After an “eventful” offseason for Notre Dame football’s coaching staff, it’s looking like we finally know who’ll be leading the Irish during the 2023-24 season. Through the chaos of it all we’ve learned a decent bit about the staff but there’s still a lot to be pulled together.

Home Towns

The Irish’s 2023-24 staff has a major Midwestern influence. Half of the staff claims the Buckeye State as their home state and 2 (33%) hail from Kentucky (it’s controversial or whatever but I’ll always group it with the Midwest). Al Washington (Defensive Line), Deland McCullough (Running Backs), and Mike Mickens (Cornerbacks) make up the staff’s Ohio delegation. High profile newcomers Gerad Parker (Offensive Coordinator) and Gino Guidugli (Quarterbacks) both hail from Kentucky. Chris O’Leary (Defensive Backs/Safeties) lays claim to Indiana and rounds out the 2023-24 staff’s Midwestern group.

All of the staff hail from East of the Mississippi River, with those outside of the Midwest identifying their home states as Georgia and New Jersey. Georgia’s Chansi Stuckey (Wide Receivers) is the group’s Southern representative and New Jersey’s Al Golden (Defensive Coordinator brings the East Coast flavor.

Undergrad Universities

The 2023-24 staff hails from a range of undergrad universities but Cincinnati is the outlier. Two of the six coaches, Mike Mickens (Cornerbacks) and Gino Guidugli (Quarterbacks) did their undergrad time at Cincinnati.

Current ACC schools are also well represented. Al Washington (Defensive Line) spent his college playing career at Boston College and Chansi Stuckey (Wide Receivers) spent his at Clemson. Miami (Ohio), Kentucky, Penn State and Indiana State all contributed one coach a piece to Notre Dame football’s 2023-24 coaching staff.

All of the staff played three seasons in college, with the exception of Gerad Parker (Offensive Coordinator) who did four at Kentucky. The oldest staff member, in terms of their first year playing college football, is Al Golden (Defensive Coordinator). Golden’s first year playing in undergrad was 1998, compared with Chris O’Leary (the staff’s youngest member) when began playing in 2011.

Quarterback’s coach Gino Guidugli, Running Back’s coach Deland McCullough and Wide Receiver’s coach Chansi Stuckey possess the bulk of the staff’s professional football playing experience. Guidugli played five total seasons across the Tennessee Titans (NFL) and several CFL/AFL/AFL2 franchises.

McCullough played four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs (including the 2019 Super Bowl Championship). Stuckey played three seasons with the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals. Al Golden spent one season with the New England Patriots and Mike Mickens spent short stints with a few NFL franchises and one CFL franchise.

Final Thoughts

Putting together the 2023-24 staff involved a ton of sausage making and I’m sure that most of the fan base realized this year that we really don’t want that much visibility into these affairs. We just want to be able to go into the first game trusting that the program is helmed by a staff that can take us far. As we prep for the August 26 kickoff against Navy in Dublin, there’s undoubtedly a lot more we’ll learn about the staff and the product they’re putting together.

For now, we know there’s a strong hint of Midwestern up brining as well as Cincinnati and ACC college playing influences. In addition, the staff is characterized by a pretty wide age range and professional playing experience at the key position coach roles of Quarterback, Running Back and Wide Receiver. Stay tuned as we dig deeper into the staffing analysis.

Cheers and Go Irish!!