Notre Dame announced today that Brian Kelly’s first coaching staff and support staff have been finalized. As expected defensive line coach Mike Elston has been named special teams coordinator.
“As I mentioned when Mike was hired, he was instrumental in our special teams success the past few years,” Kelly said in a statement. “We want to force teams to cover us on all facets of special teams and under Mike’s guidance I am looking forward to seeing our special teams in action this season.”
Kelly also named defensive backs coach Chuck Martin his recruiting coordinator. This will be Martin’s first year at the D-I level after an award-winning career as a head coach at Grand Valley State. After joining the Irish as a position coach, I expected more responsibility to be hoisted on Martin’s shoulders. Kelly confirmed that confidence in Martin.
“Chuck and I have a shared philosophy on how to recruit which stems from our similar coaching background and I know he’ll be a dynamic representative of our program when addressing a group of recruits,” Kelly said. “The skills he developed as a head coach will surely help his transition into this role.”
As I mentioned last month, Kelly also confirmed the addition of Jon Carpenter as a defensive graduate assistant coach. Carpenter played for Kelly at Cincinnati and is brothers with former Ohio State linebacker and current Cowboy Bobby Carpenter, as well as the son of former NFL played Rob Carpenter.
Kelly is also adding a second graduate assistant to the defense, Michael Painter. Painter was a staff associate under Kelly at both Cincinnati and Central Michigan. He played collegiately at D-III powerhouse Mount Union in Ohio.
While Kelly doubled up on graduate assistants on the defensive side of the ball, he hired two offensive interns to support the offensive coaching staff.
Scott Booker spent the past five seasons coaching defensive backs at Western Kentucky and Kent State, and was an All-Academic selection as a safety at Kent State. Bill Brechin had an all-conference career at Grand Valley State under then head coach Chuck Martin and spent the past two seasons as a graduate assistant there as well. During Brechin’s years on the roster, GVSU went 40-1 with two national championships.