Around 4:00pm EST Monday afternoon news broke that Notre Dame OC Mike Sanford was heading to Western Kentucky to become their head coach. The news may come as a shock to Irish fans, but at the end of the day you can’t fault someone for pursuing their goals and trying to advance their career. I would imagine that mindset is shared by the rest of the Notre Dame football staff as it would be in most college football staffs. Friends like to see each other succeed. When your friend gets an opportunity to become a head coach for the first time in his career, that’s cause for celebration.
In 2010, Coach Sanford joined the Western Kentucky coaching staff as a Quarterbacks Coach and Offensive Assistant. He left the following year to become the Running Backs coach at Stanford. Though he only spent one year coaching at Western Kentucky, it’s likely his connection to the school made him one of the top candidates for their head coaching job once it became available. The Hilltoppers’ focus on offense was probably very appealing to Sanford. They averaged over 40 points a game this year and won their second straight Conference USA Championship. Their new coach hopes to continue that trend.
So where does this leave the Notre Dame coaching staff? Probably feeling a bit of anxiety. Their focus to start the off-season was finding an experienced Defensive Coordinator to replace Brian Van Gorder. Now, they have to research and compile a new list of candidates to fill the vacancy at Offensive Coordinator. One name that will not be on the list of potential candidates is Lane Kiffin, who accepted the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic (reported Monday morning). The timing is unfortunate for these two moves because the Notre Dame OC job is one of, if not the best OC job available right now. Think about it. The Irish are likely to return five starters on the offensive line. They have a solid (and young) receiving core to go along with two experienced running backs with big play ability. Lane Kiffin to South Bend would have injected some much-needed optimism into the Notre Dame football program. Then again he did coach at USC and Alabama. Maybe it’s for the best that it didn’t turn out that way.
We’ll see how things play out in the coming months, but I believe there is a significant chance that Notre Dame fills one of the coordinator positions by promoting from within. On the offensive side, Mike Denbrock would be a great fit at OC. Kelly, Sanford, and Denbrock shared play-calling responsibilities throughout the year. Denbrock is well-versed in the offense that Brian Kelly wants to run, and promoting him to OC would be a smooth transition as the team prepares for the 2017 season. On the defensive side, Mike Elston is someone I could see stepping into a DC role. Elston shared the DC responsibilities with Greg Hudson after Brian Van Gorder was fired. The defense showed a lot of improvement after the coaching change, and I believe they could continue to grow under Elston.
Notre Dame is set to meet with Mike Elko, the Defensive Coordinator at Wake Forest, at some point this week. Elko is one of the most sought-after defensive coordinators at the moment, which means he’ll have no shortage of offers. I think all Irish fans can agree that Elko is the ideal candidate for the DC job. Fingers crossed.
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