Marcus Freeman details growth of Gerad Parker as an offensive coordinator

The season is near for Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish kick off this Saturday versus Navy at Aviva Stadium in Ireland. And they’ll also be breaking in a new offensive coordinator when they travel across the pond in Gerad Parker.

This will be Parker’s third season as a collegiate play-caller and his first with Notre Dame, and with kickoff just a few days away, head coach Marcus Freeman revealed where he’s seen him grow ahead of his Fighting Irish coordinator debut.

“We’ve had a lot of those situations in fall camp where it’s unscripted, and when you have a play caller that’s called plays for many years a lot of times you script those things out,” Freeman said. “But it was something that me and Gerad talked about, in length about, making sure head coach let me have some unscripted periods so I can get used to continuing calling plays.”

Parker’s two prior seasons of offensive coordinator experience came at West Virginia in 2020 and 2021, where he spent two seasons before joining the Notre Dame staff as the tight ends coach in 2022. Former Fighting Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees departed this offseason to become Alabama‘s OC, allowing Parker to be hired within, and ever since then he’s been working at sharpening his craft.

“We even did it in walkthroughs, we’d go walkthroughs and call it. Don’t script it out, call it. And so I think that helps him with what it’s like to really continuously call plays and I’ve been really pleased with the growth of him as a leader,” Freeman said.

Freeman elaborated on Parker’s growth as a leader as well, as the former Kentucky wide receiver has done his part in making sure the culture and identity of his offense has permeated down to his players.

“With him as a leader of a staff, him as a leader of the offense. He’s done a tremendous job, his players truly buy into who he is as a leader,” Freeman said. “That’s to me a reflection of a great leader, when your players start to speak the same language, when your players are acting very similar to the leadership in that offensive room or defensive room. It’s a reflection of leadership so I’m really pleased with what he’s done.”

Parker also inherited Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman this offseason, who’s also been deemed as a strong leader for the Fighting Irish, and hopefully, the duo can make some noise and lead the offense in their first seasons in new roles for Notre Dame.