Mike Elston Discusses His Reasons For Staying At Notre Dame, Dealing With NIL Realities

Defensive line coach Mike Elston talked about his reasons for staying at Notre Dame and recruiting in the NIL era

Notre Dame defensive line coach Mike Elston made one point clear about the name, image, and likeness policy that colleges have to deal with now.

The Fighting Irish have to articulate how it’ll work for future recruits. NIL allows college players to profit from their names.

Almost all of the high-profile players at Notre Dame have signed some kind of deal with a sponsor to make money from their own personal brand. For instance, Kyle Hamilton started a podcast called “Inside the Garage”, which was lucrative.

Elston addressed the NIL head on Wednesday in the signing day press conference.

“The question was asked earlier about NIL. NIL is a thing,” he said. “We have to be able to without guaranteeing them we are breaking the rules, we have to show them how our guys are taking advantage of it. It’s not breaking the rules to show them that Kyle Hamilton is one of the highest-paid defensive players through NIL. We have to be able to showcase what our guys are able to do and capitalize on that so we’re not losing players because money is flying into their pocket from somewhere else.”

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said “you have to show them you have a plan. There are certain rules within the NCAA you can’t do. We can’t say we are providing this NIL for you. We know it's real and we have a plan to promote it but we can’t break the rules and we won’t break the rules.”

The NIL aside, Elston said with a full year as a head coach, the classes will get better under Freeman.

“I don’t believe that the last two weeks are an indication of what you are going to see in the future,” he said. “It’s not fair to evaluate Marcus over the last two weeks and decide if he’s going to be the right recruiter for this role. He’s going to be phenomenal. We’re going to bridge the gap from what’s challenging here like the location and how hard it is to do the classwork. He’s going to build relationships from the top down. You are going to be able to see it in the 2023 class. I believe you have already seen it. I believe by this time next year there is going to be a bigger buzz around our recruiting class.”

In other news, Elston said he didn’t seriously consider going to LSU after Brian Kelly offered him a job.

He didn’t want to uproot his family.

“At the end of the day, my family is the most important thing in my life,” he said. “To move a daughter who is a junior in high school and starting her senior year and to move a daughter who is 14 and who is a top 15 fencer in the country —a lot of places don't have fencing-I’m pulling her away from an area where she flourishes. It was a family decision for me and it will always be a family decision.”

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