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Notre Dame football makes hiring of Mike Martin as general manager official

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•02/27/25•

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Notre Dame football general manager Mike Martin. (Photo courtesy of Notre Dame athletics)

It’s official. Notre Dame has a new football program general manager. It’s Mike Martin, formerly the director of scouting advancement for the Detroit Lions.

The university made the hiring of Martin official in a press release Thursday evening.

“Mike Martin is an innovative, forward-thinking, organized leader, who is also elite at talent evaluation,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said in a statement. “He is a great communicator and has valuable experience in roster building and management, as he was a vital piece of enhancing and developing the Detroit Lions’ roster over the last few years. Additionally, his expertise in utilizing sports science and analytics will help us continue to elevate our program.”

What to know about Martin

• Martin’s job in Detroit was to work with personnel staffers from colleges and other professional teams to “enhance the scouting and roster-building process.” He’ll be asked to perform similar tasks at Notre Dame. The goal for the Irish in hiring Martin is to allow what he did to make the Lions better to also lend itself to improvement at the college level. Martin was a big part of three winning seasons in a row for the Lions from 2022-24.

• Martin’s first taste of working for a professional football team came as an intern with the Tennessee Titans in 2002. He graduated from college the same year. He took a job as a pro personnel assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003. The Bucs elevated him to the title of pro scout in 2004.

• Martin’s longest stint in one place was in Houston. He worked for the Texans for 11 seasons, holding titles ranging from college scout (2007-14) to national scout (2015-16) and assistant director of college scouting (2017). He was the southwest area scout for the Carolina Panthers from 2018-20.

• Current Notre Dame director of scouting Matt Jansen worked for the Houston Texans on three different occasions, beginning as an intern in 2008, then as a college scouting assistant from 2011-13 and finally as a college scouting coordinator from 2015-18. All three stints overlapped with Martin’s lengthy one in the Lone Star State. So while this will be Martin’s first official college gig, he’ll have at least one familiar face to work with in Notre Dame’s facility.

• A cum laude graduate in human and organizational developmental studies from Vanderbilt, Martin played defensive back and was a special teamer for the Commodores from 1999 to 2002. He was a finalist for Male SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year as a senior. He made his way to Nashville as a 5-10, 180-pound corner out of Tampa (Fla.). Jesuit.

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