Notre Dame's coaching staff is starting to fill out.
The university announced Saturday that Bob Elliott will be the Irish's safeties coach next season, filling the hole left when Chuck Martin was promoted to offensive coordinator.
"I couldn't be more excited about bringing Bob Elliott to Notre Dame," coach Brian Kelly said in a news release. "At his core, Bob is an outstanding teacher and tactician. He has had great success developing top-tier defensive backs and his experience as a defensive coordinator will complement our coaching staff. Bobby has a long-standing relationship with Bob Diaco and Kerry Cooks so the transition to our staff should be extremely smooth. I know our safeties will love playing for him."
Elliott is a 33-year coaching veteran, who comes from to Notre Dame after his third two-year stint with Iowa State.
He has a combined 11 seasons of experience as a defensive coordinator at San Diego State, Kansas State, Iowa and Balls. Elliott's tenure at Iowa connected him with current Irish assistants Diaco, who was promoted to assistant head coach along with his defensive coordinator duties, and Cooks, who was named co-defensive coordinator along with his cornerbacks coaching duties.
"Bob played for us at Iowa and then was my graduate assistant on defense," Elliott said in a statement. "Kerry played for us and played for me directly in the secondary. He was then our GA at Kansas State when I was there. The great thing about Kerry and Bobby is I come in with a total understanding of the character of these two guys. They've grown since I knew them before. They're level of expertise is outstanding. They've ascended to the top of the coaching profession in the days we have been separated."
Elliott said he expects to have a limited role helping Notre Dame recruiting this cycle, Signing Day is Feb. 1, but he expects to be able to help in the future.
"I've been all over the country in recruiting," Elliott said. "I've recruited the East Coast and the West Coast, Florida, California, Texas and the Midwest. I feel comfortable with any assignment Coach Kelly gives me."
Kelly still has one position to fill on his staff after the departures of Charley Molnar to Massachusetts and Ed Warinner and Tim Hinton to Ohio State after this past season.
Scott Booker, a former offensive intern, was promoted to the staff but hasn't been assigned a position, and Harry Hiestand is expected to be named the new offensive line coach. Hiestand has served that role at Tennessee the last two seasons.
