Brian Kelly will be entering his 9th season at Notre Dame this fall. That’s a pretty large number given his up and down career in South Bend. With such a long tenure he’s welcomed a long list of assistant coaches, including recent hires in Jeff Quinn and Terry Joseph who will not be rated here today.

The rest of ’em, we’re judging away.

1 Harry Heistand (OL 2012-2017)

You could make the case the race for the top spot is close but Heistand’s time with Notre Dame was pretty phenomenal from start to end. He was never an engaging recruiter and rubbed a few players the wrong way. His talent development and unit productivity rose far above all other assistants ending with a mic-drop 3,501 rushing yards in 2017 before returning to the NFL.

2 Bob Diaco (DC/LB 2010-13)

For an initial run of 3 years it appeared as if Diaco would claim the top spot in these rankings. The Irish averaged a FEI defense of 14th through 2012 with Bobby D being the toast of the town prior to the National Championship game. Things fell off pretty hard in 2013 (49th FEI defense) as Diaco’s fussy recruiting and scheme started showing major cracks. Then he was gone and hasn’t exactly increased his resume since leaving. His hair was perfect, though.

3 Mike Elko (DC/S 2017)

It wouldn’t feel right to put Elko any higher for one year’s worth of work. Still, his lone season saw improvement on the defense to 20th in the FEI rankings and (to be understated) a breath of fresh air over the previous few seasons.

4 Chuck Martin (DB 2010, RC 2010-11, S 2011, OC/QB 2012-13)

Martin’s jack-of-all-trade ability was really impressive on the field, in addition to taking over the early part of the Kelly recruiting process. If you think about it, this was kind of a genius move because it never allowed Martin to be pinned down for long-term poor development. Nevertheless, he excelled in his coaching for each unit and could’ve been a stabilizing force for the program had he stayed past 2013.

5 Mike Denbrock (TE 2010-11, WR 2012-16, OC 2014, AHC 2015-16)

Denbrock was a lot like Martin and someone who did stick around longer. His profile was never quite as high and he was part of a weird neutered offensive play-calling set-up in 2014 that seemed like it was going to take him to new heights as an assistant to no avail. I feel like Denbrock is the poster boy for a very solid coach who stayed long enough to vault himself up these rankings with admirable consistency.

6 Mike Elston (DL 2010-15, 2017, ST 2010-11, LB 2015-16, RC 2015-17)

To continue the theme, perhaps no one has benefited the most from sticking around more than Elston. He’s had an up and down career at times looking like the next hot-shot assistant while other times coming under quite a bit of criticism. He’s appeared to break free from large-scale criticism with a very solid 2017 on the defensive line and a bit of a surprising job taking over recruiting for 3 years.

7 Tony Alford (RB 2012-14, WR 2010-11, RC 2012-14)

I had initially suspected Alford would be higher on this list but couldn’t shake the feeling that his ‘hype’ as it were never really manifested itself in full. He was a good-to-very-good position coach and a tremendous player’s coach. In fact, he carried the mantle as one of the top 3 spokesmen for the program for most of his time in South Bend. With hindsight, the program hasn’t missed him too much and it’s very possible he maxed out his potential at Notre Dame before moving to Ohio State.

8 Chip Long (OC/TE 2017)

Is it possible one season is enough to be placed in the Top 10? Absolutely, as Long engineered the biggest change to the Irish offense under Brian Kelly and helped that side of the ball to a record-breaking ground game. He’s shown himself as a willing and promising recruiter but could find himself falling down the rankings with a challenging 2018 coming up.

9 Clark Lea (LB 2017)

Lea largely went all the way into the middle of the 2017 without being mentioned a ton throughout the media. In fact, some basically saw him as a tag-along following Mike Elko’s coattails. Then, the Irish linebackers had a really good season and Te’von Coney turned in a fringe All-American performance. Now, he’s risen to defensive coordinator and might be a sleeping giant of an assistant coach.

10 Autry Denson (RB 2015-17)

Denson’s recruiting has come under heavy fire in recent months and with good reason. He’s also done a heck of a job coaching up the running backs, arguably the best of the Kelly era, and probably doesn’t get enough credit for that. He’ll face a challenging next year or two developing his own recruits most of whom are not that highly regarded. If he pulls it off and can improve in recruiting we’ve really got something.

