Early wake-up calls, senior leadership, Jerome Bettis: Behind the scenes of the Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game draft
If you walked into the Notre Dame football offices before sunrise on Wednesday, you would have found running backs coach and Gold Team head coach Deland McCullough hard at work. No, this isn’t occurring Oct. 20. This is April 20.
But when the annual Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game looms, you do whatever it takes.
“I was here at 4:30 this morning putting a plan together and thinking about some things,” McCullough said, smiling. “Now I’ll be able to put some faces into those exact spots.”
The head coach for the Blue Team, defensive line coach Al Washington, took a different approach and jokingly threw his opponent under the bus.
“I’ve been working on this for about a week,” Washington said with a laugh. “Some people cram. I plan. We planned for this. No, but I was not in at 4. But we definitely put in some thought. The team met with the staff, and we talked about what we want to do. I felt really good about our plan. Any curveballs that they thought they were throwing, we were prepared for. Now we have to put it on the field.”
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Seniors were not eligible to be drafted — nor was quarterback Drew Pyne, who will throw for both sides on Saturday in Tyler Buchner’s absence — but they were placed on teams prior to Wednesday’s draft. McCullough and Washington did not have a hand in that.
On Wednesday, the older players gathered around a war room-like table inside the Irish Athletic Center with their coaches, assisting with the picks.
“They were great, by the way,” Washington said of his veterans. “Those guys really engaged. It was a lot of fun.”
Adding to the fun was one of the most notable storylines of this spring: former Irish great Jerome Bettis served as the commissioner of Wednesday’s draft. He announced the picks and took a photo with each player, just like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will do next week at the NFL Draft. That has to be pretty cool for the players, and the coaches love it as well.
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“It’s just exciting to have Jerome around,” McCullough said. “He’s a guy I’ve taken a liking to. I’ve always had respect for him without a doubt. But to be at the same university at this moment and then to be up on stage with him, that was fun.”
Fun seemed to be the word of the day, as McCullough characterized the draft in the same manner as Washington.
“I’ve never been a part of something like this,” McCullough said. “It was fun. The energy, just the whole way it was set up. When I came up (to speak at the end), I didn’t have anything (prepared). I just rolled with it, and threw a little bit of flare and WWE into it.”
But don’t mistake the jovial emotions radiating through the IAC on Wednesday the wrong way. Competition has been a point of emphasis this spring under new head coach Marcus Freeman’s leadership, and the expectation is that will bleed into Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We’re taking it seriously,” McCullough said. “We are going to have fun with it, but I’m trying to put together a real plan and put our guys in a position to be successful.”
McCullough is obviously an offensive-minded coach, but he will have defensive coordinator Al Golden on his sideline to assist with the defense on Saturday. Similarly, Washington will have offensive coordinator Tommy Rees at his disposal. The other assistants are split up “evenly” amongst the coaches. For example, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand will help Washington, while cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens will assist with McCullough’s team.
