Quick-hitters: Jack Swarbrick discusses offensive coordinator hire, NIL, realignment and more

A chance for the public to ask Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick about the happenings in his department generated no shortage of interest. About 90 questions were submitted for Swarbrick’s live chat with university relations Thursday.

Not all of them were related to the Irish’s recently concluded offensive coordinator search, which Swarbrick addressed in an email one week earlier. That is, though, still the No. 1 contentious topic among Irish fans these days.

Marcus Freeman attempted Monday to set the record straight on the dizzying (publicly, at least) attempt to hire Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig that ultimately failed and led to tight ends coach Gerad Parker’s elevation. Freeman dismissed the idea Notre Dame wouldn’t pay a buyout to hire Ludwig, confirming what Swarbrick said in his email. But one side of the story is not going to make everyone believe one version of events.

Swarbrick and VP of university relations Lou Nanni went right into that same topic to start Thursday’s discussion. They touched on other topics, too, though. Here are some highlights from the 30-minute chat, in which Nanni asked a few questions of his own and selected a few of the submissions.

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On the offensive coordinator search and hiring Gerad Parker

“I certainly understand the passion that surrounded perceptions of the process. That’s what drives Notre Dame athletics. It never bothers me. I embrace that. The hardest job an athletic director can have is to try and generate passion for a program.

“I thought Marcus did a great job in his comments trying to address the misinformation and the issues that had come out. He ran a great process and screened three candidates. I love where we ended up. That’s not to say the other two weren’t highly qualified and would not have been good fits at Notre Dame. That’s not the case. As he said in his press conference, they made a decision for personal reasons. We honor that and have no issue with that.”

“That this took us to Coach Parker is, for many of us, a great result. He understands the program. It results in us being able to move forward with the same terminology, which is really big in terms of implementing game plans, offensive and defensive schemes. He understands the personnel. He’s so well liked and so well regarded in the building. He has a great relationship with Marcus. All of that gives us an opportunity to look back on this process, his selection and feel great about it.”

On the FUND collective helping Notre Dame in NIL

“A hallmark of this has been our ability to work closely with Brady Quinn. Brady’s creation of what is referred to as the FUND — Friends of the University of Notre Dame — we will never be able to thank Brady enough for what he has done out of the goodness of his heart and his concern for Notre Dame to build this FUND, or collective in the regular parlance, that fits with what Notre Dame wants to do.

“It wants to see an entity like this collect resources to make opportunities available to our student-athletes, but real opportunities. In this case, they’re opportunities to be involved in promoting and marketing charitable enterprises that could never do that otherwise. They can’t advertise and don’t have the resources. This connection gets made. Our student-athletes engaged with those entities, the FUND makes a payment available to them for that service.”

On how Notre Dame is trying to handle NIL within its image

“It starts with trying to make sure it extends to as many interested student-athletes as possible. At this point, about 40 percent of our student-athletes — that’s about 725 students, so 40 percent of that total — have engaged in NIL activity. Some student-athletes don’t have an interest in it. They’re so pressed for time that when we bring an opportunity or refer them to someone, they’ll sometimes say, ‘No thanks. I don’t want to do that.’

“What we want to do is ensure they’re true transactions and not pay for play. We just don’t want to go there. We don’t need to go there. True transactions in which the student-athlete engages in something, lends their name, lends their image, but importantly, lends their ideas and intellectual firepower.

“Some of our most interesting [NIL] opportunities right now surround the launching of businesses where a young person has an idea of patentable technology or a new company, and we have a way to help them develop that as well as deciding to do a photoshoot for someone.”

On conference realignment and Notre Dame’s independence

“There’s a lot of attention on the Pac-12’s media rights discussion and a lot of speculation that if that doesn’t go well, there may be another phase of realignment here, perhaps with some Pac-12 schools moving elsewhere. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it’s a very hot topic right now. There’s a lot of speculation surrounding it.

“I’ve never felt better about our independent status — both its value to the university and our ability to maintain it. The expansion of the College Football Playoff, a 12-team playoff with six at-large positions, gives us a fair opportunity to get into the postseason. The opportunity to have a committed broadcast partner gives us an opportunity to be independent.

“Finally, it’s a question of whether we can build the schedules we need to build. That has never been an issue and it’s not now. I’ve yet to place a phone call to a colleague and ask if they were interested in playing and they didn’t say yes.

“We have all the ingredients. It’s a great time to be independent, and we’ll take advantage of it.”

On the men’s basketball coaching search

“I’m in the middle of it right now. It’s a little challenging to be engaged in a search during the season. I’m careful not to be distracting other coaches. I’m talking to agents principally or friends of these coaches we have an interest in. It takes a little more time when you’re doing it in this window, but we’ve made great progress.

“We can absolutely attract a great coach. I think our practice facility is the best in the country. We have a perfect arena. The ACC is a great basketball conference, and a conference with some potential opportunity as Coach K has moved on, Coach [Roy] Williams and some other coaches in that conference. I think there’s a chance to build your position in the ACC. And of course, the school represents everything a lot of coaches are looking for.”