Harry Hiestand reportedly returning to Notre Dame as offensive line coach

Harry Hiestand departed Notre Dame’s staff in 2017. In a way, though, he never left the program. He was there in spirit because of the standard he helped create. He stayed around South Bend. He was a resource for players, particularly those who were training for the NFL Draft.

And now, he’s back in a full-time capacity.

Notre Dame is in the final stages of hiring Hiestand as its offensive line coach, according to reports from Yahoo! Sports and The Athletic, bringing him back for his second stint in the job. It has been an expected development for several weeks. He previously served in that role from 2012-17. He left to join the Chicago Bears in 2018 as the offensive line coach, but was let go following the 2019 season. He has been out of coaching since then.

Heistand replaces Jeff Quinn, who held the job for the last four seasons and was Hiestand’s replacement. Quinn was not retained amid the Brian Kelly to Marcus Freeman head coaching transition.

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Current and former Irish players credit Hiestand as instrumental in establishing standards on the offensive line, a position of longtime pride for Notre Dame that had declined in the 2000s. It has returned to a pipeline to the NFL over the last dozen years, with nine offensive line draft picks since 2014.

Hiestand recruited and coached many of them, including three-year starting tackle and 2021 Tampa Bay Buccaneers third-round pick Robert Hainsey.

“I owe a ton to Coach Hiestand and how he coached me that first year,” Hainsey said last year. “That’s the time in a young player’s career when he has the most to learn and is the most moldable. In that short year, I learned more from him about football than I did in my whole life.

“The type of man to be, the type of Notre Dame person to be, the way to carry myself on and off the field, to have respect and respect others — just valuable life lessons I’ll never forget from Coach Hiestand.”

Four-year starting tackle and guard Tommy Kraemer, who overlapped with Heistand for two years, offered similar praise before his pro day last year.

“Coach Hiestand has done a phenomenal job recruiting really good players and he has instilled great technique in us,” Kraemer said. “The thing that’s most important is he taught us to be men — to show up early, be on time and always do the best you can. That’s something the guys we have here now have done a great job here picking up on.”

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Hiestand will inherit an offensive line that put a rough first five weeks behind it and turned into a reliable unit by season’s end, though a bumpy Fiesta Bowl outing put a damper on it. Four of its five starters have eligibility for 2022, with right guard Cain Madden the only one whose clock has run out. The Irish are awaiting an NFL Draft decision from center Jarrett Patterson. Right tackle Josh Lugg said he is coming back for a sixth season. They have started a combined 54 games.

Notre Dame has two intriguing freshmen in Joe Alt and Blake Fisher, who could be the bookend tackles for at least the next two seasons. Alt started the last eight games at left tackle. Fisher was the opening-day starter there before injuring his meniscus two quarters into the season.

Elsewhere, Notre Dame returns a six-game starter left guard in junior Andrew Kristofic. Junior Zeke Correll has started eight games, two at center in 2020 and six at guard in 2021, before Kristofic took his spot. The Irish signed seven four- or five-star offensive linemen in the 2021 and 2022 recruiting classes, with Fisher and 2021 top-100 recruit Rocco Spindler among them.