Notre Dame football makes historic shifts to recruiting staff
The Notre Dame football program isn’t just making positive changes on the field. Marcus Freeman is also making some great changes behind the scenes. And the best news is that the changes he’s spearheading will almost certainly impact wins and losses in the near future.
FootballScoop was the first to report Notre Dame athletics leadership and program general manager Chad Bowden just promoted Zaire Turner to the top-level role of director of player personnel.
That wasn’t the only change made on Tuesday; Notre Dame football also elevated Olivia Mitchell to the role of assistant athletics director for football operations, while communications ace Katy Lonergan, already an associate athletics director for strategic and football communications, has been officially promoted to advisor to the head football coach.
Notre Dame football makes historic shifts to football staff
The Irish are setting some serious history here as Turner joins just hired Baylor personnel executive Callie Cameron to be among the first-ever female directors of player personnel in college football. Not just FBS but at any level.
It makes sense that Freeman would be at the forefront of this kind of move. The Irish coach made it clear earlier this year that he thinks this kind of move is important for all involved.
“I think it’s important for men but also women to see women in football,” Freeman previously told John Brice of Football Scoop. “I want my daughters to see women working in football and to say, ‘That could be me’ if they want it to be.”
But wait … there’s more. The final piece of the shuffle by the Irish on Tuesday was prying Caleb Davis away from Gerad Parker's Troy program to come back to South Bend and serve as Notre Dame's director of recruiting.
Davis was Freeman's second hire when the now-head coach arrived in South Bend, as the team’s defensive coordinator in early 2021. Davis previously worked with Freeman and Bowden in the recruiting office at Cincinnati.
However, he left ND when Parker was hired as the head coach at Troy this offseason. It was perhaps Davis’ loss that hurt more than Parker’s when you consider the Notre Dame football team was able to upgrade at offensive coordinator thanks to luring Mike Denbrock back.
The Notre Dame football team’s Tuesday shuffle of its recruiting and front office was the biggest shift since Marcus Freeman first took over the program, and it shows that his vision is starting to take shape.