11 Ed Warriner (OL 2010-11)

Warriner was quickly overshadowed by Heistand but he did pretty well with less talent than his successor. The offensive lines were playing at a high level is pass protection and the 2011 line had a great combo for Wood and Gray before the latter got injured.

12 Todd Lyght (DB 2015-16, CB 2017)

I’m not sure there was anyone as skeptical as me on this hire. This was a huge shot in the dark by Brian Kelly that’s actually turned out pretty well. Lyght has clearly had a much better second half to his time at Notre Dame and hopefully that signals continued improvement. I’m not sure he’s really the hardcore climb-the-ladder type of assistant that’s going to move up these rankings a ton but he’s got a tremendous Julian Love season under his wing and enough to brag about going into 2018.

13 Mike Sanford (OC/QB 2015-16)

Sanford felt a lot like Chip Long before Chip Long arrived. For such a young assistant he came with plenty of fanfare although I feel like his final grade took a sizable hit following 2016. He has to get a lot of credit for helping to navigate the 2015 quarterback situation, though. Quickly developing Kizer should maybe place him much higher on this list. However, it never felt like he really owned the offense the way Long has recently.

14 Kerry Cooks (CB 2010-14)

The loss of Cooks to Oklahoma was sudden and that primarily was the driver for him feeling like a big loss from the staff. However, he left behind some really big recruiting holes and, as I think my ranking attests, was largely an average assistant over his time in South Bend. He did seem to have a zest for recruiting and won his fair share of battles. Big picture, he’s placed appropriately here.

15 Bob Elliott (S 2012-13, OLB 2014)

The deceased Elliott played a bit of a grandfatherly role on the staff (despite passing away at only 64 years old) and certainly will never be remembered for being cut-throat or any of the traditional adjectives assigned to recruiting assistants. His job getting the safeties ready for 2012 is one of the best works in the Kelly era, though. He’d be a great guy to still have around in the athletic department.

16 Brian Polian (ST 2017)

I can’t give Polian credit for his first stint with the Irish (2005-09) although it probably doesn’t change his grade much. He’s been a decent special teams coordinator and a hungry recruiter. On the field, he could do a lot better. Off the field, he displays an appetite for recruiting that few assistants in the Kelly-era have had.

17 Tom Rees (QB 2017)

Rees became quarterbacks coach for the worst passing effort of the Kelly era which could drop him further down this list. I don’t want to lay all of that at his feet, but at the same time, Rees’ inexperience and Wimbush struggling with a lot of fundamentals doesn’t earn the former Irish signal-caller much benefit of the doubt.

18 Tim Hinton (RB 2010-11)

Hinton was so unmemorable I couldn’t remember his first name.

19 Scott Booker (TE/ST 2012-16)

Booker technically gets credit for Tyler Eifert’s final season and then the tight end production was a slow descent thereafter. Notre Dame appeared to try and position him as an ace young recruiter but that never seemed to materialize. I always felt like they were waiting for him to turn a corner to speak and he probably stuck around too long.

20 Keith Gilmore (DL 2015-16)

Gilmore arrived when the grumbling about Elston’s defensive line coaching was at its peak. As a result, there was an even stronger excitement that he’d turn things around quickly. That didn’t transpire and Gilmore turned into an affable and well-liked assistant but not much of an upgrade.

21 DelVaughnAlexander (WR 2017)

It was a rough first season for Alexander who saw his most explosive player suspended and the most talented player in pretty much a year-long funk. He also started out the season with a couple grad transfers fighting for starting minutes which isn’t ideal. We haven’t heard a ton from him as a recruiter but he is welcoming an outstanding freshmen class to mold for the future.

22 Matt LaFleur (QB 2014)

The story on LaFleur is short and sweet. He was a good-looking guy who seemed like a quality hire from the NFL. However, he didn’t enjoy being in college and wasn’t a good fit at Notre Dame. He’s now the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans and might be a NFL head coach soon!

23 Brian VanGorder (DL 2014-16, ILB 2014)

There were some good times early on, goodness there were! It was fleeting and everything fell apart so quickly after half a season. Even though I haven’t placed VanGorder in the last spot, due to a modicum of success, he was unquestionably the biggest mistake among all these assistants.

24 Charley Molnar (OC/QB 2010-11)

How much do I remember about Molnar? I originally believed he was around only for one year. That’s not a good sign. While it’s true he wasn’t around long enough to inflict as much damage as someone like VanGorder or in a terribly important position the fact was that he was probably the least important assistant of the last 8 years.