Notre Dame Football: Harry Hiestand is reportedly returning to the Irish as offensive line coach

Although it still hasn’t been made official, it’s being reported that Harry Hiestand will return as the new offensive line coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Thamel along with many others such as Matt Fortuna and Pete Sampson are reporting that this is going to happen. Over the last few weeks this hire has slowly snowballed into an almost certainty as all signs point in Harry’s direction.

While on the surface this seems like a great hire for Marcus Freeman, it does deserve some massive questions that we won’t have many answers for over the coming months.

• After two years of retirement, is Hiestand ready to come back to the daily grind of college football coaching?
• Harry never liked to recruit, and was never the “go-getter” type that Marcus Freeman has talked about as what’s needed at Notre Dame.
• There are underlying questions of Hiestand being out of touch with the younger generations, and issues of mental and emotional abuse during his last run with the Irish. Were these overblown issues, or has something changed?
• What is the situation with Chris Watt. Many people would like to see Watt return in some type of role to eventually take over for Harry after a few years. Is this really going to happen?

Hiestand certainly provides Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman with some veteran leadership that is likely needed on such a young staff. He’s also the best offensive line coach Notre Dame has had since the days of Joe Moore. A Harry Hiestand offensive line will be coached to the maximum level needed, and help provide the Irish offense with the holes and protection needed to operate efficiently.

Notre Dame still has to figure out what to do with the open positions of WR coach and linebackers coach, but this hire definitely checks a lot of boxes.