Will The Notre Dame Football Staff Change In 2016?

Are there any changes coming to the Notre Dame football coaching staff?

Last year around this time, there was a lot of buzz about what possible changes might be made along the Notre Dame football coaching staff. When it was all said and done, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Tony Alford left Notre Dame for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks took off for Norman Oklahoma to help Bob Stoops coach the Sooners.

Another big change happened when Bob Elliot (the outside linebackers coach at the time) took another role at Notre Dame as an analyst working for Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame staff. That role played a very big part in Notre Dame’s success against the triple-option this year as he was tasked to “figure it out and stop it.”

Those changes essentially opened up three spots for new coaches to come to Notre Dame. Those three coaches were Mike Sanford, Todd Lyght, and Autry Denson. The results of which have been a mixed bag of great results (Sanford and Denson) and not so great (Lyght). Now the jury is still out on all three, but it would seem that the mixed bag could turn into just an awesome bag of good by next year.

So, what is on the horizon for the Notre Dame staff this offseason? Well it would appear as if everyone will be back in 2016. Usually these types of moves are done after signing day, but by all accounts it would seem that the staff will remain the same.

This news may come as a bit of a disappointment to those hoping that a certain defensive coordinator would be packing his bags for another school of NFL team. Keep this in mind… Brian Kelly has never fired an assistant coach while at Notre Dame. It just isn’t how he does things, so unless someone is knocking on the door for a coach, Kelly will retain the parts that he has.

With Mike Sanford shooting down any rumor that came along about him possibly taking another job, the staff is equal parts new and old. The new guys are too new to bolt and the old guys seem to be set where they are at the moment. Despite the anti-BVG noise, it is still a really good thing to keep a staff intact moving forward as the redundancy of learning new things gives way to perfecting what is already set in place.

We hope.