The Notre Dame coaching carousel isn’t over. And the most recent move takes the Irish’s longest tenured assistant and puts him on the staff of another Midwestern power.
Tony Alford is moving to Ohio State, where he’ll coach running backs and assistant head coach. Alford has been in South Bend for six seasons, hired by Charlie Weis and retained by Brian Kelly.
There has been no official confirmation of the move, though a source early this morning told me it was a “done deal.” Pete Sampson of Irish Illustrated also Tweeted this out, pretty much ending the speculation.
Just spoke with Tony Alford. He will be the next running back coach and assistant head coach at Ohio State.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) February 7, 2015
The loss of Alford stings the most on the recruiting trail. Long respected as one of the best in the business, Alford had great success selling Notre Dame, particularly in the state of Florida. That including reeling in recent pledge Dexter Williams just 72 hours ago, who had this to say this morning after hearing the news about the move:
The move is a victory for Urban Meyer, who had to replace running backs coach Stan Drayton, who took the same job with the Chicago Bears. That led Meyer to Alford -- the third Brian Kelly assistant (joining Ed Warinner and Tim Hinton) taken from South Bend to Columbus.
There are now vacancies at quarterback coach and running back coach on the offensive side of the football for Kelly. Tim Prister of Irish Illustrated reports that Kelly will bring Jeff Quinn into the fold, reuniting with his former offensive coordinator after Quinn was fired as Buffalo’s head coach.
UPDATE: Alford has confirmed the move, talking to Sampson and Irish Illustrated. He’s also apparently already on the recruiting trail for the Buckeyes, changing his Twitter profile.