a scheme that gets his best 11 on the field and his next best 11 in a position to make contributions behind them. This doesn't need to be a "homerun" hire. ND needs to play top 25-30 defense to win a lot of games moving forward. Are there 30 teams with more individual defensive talent than Notre Dame? No. Disagree? That's fine, but the NFL draft will support my assertion over the next number of years. Now, should 30 programs have a better DC than ND? Of course not. The 3 ingredients to good defense are 1. Coaching. 2. Talent. 3. Health. Does ND need a young Bud Foster or Pat Narduzzi to field a top 30 defense? NO (although I'd love to get a guy like that). Does ND need Alabama's defensive talent to field a top 30 defense? NO (proven by the other 29 teams without Alabama's defense who also rank in the top 30 defensively).
I'd be happy with a young, hungry, DC, who is fully use to coaching without the luxury of Alabama, Florida State or Ohio State talent at every position and I want a guy who is passionate about recruiting. A grinder who puts in the effort. He doean't have to be a guy who is on the road a lot, but I want a guy who relates to recruits and doesn't mind sitting in his office for an hour a day in season and a couple hours a day in the off season, firing off dozens of text messages, tweets, Facebook messages, etc, etc. Get out on the road twice a year to see key defensive prospects, but let postion coaches do most of that travel. But be engaged in the social media game where recruiting lives today and be present, excited and engaged when defensive prospects are on campus... People rag on Harbaugh about his borderline creepy recruiting tactics but that's what recruiting is. It's weird. It's unorthodox.It's about differentiating oneself. As long as ND gets a DC who understands how to put college kids in positions to win, who stresses player development over scheme implementation and is an active recruiter, they'll have defensive success... Hell, Bob Diaco did only 2 of those 3 things and he built an awesome defense at ND.
With that said, the first thing the new DC needs to do is finish this class and land a couple of key guys left on the board. Furthermore, I'd like to see the new hire open ND up as a possibility to 3-4 new recruits that he was in on at his former program, maybe help flip a kid or two, and potentially bolster the interest of some guys that both he and ND have been "in on" mutually throughout the process. People keep wondering where the final 3-4 defensive guys in this class are going to come from and while I think a couple of them will need to come with the new DC, I also think there are three extremely important pieces left on the board for ND to close with and I believe ND leads or is in the top 2 for each.
