Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly is focusing on two things – assembling a staff and hanging on to the Irish’s recruits.
Kelly has officially announced only running backs coach Tony Alford – who came to Notre Dame before the start of last season – as a member of his first staff.
But in an interview with a small group of reporters Tuesday, the new Irish coach said getting coaches interested in Notre Dame is not difficult.
“When you are talking about the potential to come to Notre Dame, you are not getting any push back,” Kelly said in the 42-minute session.
While getting potential assistants interested isn’t hard, some potential candidates have been lost because they took jobs at other schools.
Jeff Quinn, Cincinnati’s interim coach and offensive coordinator, was named the head coach at Buffalo on Sunday.
Quinn had been with Kelly for more than 20 years.
“I really believe his thoughts were he was going to be here at Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “… He called me at like 3 o’clock in the morning and goes, ‘Coach, I didn’t believe I would do this, but I’m going to Buffalo.’ I was happy for him.”
Bryant Young, a defensive graduate assistant last season, has been offered the chance to remain at Notre Dame in the same role by Kelly.
But the former Irish standout and San Francisco 49er appears headed to Akron to join former Notre Dame receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello’s staff, according to reports.
Young would be the second coach from Notre Dame’s staff to go to Akron with Ianello, who announced former Irish quarterbacks coach Ron Powlus as the Zips’ quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Tuesday.
Kelly said Young has not told him of his plans.
“I gave him no timetable,” Kelly said of Young. “He needs to get on with his career whether it is here for another year or so at Notre Dame, or if he can get a positions job.”
There will be a change in the Irish’s strength and conditioning staff. Kelly did not retain strength and conditioning coordinator Ruben Mendoza.
Cincinnati strength and conditioning coordinator Paul Longo, who has been with Kelly for the last six seasons, is expected to fill that same role at Notre Dame.
But any move involving a current Bearcats coach will not come until after Cincinnati plays Florida in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.
“I don’t want Notre Dame to be accused of disrupting what’s going on at Cincinnati,” said Kelly, who would like to have his staff in place when recruiting reopens Jan. 4. “I think what you will see here pretty quickly is some coaches coming onboard that are not affiliated with Cincinnati.”
Notre Dame has been able to hold on to most of its recruits since Charlie Weis was fired Nov. 30 and Kelly was named coach Dec. 10.
Defensive end Chris Martin orally committed to California, but defensive back Austin Collinsworth committed to Notre Dame after Kelly was hired. Notre Dame has 18 oral commitments.
“By and large if you look at the class that Charlie had recruited, it addressed a lot of needs,” Kelly said. “There is still a lot of work to do because they were down on scholarships the year before.
“If there was any critic, it would (be) last year where they didn’t fill up all the slots which puts you in a bind moving forward to 85 (scholarship players).
“We’ve got some more work to recruit and offer new scholarships.”
