Marcus Freeman Is Taking A Chance On Gerad Parker, But He Has Faith In His New Coordinator
The road to hiring the next offensive coordinator at Notre Dame has been a strange journey, but Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has found his man. Freeman will promote tight ends coach Gerad Parker to the role of offensive coordinator on top of his duties as the tight ends coach.
This is not the kind of move that is going to excite the masses, especially after the way the situation with Andy Ludwig was handled. There is going to be a cloud hanging over the hiring of Parker until he proves Freeman right, or confirms people's suspicions.
There is no debate that this hire is going to largely determine if Freeman can lead Notre Dame to a championship. He's betting his Irish tenure, and the team's championship hopes, on a coach that most fans believe is simply someone that Freeman is "settling on."
I can assure you, that's not how Marcus Freeman sees this move.
There's no question that Ludwig was the top target for Freeman, but make no mistake, he brought Parker to Notre Dame to eventually run the offense. In fact, Parker was the one hire that Freeman didn't seek former coordinator Tommy Rees' advice on last season. Freeman was bringing in Parker in some capacity, no matter what.
While most fans felt that Parker was never a realistic candidate for the offensive coordinator position, insiders insisted from the beginning that he was. The reason is simple, Freeman has a great deal of faith in Parker. Just because he pushed for Ludwig, rightfully so, doesn't mean Freeman didn't also view Parker as a coach that could do very good things running the offense.
You might disagree with the Irish head coach, but make no mistake, this isn't Freeman settling. If anything, this is Freeman doubling down. This is Freeman saying the Notre Dame program needs more coaches in positions of influence that he knows will sell his vision for the program, and not their own, something he didn't always have in 2022. He wants offensive coaches on the staff that are going to emphasize what he believes is needed for a championship offense, and both Parker and new quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli are absolutely those coaches.
Freeman wants a pro style offense that is built from the inside out, one that can beat you running the ball and throwing the football, and one that can score a lot of points. He knows the Notre Dame offense must take a big jump forward if the Irish program is going to compete for a championship, and he knows this hire is going to determine if that's possible. That is what Freeman expects Parker to build on offense.
Let's be clear, Freeman knows this hire could make or break his tenure. That reality is what caused him to respond to not landing Ludwig by going all in on Parker and Guidugli. Freeman believes Parker is capable of leading the offense in a way that supports his vision.
Talking to sources inside the program over the last year and you'll hear several themes about Parker that are important to Freeman. The players respect him, even though he challenges them every day. He's considered one of the sharpest minds in the building, something that we heard about him a year ago when we spoke with sources at West Virginia, where he was the offensive coordinator in 2020-21. He is someone that feels the offense didn't reach its full potential last season, and he's someone that Freeman genuinely believes is the kind of talent that can fix that.
Will it work out? I don't know. Neither does Freeman, if we're being honest. There's always a bit of a gamble when you make a move like this, but the Irish head coach is betting his future at Notre Dame that he's right about Parker, which is why he's making the move to name Parker instead of pursuing safer options, and coaches he knows that would win the PR battle. Freeman is betting on his faith in Parker, and if he's right the Irish offense will finally take the leap forward it needs to allow Notre Dame to get over the hump.
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