Reports: Notre Dame expected to hire Ole Miss’ Marty Biagi as special teams coordinator
A Notre Dame coach has left to take an SEC job each of the last two hiring cycles. The Irish, it turns out, are attempting to pry one from the SEC themselves.
Notre Dame is expected to hire Ole Miss special teams coordinator Marty Biagi to the same position, according to a report from The Athletic. He will be in South Bend on Monday for a formal interview that should complete the move, per an ESPN report.
Biagi replaces Brian Mason, who left just one day earlier to take the same job with the Indianapolis Colts. His expected return to Notre Dame will be his second stint on staff, seven years after a one-season run as a special teams analyst in 2016. The standards for him are lofty, thanks to Mason’s impact in just one season on staff.
The Irish were No. 6 in the FEI special teams ranking last year, their highest finish since the metric’s 2007 creation. They tied for the national lead in blocked kicks, with seven, and led the country in average starting field position. It all made Mason arguably Notre Dame’s best assistant coach and the choice for Football Scoop’s 2022 Special Teams Coordinator of the Year. It also put him on the NFL radar and led him to a job in his hometown.
Biagi, though, brings a résumé with extensive special teams experience and was connected to LSU’s special teams opening earlier this year. He’s a two-time finalist for Football Scoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year, first in 2014 at FCS program Southern and then once during his 2017-19 stint at North Texas. He spent 2020-21 as Purdue’s special teams coordinator. He was South Dakota’s cornerbacks coach in 2015 and spent 2012-14 at Southern. He began his coaching career in 2011 as Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s co-defensive coordinator.
Ole Miss’ special teams were No. 99 in the FEI in Biagi’s lone season on staff. Purdue was No. 103 in 2021 and No. 114 in 2020. The 2021 Boilermakers had kicker Mitchell Fineran, whose 24 field goals tied for third in the FBS. Biagi landed him as a grad transfer from Samford.
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Biagi’s best work was at North Texas. The Mean Green’s special teams twice finished inside the top 35 in the FEI, including No. 18 in 2017. They blocked 10 kicks in his three-year stint, finishing top-20 in that category all three seasons. They had five combined kick and punt return touchdowns and averaged 10.1 yards per punt return in that span. One of those punt return scores was a fake fair catch trick play against Arkansas that Biagi crafted. North Texas’ three kickers under Biagi combined to make 85.9 percent of their field goal attempts.
In 2014, Southern returned four kicks and three punts for touchdowns under Biagi’s watch.
Biagi, a Shelbyville, Ky. native, was a kicker and punter at Marshall from 2004-07.
Notre Dame will have a new kicker and punter in 2023. Mason found the likely kicker and help at punter in December by mining the transfer portal. South Florida grad transfer kicker Spencer Shrader is the favorite to start in 2023. Penn import Ben Krimm will look to be the second straight Ivy League walk-on grad transfer punter to start for the Irish, but he will have to usurp scholarship sophomore Bryce McFerson. Krimm and Shrader are slated to enroll in June.
Elsewhere on special teams, grad student long snapper Michael Vinson enters his fourth year in that role, 2022 punt returner Brandon Joseph declared for the NFL Draft and three-year kick returner Chris Tyree is back. Linebackers Prince Kollie (231) and Jack Kiser (204) led Notre Dame in snaps last year and are back for 2023.
Biagi is Notre Dame’s third new assistant hire this offseason, joining quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli and soon-to-be-announced offensive line coach Joe Rudolph. The Irish also elevated tight ends coach Gerad Parker to offensive coordinator.
