Gerad Parker explains how his well-rounded experience has helped him grow as a coach

Gerad Parker has coached many positions from running backs to receivers to tight ends. Now, he feels that experience has prepared him well as he gets set to lead an entire offense.

Parker was the tight ends coach at Notre Dame this past season but received a promotion to offensive coordinator this offseason. He got his start in coaching in 2007 as a graduate assistant at Kentucky before later spending three seasons at UT-Martin, coaching both running backs and receivers.

In a press conference from earlier this week, Parker gave credit to those early stops in shaping him as a coach and teaching him how to work with multiple positions.

“I think to plug a guy that’s been one of my biggest mentors in the profession is Randy Sanders,” he said. “Randy Sanders is the quarterbacks coach at the University of Kentucky at the time. Joker Phillips was the coordinator. I saw two guys that were pros function that way in my first job as a GA. It was phenomenal to see them do it and do it at a very high level. So Randy helps get me the job with Jason Simpson at UT-Martin. I coached running backs.

“I was scared to death. I had no clue. I was a wideouts guy who had just got done (as a graduate assistant) with offensive line. So to go do something that you really felt, ‘wow,’ was a big step for me and taught me a lesson in being prepared and taking steps. I think coaching the running backs in my first job then moving to wide receivers then being allowed to do things I wasn’t prepared to do allowed you to develop this huge scope of things in how to teach and learn ball. Develop some things of what you want to do or not want to do. That drove me.”

From there, Gerad Parker went on to coach at Marshall, Purdue, Duke and Penn State in a variety of roles. He later took over as the offensive coordinator at West Virginia in 2020. His first season in Morgantown saw the Mountaineers increase their yards per game by 90 and their scoring average by nearly seven. He was crucial in the development of receivers Winston Wright and Bryce Ford-Wheaton.

This past season at Notre Dame, Parker worked closely with tight end Michael Mayer, a projected first-round pick. Mayer led the Fighting Irish with 67 catches for 809 yards and nine touchdowns. Now he’ll look to develop the next star for a Notre Dame offense, with new faces such as Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman and Virginia Tech transfer receiver Kaleb Smith.

“I think the coaching love or desire to help guys get better was pushed well before,” Parker said. “My dad said at 12 years old, ‘Whatever camps you want to go to, son, you raise half the money and I’ll pay the other half.’ So I started teaching ball handling drills when I was 12 years old in our backyard. I started coaching at 12 and didn’t even know it. I just needed the money. Then as it goes my career wasn’t even as good as coach (Marcus) Freeman’s in college. So I may be a much better football coach than player.

“But I learned what it took for me to make my career work and coach and teach. Find different ways to get it to guys in multiple different places. Coach different positions. That helped me get to this point and I love it.”