Charlie Weis announced some further re-organization of his coaching staff as reported by the South Bend Tribune.
Corwin Brown, defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach; Brian Polian, inside linebackers/special teams coach; Bernie Parmalee, tight ends/special teams coach; Tim McDonnell, director of football personnel; Dave Peloquin, director of football development; Nick Mainieri, coordinator of quality control; Patrick Graham, graduate assistant/defense; Kevin Loney, intern/offense.
It had been unclear what, if any, position Brown would assume control of on top of his defensive coordinator duties until today. Personally, I like that he will be in charge of the outside linebackers considering the lack of a pass rush Notre Dame has generated over the last couple of years. His knowledge of the 3-4 defense also makes the decision to place him in charge of the outside linebackers makes a lot of sense.
From the looks of these changes, it seems Polian’s role has been reduced. He was in charge of special teams last year, but it looks like Parmalee is going to have a larger role this year. He also is only in charge of the inside linebackers which should allow him to focus time on improving the Notre Dame special teams. The special teams were below average at best last year and would have been horrid had it not been for the great punting of Geoff Price and the decent punt returning from Zbikowski.
Brown was an excellent special teams coach while at UVA and will hopefully pass some of that knowledge onto Polian. Special teams are one area where you can make the quickest improvements – let’s hope that is true for Notre Dame in 2008.
