Key Notre Dame football staffer reportedly departs for Big Ten

The Notre Dame football team has largely been nothing but positivity the last couple of days. However, there was a bit of a wrinkle on Monday. The program lost what could be a very important staffer, especially when talking about the next few years.

After just about one year in his current position with Notre Dame football, Butler Benton is departing South Bend for UCLA. Benton has been an assistant Athletic Director and will be changing his role to General Manager with the Bruins, according to FootballScoop.

One reason that the loss of Benton could be damaging is that his focus with the Notre Dame football team was on the transfer portal. He’s said to have been instrumental in bringing Riley Leonard aboard. He also obviously had a hand in other transfer players such as Kris Mitchell and RJ Oben.

It’s clear that one of the big reasons that Benton has jumped from the Notre Dame football team to UCLA is that he’ll have his role expand.

Notre Dame football staffer makes the jump to UCLA

At UCLA, he takes on a key role as the Bruins are looking to move to a more national approach in recruiting as they transition to a member of the Big Ten under DeShaun Foster.

As the GM of the Bruins the forme Irish staffer will be responsible for all evaluations, scouting, recruiting, portal and management of NIL to go along with some fundraising responsibilities, according to the report of his jump to the new school.

Benton seems well suited for his new position as he has experience in the Big Ten serving as the player personnel coordinator for Mark Dantonio. 

Before joining the Notre Dame football program he also served as a general manager for Arkansas under Sam Pittman and was director of player personnel at Georgia Southern before that.