New Notre Dame linebackers coach Max Bullough on family history with the school
Max Bullough opens up on why being named the Notre Dame linebackers coach means a lot to him.
SOUTH BEND — No matter how long Max Bullough coaches football, he will never forget his first full year at Notre Dame.
Most vivid, perhaps, will be the emotional rollercoaster that followed the death of his grandfather, former Notre Dame football captain and lifelong benefactor Jim Morse, last Sept 28.
Two days after Morse died at age 87, Bullough coached the Irish linebackers through a last-minute, 21-14 comeback win at Duke.
“That’s why I think I coach,” Bullough said. “The age-old adage of when you cross the paint, like everything else, that’s just been my life. I think that’s literally why I do this because it’s the one place in the world I can just let everything else go.”
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Recently promoted from graduate assistant to a full-time role, Bullough reflected on what that evening in Durham, N.C., meant to him and his grieving family.
“I do remember walking around that field pregame and being like, ‘We might need you here,’ “ he said, referencing his late grandfather. “And then it ended up working. That was a hell of a game. That was like a high school game. I mean, it was live in there.”
Notre Dame’s youngest full-time assistant at 32, the former Michigan State and NFL linebacker knows he’s fulfilling a destiny of sorts every time he walks into the football building.
“I’ve always had a lot of family at Michigan State, a lot of family at Notre Dame,” Bullough said. “And a lot of people knew about the Michigan State side just because of the football and my dad (Shane) and all that, but for my mom, this is huge. For my late grandfather, this (promotion) would’ve been huge.”
Jim Morse, a native of Muskegon, Mich., was a three-year starter at halfback for coach Terry Brennan from 1954-56. Morse remains one of only two Irish running backs with more than 1,000 career receiving yards, and he was honored in 2004 with the “Moose” Krause Distinguished Service Award.
“He wanted me, one of my brothers, my sister, one of us to go to Notre Dame and none of us ever did,” Bullough said. “A couple of us had the chance, the other two didn’t really, but it’s big. I think it’s really big for my mom right now, going through losing her father. It’s been cool to make that full circle within a timely fashion.”
Max Bullough’s ‘crazy weekend’
When safeties coach Chris O’Leary left for the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers in mid-February, creating an opening on Marcus Freeman’s coaching staff, Bullough made sure he didn’t waste any time.
“It was a crazy weekend,” Bullough said. “I just wanted to get to Free as fast as I could. He was great about going in this direction as opposed to another one.”
Elevating Bullough was pretty much a no-brainer considering the five-year apprenticeship he’d served at Cincinnati (with Freeman in 2019), Alabama (under Nick Saban from 2020-22) and in 2023 as the de facto linebackers coach for the Irish.
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Yet he wasn’t about to take anything for granted.
“I was talking to CO behind the scenes trying to find out when it happened,” Bullough said. “I knew as soon as a spot at Notre Dame is open, you never know who’s going to call. It could be anybody. I mean, (Mike) Vrabel or somebody. Who knows? Then it’s somebody you can’t say no to.”
Bullough’s hard-driving personality and passion for coaching made him just as essential to an Irish defense that recently retained coordinator Al Golden on a four-year deal through 2027, according to a source.
His responsibilities increased markedly as Golden entrusted him with the veteran trio of JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau and Jack Kiser, who brought Bullough along in his new hands-on role.
“It’s the reason I’m standing here today; it’s the reason I came to Notre Dame,” Bullough said. “Coach Saban kind of got (ticked) that I left. He told me it’s not a training ground, because he thought it was a lateral move.”
It wasn’t.
“Before last year I was just a GA,” he said. “And I was good at it and all that, but this what I love. This is what I do. I’m good on the computers. I got really good at it, but you guys see me out there. That’s what I do. That’s who I am and that’s how I affect people.”
As a full-time assistant, Bullough is now allowed to travel off-campus for recruiting purposes. He got a brief taste of that right after his promotion.
“That was my first time ever doing it,” he said. “You’re just showing up at these schools, you don’t know where to go for half of them. I didn’t know anybody I was going to (see). I learned a ton those two weeks: How it operates, who you talk to, where you go in the schools. That was a big learning experience for me.”
Other than that, he said, his work life doesn’t really change.
“Got a little bit better parking spot,” he said. “A much better parking spot. Better office.”
Pause. Smile.
“To be honest with you,” he said, “the office, I was looking forward to that more than anything.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.
2024-02-29 09:06:27
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