Notre Dame hires highly coveted Group of Five special teams coordinator

The Cincinnati to Notre Dame pipeline continues.

On Wednesday, Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports reported new Irish head coach Marcus Freeman turned to his former coaching spot to land a new special teams coordinator. Brian Mason will head to South Bend in his same capacity after four years in the role at Cincinnati.

Mason’s unit contributed substantially to Cincinnati’s historic season, one in which they went 13-1 and earned the Group of Five’s first berth in the College Football Playoff. The Bearcats blocked six kicks this year, which is currently tied for first in the nation with just one game left to play in college football. They averaged 10.7 yards per punt return (29th nationally) and 23.82 yards per kickoff return (28th nationally).

In addition to his special teams role, Mason served at the Bearcats director of recruiting for a year in 2017. The 35-year-old from Indiana was also a graduate assistant at three FBS schools: Ohio State, Purdue and Kent State. Mason played running back at Denison from 2005-2006 and served as a student assistant after an injury ended his career on the field.

Freeman’s hire is replacing Brian Polian, who followed Brian Kelly to LSU. Notre Dame has yet to hire a new defensive coordinator, and they are also seeking a new wide receivers coach and offensive line coach.

Irish hire Laurinaitis

Mason is not the only hire Notre Dame has made this week. On Monday, Freeman announced he would bring on good friend and former teammate James Laurinaitis as part of his support staff.

“With your best friend getting the head-coaching job, it’s a pretty unique situation and a pretty awesome opportunity to get up there and get started in the profession,” Laurinaitis said, per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.

He has been an analyst with the Big Ten Network since 2017 and the co-host for a Columbus radio show.

The 2007 Butkus Award winner played for St. Louis Rams and the New Orleans Saints before retiring in 2017. 

Freeman and Laurinaitis were teammates at Ohio State and continued their professional paths together; both went in the 2009 NFL Draft. The two will be back in Columbus to open the 2022 season against Ohio State on Sept. 3.

While at Ohio State, Laurinaitis averaged 52 solo tackles a season for three years. He also had 13 total sacks over those three seasons and nine interceptions.

On3’s Nikki Chavanelle contributed to this report.