Report: Notre Dame's Lance Taylor emerges as frontrunner for ACC coordinator position

New Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman lost his defensive line coach to Michigan earlier this week, and now he might be at risk of losing another position coach.

According to a report from Football Scoop, Notre Dame running backs coach Lance Taylor has become a top candidate to become the offensive coordinator at Louisville. Taylor has been with the Irish since 2019.

In 2021, Taylor coached one of the best running backs in recent memory in South Bend. Junior Kyren Williams entered the season as a Heisman contender, and he posted his second consecutive season with at least 1,000 rushing yards. He is not returning to Notre Dame next year, as he is headed to the NFL Draft as a surefire Day 2 pick. Taylor also helped develop true freshman back Logan Diggs, who ended up as Notre Dame’s No. 2 rusher in 2021.

Due a young and shaky offensive line to start the 2021 season, the Irish run game struggled early. They ultimately ended up averaging 143.8 yards per game, as Taylor and former offensive line coach Jeff Quinn had the units meshing down the stretch.

Taylor boasts impressive history

From 2014-16, the position coach was the running backs coach at Stanford, where he was responsible for coaching former Stanford stars Bryce Love and Christian McCaffrey. In 2016, Stanford averaged 223.7 yards per game on the ground.

Taylor is a very versatile offensive mind, as he coached wide receivers for the Carolina Panthers from 2017-18, and he was an assistant tight ends coach for the New York Jets in 2012. Taylor began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Alabama, where he played college football as a receiver from 2000-03.

Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield used an offensive-coordinator-by-committee model in 2021 after his former offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford headed to the Atlanta Falcons to coach their offensive line this season. Louisville finished 6-7 in Satterfield’s third season in with the Cardinals.

If Taylor left for Louisville, he would inherit one of the more explosive dual-threat quarterbacks in college football. Malik Cunningham is returning to school for another year after throwing for 2,941 yards and 19 touchdowns plus 2,031 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground last season.