Report: Troy hiring Notre Dame OC Gerad Parker as head coach

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker is leaving his position with the Fighting Irish to become the head coach at Troy, according to Pete Thamel.

Parker just completed his second season with the Irish and his first as the Notre Dame offensive coordinator.

Notre Dame ranked No. 30 in total offense at 429 yards per game and No. 8 in scoring offense at 39 points per game this past season.

Gerad Parker is taking over for Greg Gasparato, who was serving as the interim coach for the Trojans. He replaced Jon Sumrall, who left for the Tulane head coaching job.

In addition to Notre Dame, Gerad Parker also has experience as an assistant at Purdue, Duke, Penn State and West Virginia.

Parker becomes the second change on the Notre Dame staff since the regular season ended. Wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey was let go by Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman not long after Notre Dame beat Stanford to close out the regular season.

Freeman will now look for his third offensive coordinator in three seasons as head coach. Former Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees left to be the offensive coordinator at Alabama last offseason.

The Irish are set to face Oregon State in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 29. Troy will face Duke in the Birmingham Bowl this Saturday.

Marcus Freeman explains how he will evaluate Steve Angeli in bowl game

A new offensive coordinator with Gerad Parker leaving isn’t the only change coming to the Notre Dame program.

The Irish are also in search of a new starting quarterback as Sam Hartman is heading to the NFL after one season in South Bend.

One potential replacement for Hartman is sophomore Steve Angeli. Ahead of the Sun Bowl against Oregon State, Marcus Freeman shared how he will try to evaluate Angeli, stating that it will be complicated.

“I think we have to be aware of you are gonna have two tackles out there,” Marcus Freeman said. “You’re gonna have two new running backs in the backfield, Audric [Estime] is not playing. So, we’re understanding of that.”

Notre Dame has been plagued by players opting out ahead of the Sun Bowl. On the offensive side that includes Sam Hartman, Audric Estime, Joe Alt, and Blake Fisher. The Irish also have had several transfers, like Chris Tyree and Rico Flores Jr, as well as a change at wide receivers coach.

As Marcus Freeman explained, that means it’s going to be vital for the coaches to put the players in a position to succeed.

“Our thing is, is more than the evaluation, it’s putting him in a position to try to have success. And that’s our job as coaches is we’ll get to the evaluation after the game. What we want to do is make sure we’re putting Steve in a position to have success as our quarterback as we go into this game.”