Why Nick Lezynski leaving for Vanderbilt was bittersweet for Notre Dame players
Former Notre Dame defensive analyst Nick Lezynski said goodbye the right way, but it still wasn’t easy for some Fighting Irish football players to take. It’s never easy to part ways with such a vital piece of the program.
Lezynski walked on at Notre Dame in 2007. He joined the Irish coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 2018 and spent the 2021 season as a senior defensive analyst for then-defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, who gave Lezynski some elevated roles during Fiesta Bowl prep. Lezynski oversaw Notre Dame special teams and served as the linebackers coach.
Above all, Lezynski excelled on the recruiting trail. Notre Dame’s recent resurgence in recruiting is tied to Freeman, and rightfully so, but Lezynski shined as a longtime behind-the-scenes guru on that front too. So when he told Notre Dame players he had decided to become Vanderbilt’s linebackers coach earlier this month, those he formed tight relationships with during respective recruitments were devastated.
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“It got pretty emotional,” senior cornerback Cam Hart said on the Inside The Garage podcast. “He gave a pretty heartfelt speech. Some people broke out into tears. It was a sad 20 minutes in the Gug while nobody was talking because everybody was pretty emotional.”
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Lezynski was bound to get a big break in coaching sooner than later. It just so happened to come from the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator turned SEC head coach he used to work for. Clark Lea, the Irish’s DC from 2018-20, is going into his second season in charge of the Vandy program. He’s reuniting with one of his understudies in Lezynski.
Irish players — past and present — believe the Commodores are better for it.
“I’ve never seen somebody work harder than him in my life,” said former Irish safety KJ Wallace, who entered the transfer portal last month. “I could see how young guys were probably like, ‘What the heck is going on? I just got here and you’re leaving?’ But honestly, if you ask anyone in the Gug he deserved to leave. He deserved to get promoted.”
“I’m happy for coach Nick, for sure,” added former All-American Irish safety Kyle Hamilton, who is expected to get selected in the top 10 overall picks of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Hart said he’s interested to see if the combination of Lea and Lezynski that worked so well for the Irish for three seasons lifts Vanderbilt to its first winning season since 2013, which was current Penn State head coach James Franklin‘s last year in Nashville.
“They’re a well-oiled machine together,” Hart said.
“I think that now that coach Nick has the title, he’s going to work even harder — which is almost impossible to say,” Notre Dame senior walk-on wide receiver Conor Ratigan said.
Coaches come and go. It’s the nature of college football. While Notre Dame lost an important figure in Lezynski, the Irish could be getting an ace in the hole in former Ohio State All-American linebacker James Laurinaitis. Or maybe one of the new full-time assistants can provide what the Irish lost.
Notre Dame knew it was going to have to retool its coaching staff the moment Brian Kelly left for LSU. All things considered, Freeman and company stabilized the situation rather comfortably.
“Where Notre Dame is now is a miracle to me, honestly, because it could have been bad,” Hamilton said.
