Max Bullough gives humble response to Mike Vrabel praise

Recently, Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel praised Notre Dame assistant coach Mike Bullough, calling him one of the smartest players he’d ever coached.

As Bullough’s linebackers coach and defensive coordinator with the Houston Texans, Vrabel knows him well. Interestingly, despite this praise, Bullough wanted to prove that he could succeed outside of football but quickly ended up returning to the game.

“Everyone always said I should coach when I was done playing,” Max Bullough said. “At the time, I thought I could do anything I wanted, so I said I’m gonna prove to you I can do something outside of football, but I tried that for about six months. Nothing really, and I was back in coaching high school.”

In February, Notre Dame hired Max Bullough as an assistant coach working with the linebackers. He had previously been working as an analyst for Alabama. He was brought in, largely, to replace James Laurinaitis, who left for Ohio State, his alma mater.

Bullough played his college football at Michigan State, where he was a defensive captain during the Mark Dantonio era. He entered the NFL in 2014 as an undrafted free agent who landed with the Houston Texans. Bullough would spend three seasons there before moving on to the Cleveland Browns briefly in 2018.

By 2019, Max Bullough was a graduate assistant at Cincinnati, before moving on to Alabama and later Notre Dame. While with Alabama, he was a part of the 2020 national championship team.

Max Bullough says the Notre Dame job was a no-brainer

It was a big decision to make the jump from Alabama to Notre Dame, but for Max Bullough, it was a no-brainer.

“A lot of people don’t know I grew up a Notre Dame fan. My dad’s family went to Michigan State. But, my mom went to Notre Dame. My grandfather played here and has been a donor here for a while. My uncle played here. Notre Dame has been a part of my history my whole life,” Bullough said.

“I grew up going to Michigan State Games once a year and Notre Dame games once a year, so this place has been something special to me for a long time. When Coach [Marcus] Freeman gave me the call, it was a no-brainer for me.”

Already, Max Bullough has found that he loves the culture at Notre Dame.

“It’s the kids. It’s the players,” Bullough said. “It’s the quality of the people, both the staff and the players. I mean, it’s the difference between we got to go: ‘Alright, that’s enough, like pull it back a little bit.’ [Compared to] ‘We got to hammer this down a little bit.’ To me, that’s the biggest difference.”