Notre Dame makes offensive line coach hire official

Notre Dame finally announced what has been unofficially official for weeks now on Monday morning. Marcus Freeman has hired Harry Hiestand as his new offensive line coach. It’s a reunion for Hiestand and the Notre Dame program.

He previously served in that role from 2012-17. He left to join the Chicago Bears in 2018 as the offensive line coach, but was let go following the 2019 season. Hiestand has been out of coaching since then.

“Harry built the standard of excellence for the Notre Dame offensive line and we are excited to have him back in our program,” Freeman said in the program’s news release. ”Our focus is on player development and pushing our players to reach their full potential and that is where Harry excels.”

Heistand replaces Jeff Quinn, who held the job for the last four seasons and was Hiestand’s replacement. Quinn was not retained amid the Brian Kelly to Marcus Freeman head coaching transition.

Current and former Irish players credit Hiestand as instrumental in establishing standards on the offensive line, a position of longtime pride for Notre Dame that had declined in the 2000s. It has returned to a pipeline to the NFL over the last dozen years, with nine offensive line draft picks since 2014.

Hiestand back for more with the Irish

While at Notre Dame in his first stint, Harry Hiestand helped develop multiple NFL draft picks. The list includes Quenton Nelson, Mike McGlinchey, Zack Martin and Ronnie Staley.

He has more than 30 years of college coaching experience, getting his start with Penn in 1986. Hiestand also worked at Cincinnati, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee.

Hiestand is another high-profile hire for Freeman’s first staff at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish landed Brian Mason as special teams coordinator after he spent four years at Cincinnati. One of Freeman’s former teammates, James Laurinaitis, is also heading to South Bend to join his good friend.

The Fighting Irish went 11-2 this season and lost to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.