Not long after Freeman was hired, we heard that Chad Bowden, his recruiting assistant at Cincy, would be joining him at ND.
What?
Obviously, this was a package deal that Freeman won in his negotiations. (When Lea came with Elko, it was as a recommendation, not as part of a package deal, and Lea filled the LBs coach position, which needed filling. A new position was not created).
This has never happened before. Now, there seem to be complications that have arisen, and the deal seems to be on hold, at least for now.
ND supposedly had a hiring freeze and the optics are not good on this.
And they shouldn't be.
Coaching staffs have always been limited in number, so is this a new expansion? Do we get around it by declaring him to be part of the support staff? Are we going to get into the Alabama ruse of having legions of support staff and analysts? If a DC can leverage having others included with his hire, where does that stop? Does ND want to enter the slippery slope of a mushrooming football factory bureaucracy?
The NCAA better wake up and start setting firm limits on staff numbers before it gets totally out of hand.
Before we start engaging in the business of creating fabricated, BS titles like the Frank and Mary Hayes Director of Defensive Recruiting, we should wake up, too.