Notre Dame coach Mike Brey thought his team took big strides in its development Saturday. Freshman Pat Connaughton had 23 points and 11 rebounds as Notre Dame made 11 three-pointers and beat No. 15 Marquette 76-59.Notre Dame assistant football coaches Chuck Martin and Mike Elston will be serving dual roles for head coach Brian Kelly.
Martin, the defensive backs coach, was named recruiting coordinator, and Elston, the defensive line coach, was named special teams coordinator Thursday.
“Chuck will do a great job coordinating our recruiting efforts because he is very persistent and very organized,” Kelly said in a statement. “With Mike directing our special teams, I expect us to have a similar philosophy as our offensive and defensive units this season and that is to be well coached and aggressive.”
Martin worked under Kelly at Grand Valley State and took over when Kelly left for Central Michigan.
“We didn’t have a coach with the title of recruiting coordinator at Grand Valley State, so, in essence, I was the recruiting coordinator,” Martin said. “We’re going to be looking for the best players in the country, and we’ll continue to recruit nationally.”
Elston, who has been with the Kelly the last six seasons, was the special teams coordinator at Central Michigan in 2006 and Cincinnati from 2007 to ’09. The Bearcats had the Big East special teams player of the year the last three seasons (return specialist Mardy Gilyard in 2008 and ’09 and punter Kevin Huber in 2007).
“The most important part of special teams is putting the right personnel on the field,” Elston said. “After that, the next important aspect is keeping it simple so our players can play as fast as they would on offense or defense.”
The university also announced Jon Carpenter and Michael Painter as defensive graduate assistants, and Scott Booker and Bill Brechin as interns for the offensive coaching staff.
