Notre Dame no longer needs to worry about Marcus Freeman heading to the NFL, but as it turns out, ex-Irish staffer Christian Parker just got a massive promotion and will helm the Dallas Cowboys' defense next season.
Parker was with the Irish for one season as a defensive analyst under Brian Kelly in 2017. The next season, he took the same position with the Texas A&M Aggies, then he made the jump to the NFL in 2019 as a staffer with the Green Bay Packers.
The ex-Notre Dame staffer got his first full-time coaching position as the defensive backs coach with the Denver Broncos in 2021 and had that job until 2023. In the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Parker was passing game coordinator & defensive backs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, and earlier this month was hired as the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator.
Christian Parker hired as Cowboys defensive coordinator after Notre Dame stint
With this being Parker's first defensive coordinator gig, it's always hard to tell what kind of a leader he will be. There's also questions as to how much control over his unit the Cowboys will allow him to have.
According to SB Nation's Blogging The Boys, it appears the ex-Notre Dame staffer is being allowed to have full control and do things exactly the way he wants.
RJ Ochoa pointed out that the Cowboys are allowing Parker to entirely staff his assistants. Usually, the club has some coaches it likes and forces them on the next group. This time, all the defensive coaches have been told they need to interview with Parker.
"By definition it is an innocuous thing," Ochoa wrote. "The staffers who report to the defensive coordinator are not guaranteed to hold the jobs that they did with the new coordinator that they did with the old. Acknowledging that people losing their jobs is never a good thing, and that we wish all of these staffers the best of luck in their future endeavors whatever they hold, this is not an innocuous or mundane thing when it comes to the Cowboys."
Notre Dame football fans now have another former member of the Fighting Irish they can root for next season when Christian Parker walks the sidelines.