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Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has promoted head coach Gerard Parker to offensive coordinator, the school announced Saturday, ending a long-running pursuit of Tommy Rees in the same job at Alabama. The Fighting Irish had previously reported interest in Kansas State offensive coordinator Collin Klein and Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, the latter of whom remained with the Utes despite being the top candidate for this job.
“I’m excited to announce Gerad as our new offensive coordinator,” Freeman said in a statement. “I know firsthand what a person, teacher, recruiter and football innovator he is. I look forward to seeing our offense flourish under Gerad’s leadership and direction.”
Parker joined the Notre Dame staff as tight end coach prior to 2022 after spending two seasons as West Virginia’s offensive coordinator, moving on from Neal Brown hired Graham Harrell to take over the offense. He had short stints at Penn State (2019) and Duke (2017-18), plus a four-year run as Darrell Hazell’s assistant at Purdue from 2013-16, which ended with Parker being named the team’s interim head coach after Hazell He was fired. .
Freeman finishing off the offensive team comes as the Fighting Irish are gearing up for spring training next month, which will end with a Spring Blue-Gold game scheduled for April 22nd. Promoting Parker wasn’t the only piece of the puzzle, however. Notre Dame is also expected to hire Wisconsin offensive assistant Gino Guidugli to serve as quarterbacks coach. Guidugli has spent the last five seasons with Luke Fickell in Cincinnati, where he helped develop Desmond Ridder and spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons as the team’s star player.
