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Jack Swarbrick will wrap up his eighth year as director of athletics at Notre Dame in July, about a year before the Campus Crossroads project, one section of which towers over his office in the Joyce Center, is expected to be completed.
The Notre Dame alumnus sat down with Irish247 to discuss how the school plans to enhance its football facilities, where it is in the process of building a basketball facility, the status of the NCAA's investigation in the school's academic dishonesty scandal and others topics surrounding the state of Notre Dame athletics.
Details in part one are specific to football, future schedules and the basketball programs. Swarbrick expands on matters pertaining to Notre Dame’s role in the evolving world of college athletics in part two, which will run Friday morning.
Irish247: Brian Kelly’s new contract was announced a week before national signing day. Was timing a factor in when the announcement was made?
Jack Swarbrick: I understand why people think it would, but in point of fact it’s timed to our trustee meeting. The announcement was made at the conclusion of the trusting meeting, the university trustee meeting, and we don’t have any control over that schedule. It really was not driven by recruiting. Am I happy we could do it on that timetable? Yes, but it was all about the schedule for meetings over which we don’t have any control.
Irish247: Is the extension something you discussed before the season?
JS: This is the schedule in which we anticipated doing it for some time. I think in this industry you want the coach and the coaching staff to not get within two years, if you can, when you get to the last two years of the contract to be discussing the future. It’s a time in which we like to engage in the discussion. We discussed it before the year started, that at the end of the year we’d have a discussion about it.
Irish247: From your perspective, how comfortable and settled is Brian Kelly now versus where he was a few years ago?
JS: I think that Brian has an understanding and a comfort with coaching here that you can only acquire with time. In so many ways I see on a day-to-day basis him reflecting that comfort. I think he’s as centered as he’s ever been, and I feel great about that. It goes to one of Brian’s great strengths, and that is that he is always reexamining his approach and what he does, and how to get better. He has just continued to do that here, and part of the byproduct of that is not only building the program that fits the university so well but also understanding the university better.
Irish247: How important was it to bring in two Notre Dame alums (Todd Lyght and Autry Denson) when the football staff was looking at coaching options?
JS: You’re going to pick people because they’re the best coaches. That we could find people who are great coaches and Notre Dame grads is a big plus, not just because they understand the place, and they obviously do very well, but because they are passionate about what it’s done for them personally, and that at its core is what we talk to young men about; what the university will do to help them become men. And both of those individuals speak so eloquently and so passionately about that impact on their own lives. Again, they’ve got to be great coaches. But when you can find a great coach that understands that about this place, that’s a huge plus.
Irish247: Bruce Feldman of FoxSports.com reported that Notre Dame “is expected to also invest in facilities and other program enhancements to improve the student-athlete experience.” What are those improvements?
JS: When annually Brian and I review the program and talk about what the next areas of focus are, we have focused a lot on sports science in the past two years. We focused a lot on nutrition. As you start to get those things where you want them, you’re then looking at what are the next things. The [Guglielmino Athletics Complex] has reached an age where reinvestment in it is going to be important, and it goes to some of those other things. We need a better system for feeding the students in that facility. We need a better system for delivering some of the sports science services. So it’s just time as our approach to the program has changed, for the building in which we do it to catch up with those changes.
Irish247: What specific changes are being explored?
JS: We use our recruiting lounge for our training table now. We need a training table area that can be supported by a kitchen, so that’s an obvious nutrition one. We need sports science space where we can do some of the analytic work we’re doing, staff, some of that function, but also conduct some of the data gathering we want to do. And it’s time to reinvest in the weight room, so that’s another example. I could go on. It is taking those areas and having them sort of catch up with the reality of what we now do in them. They were designed for what you did in those spaces 16 or 17 years ago. How we’re using them has changed.
Irish247: Is there a timetable for when those changes will occur?
JS: It’s the sort of thing that will go on over a period of years. So if there’s something we can do this summer to begin to make improvements, we’ll do them. But we want to start the process. It won’t be like a new building coming out of the ground. It will be a number of things over the time that helps make the facility better.
Irish247: How close are you to finalizing the 2017 football schedule?
JS: We’re very close, and I am hopeful that it will be accompanied, as we did last time, with the release of [the schedule] for a number of years. I would be disappointed if we didn’t have that done by the end of the month. We may time it to the spring game, but we’ll be done soon.
Irish247: What is the likelihood there won’t be a Shamrock Series game in 2017 because of the Campus Crossroads project?
JS: I still think that’s likely. It hasn’t been fully settled, but that we will do—because of the opening of crossroads—do all the games here that year.
Irish247: And the Shamrock Series games would be continued in 2018, 2019…
JS: Yes.
