Notre Dame Loses Football Coach
Notre Dame lost a football coach this week.
The Fighting Irish will take on Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl in a few weeks, but they will be doing so without offensive coordinator Chip Long.
Word of Long being on his way out first emerged early last week.
The nature of Long’s departure was unclear, but Brian Kelly came out and confirmed it once and for all on Saturday.
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly at his press conference after the team’s first bowl practice:
“As you probably know, the worst kept secret here at Notre Dame is that I made a change on the staff on the offensive side of the ball.”
— BlueandGold.com (@BGInews) December 14, 2019
“As you probably know,” he said.
“The worst kept secret here at Notre Dame is that I made a change on the staff on the offensive side of the ball.”
Prior to coaching at Notre Dame Long served as an offensive coordinator for Mike Norvell in Memphis.
Some wondered if this move meant that Long was heading to Florida State to rejoin Norvell, but Florida State just hired Auburn’s Kelly Dillingham to be its next offensive coordinator.
Long also previously worked at Arizona State, Illinois, Arkansas and Louisville.
It is unclear where Long will go from here.
Kelly made it a point during his press conference to say that he would not take over play calling responsibilities on offense.
“I will not call plays,” he said.
“That’s not my role. I’ve moved past that role. I will certainly be more involved with the offense.”
Instead Lance Taylor will handle the run-game responsibilities and Tommy Rees will handle the pass-game responsibilities.
Presumably one of them will call the plays.
The big question now is what Long’s departure means for Kelly. Is it an indication that he too is leaving after this year? Or is it a sign that Kelly will clean up shop, regroup and come back stronger next season?
There has been a lot of speculation that Kelly is also on his way out, except in his case to the NFL. It will be interesting to see if that does in fact end up happening.
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Michael Kyaw, initially a PR Manager, built up a valuable network of connections in the sports world that he then utilized to become an influential sports business reporter. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, Fansided, ESPN and the Wall Street Journal.
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