Make no mistake about it, this means war.
Urban Meyer has always held a peculiar place in Irish fans’ hearts. He’s spurned them, leaving Monk Malloy and the school jet empty when he turned down his “dream job” at Notre Dame to head to Gainesville instead. He’s poached from them, with he and former henchman Greg Mattison using knowledge of Notre Dame and its “peculiarities” against Charlie Weis and his staff when he flipped recruits from South Bend to North Florida. He’s even worked his way back into their favor, speaking at Brian Kelly’s coaching clinic last offseason, and saying flattering things about the program, it’s new head coach, and the way Kelly’s staff does business. During the year Meyer spent with his family (and working for ESPN) after walking away from Florida, he found his way back to Notre Dame, where he famously once worked as an assistant coach, and finally patched up some wounds left behind from the past decade of putting a stick in the collective eye of ND Nation.
It was fun while it lasted.
Last week, Brian Kelly happily stated that all the coaches working at the Champs Sports Bowl would be back for the Irish next year. This morning, Kelly and the football program announced sweeping changes to the coaching staff, likely the result of Meyer relentlessly getting what he wanted, and poaching not one but most likely two coaches from the Irish staff.
The move of Chuck Martin to offensive coordinator should obviously be the headline from today’s release. That Martin will move from directing the secondary to the offense is an unconventional move at the major college level, but makes sense for the Irish. The former Grand Valley State head coach directed the offense for the Lakers for six years, just as his predecessor and current boss did at Grand Valley.
Other changes to the existing staff include Bob Diaco adding the title of assistant head coach, Kerry Cooks being promoted to co-defensive coordinator, Scott Booker being promoted from intern to full-time assistant coach, with contract extensions given to Martin, Diaco, Cooks, Tony Alford, Mike Denbrock, and Mike Elston.
The changes, other than Martin’s shift across the ball, are common this time of year. Losing two assistants -- especially a week after the head coach publicly stated both would be back -- is not. The official release says that both running backs coach Tim Hinton and offense line coach Ed Warinner “left the program to pursue other opportunities.” But Hinton left to join Meyer in Columbus, Ohio after awkwardly pledging allegiance to Notre Dame less than two weeks ago.
“I’m coaching at Notre Dame. That’s where we are and the bottom line is that I’m going to coach at Notre Dame as long as I can. I love Notre Dame,” Hinton said, with the politcal savvy of a guy running for office, not coaching running backs. “I’ve got one thing to do: I’m going to coach Cierre Wood, I’m going to coach Theo Riddick, and I’m going to coach George and Cam... That’s the bottom line. We’re coaching the heck out of it. Do I want to be at Notre Dame? Absolutely. This is a great place.”
Hinton’s an Ohio native, who spent time with Meyer at Ohio State when Hinton was a graduate assistant and Meyer was also working his way up the coaching ladder. Whether it’s a rumored pension he’s almost qualified for in the state of Ohio or just the siren song of the Buckeyes, the timing and non-denial denial Hinton gave while working his way out the door don’t reflect highly on a coach that did great work with running backs Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood.
The true surprise is the loss of Warinner, who’s name came out of nowhere. Warinner seemed like the logical choice to replace Charley Molnar, but Kelly went with familiarity and chose Martin, who has known Kelly and his offense for more than a decade, while Warinner was the only coach without a connection to the program when he came to South Bend from Kansas. Multiple media sources are reporting that Warinner is also joining Meyer’s Ohio State staff, which would also be a homecoming for the Strasburg, Ohio native that graduated from Mount Union and spent time coaching at Akron as well.
The Irish haven’t assigned Booker to a position group and now will hire one more full-time assistant to a job that’s likely still to be determined. More importantly, the Irish coaching staff will wait until the NCAA required quiet period ends tomorrow to reach back out and retain recruits, most likely offensive tackle Taylor Decker, who was recruited by both Ed Warinner and Tim Hinton.
In a time where the calendar is usually only crazy with recruiting hijinks, Brian Kelly learned a lesson that Irish fans have known all too well: Watch out for Urban Meyer.