Jack Swarbrick will wrap up his eighth year as director of athletics at Notre Dame in July, about a year before the Campus Crossroads project, one section of which towers over his office in the Joyce Center, is expected to be completed.
The Notre Dame alumnus sat down with Irish247 to discuss how the school plans to enhance its football facilities, where it is in the process of building a basketball facility, the status of the NCAA's investigation in the school's academic dishonesty scandal and others topics surrounding the state of Notre Dame athletics.
Details in part one are specific to football, future schedules and the basketball programs. Swarbrick expands on matters pertaining to Notre Dame’s role in the evolving world of college athletics in part two, which will run Friday morning.
Irish247: Brian Kelly’s new contract was announced a week before national signing day. Was timing a factor in when the announcement was made?
Jack Swarbrick: I understand why people think it would, but in point of fact it’s timed to our trustee meeting. The announcement was made at the conclusion of the trusting meeting, the university trustee meeting, and we don’t have any control over that schedule. It really was not driven by recruiting. Am I happy we could do it on that timetable? Yes, but it was all about the schedule for meetings over which we don’t have any control.
Irish247: Is the extension something you discussed before the season?
JS: This is the schedule in which we anticipated doing it for some time. I think in this industry you want the coach and the coaching staff to not get within two years, if you can, when you get to the last two years of the contract to be discussing the future. It’s a time in which we like to engage in the discussion. We discussed it before the year started, that at the end of the year we’d have a discussion about it.
Irish247: From your perspective, how comfortable and settled is Brian Kelly now versus where he was a few years ago?
JS: I think that Brian has an understanding and a comfort with coaching here that you can only acquire with time. In so many ways I see on a day-to-day basis him reflecting that comfort. I think he’s as centered as he’s ever been, and I feel great about that. It goes to one of Brian’s great strengths, and that is that he is always reexamining his approach and what he does, and how to get better. He has just continued to do that here, and part of the byproduct of that is not only building the program that fits the university so well but also understanding the university better.
Irish247: How important was it to bring in two Notre Dame alums (Todd Lyght and Autry Denson) when the football staff was looking at coaching options?
JS: You’re going to pick people because they’re the best coaches. That we could find people who are great coaches and Notre Dame grads is a big plus, not just because they understand the place, and they obviously do very well, but because they are passionate about what it’s done for them personally, and that at its core is what we talk to young men about; what the university will do to help them become men. And both of those individuals speak so eloquently and so passionately about that impact on their own lives. Again, they’ve got to be great coaches. But when you can find a great coach that understands that about this place, that’s a huge plus.
Irish247: Bruce Feldman of FoxSports.com reported that Notre Dame “is expected to also invest in facilities and other program enhancements to improve the student-athlete experience.” What are those improvements?
JS: When annually Brian and I review the program and talk about what the next areas of focus are, we have focused a lot on sports science in the past two years. We focused a lot on nutrition. As you start to get those things where you want them, you’re then looking at what are the next things. The [Guglielmino Athletics Complex] has reached an age where reinvestment in it is going to be important, and it goes to some of those other things. We need a better system for feeding the students in that facility. We need a better system for delivering some of the sports science services. So it’s just time as our approach to the program has changed, for the building in which we do it to catch up with those changes.
Irish247: What specific changes are being explored?
JS: We use our recruiting lounge for our training table now. We need a training table area that can be supported by a kitchen, so that’s an obvious nutrition one. We need sports science space where we can do some of the analytic work we’re doing, staff, some of that function, but also conduct some of the data gathering we want to do. And it’s time to reinvest in the weight room, so that’s another example. I could go on. It is taking those areas and having them sort of catch up with the reality of what we now do in them. They were designed for what you did in those spaces 16 or 17 years ago. How we’re using them has changed.
Irish247: Is there a timetable for when those changes will occur?
JS: It’s the sort of thing that will go on over a period of years. So if there’s something we can do this summer to begin to make improvements, we’ll do them. But we want to start the process. It won’t be like a new building coming out of the ground. It will be a number of things over the time that helps make the facility better.
Irish247: How close are you to finalizing the 2017 football schedule?
JS: We’re very close, and I am hopeful that it will be accompanied, as we did last time, with the release of [the schedule] for a number of years. I would be disappointed if we didn’t have that done by the end of the month. We may time it to the spring game, but we’ll be done soon.
Irish247: What is the likelihood there won’t be a Shamrock Series game in 2017 because of the Campus Crossroads project?
JS: I still think that’s likely. It hasn’t been fully settled, but that we will do—because of the opening of crossroads—do all the games here that year.
Irish247: And the Shamrock Series games would be continued in 2018, 2019…
JS: Yes.
