When Brian Kelly announces the successor to offensive coordinator Chip Long – Joe Moorhead, Todd Monken and Tommy Rees headline the list of candidates as the midway point of January approaches -- it will be just the 16th person in Notre Dame history with the title and the 6th under the Irish head coach who enters his 11th year in South Bend.

The naming of offensive coordinators at Notre Dame didn’t begin until 1981 when first-year head coach Gerry Faust christened Tom Lichtenberg at the position. Prior to that, the head coach and/or his top offensive assistant called the plays without a specific designation of offensive coordinator.

Ara Parseghian’s right-hand man – Tom Pagna – carried the title of offensive backfield coach. Parseghian (1964-74) and Pagna collaborated on play-calling, which was sent in with a player from the sideline and generally from a script much smaller in options than today.

Of Parseghian’s 11 seasons, the Irish ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams in scoring seven times, including top five scoring averages in four of his first five seasons. The Irish were among the nation’s top 18 scoring offenses in 10 of 11 years.

Parseghian’s successor – Dan Devine – also did not have an offensive coordinator. Offensive backfield coach Hank Kuhlmann coordinated the offense/play calls with Devine for three seasons (1975-77) before Jim Gruden – father of Jon Gruden – followed Kuhlmann in that position for the final three years (1978-80) of the Devine regime.

The 1977 national champion Irish averaged 34.7 points per game (7th) with Joe Montana at quarterback.

During Lichtenberg’s two seasons as offensive coordinator under Faust (1981-82), the Irish finished 64th and 72nd in scoring offense at 21.1 and 18.7 points per game. That prompted Faust to turn to Ron Hudson as his offensive coordinator from 1983-85.

Hudson’s offenses showed improvement by scoring 27.0 points per game in 1983 and 25.4 in 1984 to rank 21st and 33rd nationally. (Note: Scoring in college football was tame back then compared to today.)

Four coaches had the designation of offensive coordinator under Lou Holtz (1986-96), although there never was any doubt who called the plays for the Irish. It was Holtz himself.

Offensive coordinators under Holtz included running backs coach Mike Stock (1986), running backs coach Jim Strong (1987-89), receivers coach Skip Holtz (1992-93), and quarterbacks coach Dave Roberts (1994-96). Lou Holtz served as quarterbacks coach during the first three years of his reign before turning over those duties to Pete Cordelli, who was receivers coach during the first three years.

The Irish did not have a designated offensive coordinator in 1990 and 1991 with Cordelli as quarterbacks coach in ’90 and Peter Vaas – who would serve two tours of duty at Notre Dame – in ‘91.

Holtz’s 11 offenses ranked among the nation’s top 30 scoring offenses in each season, including top 10 finishes in 1991 (10th at 35.5 ppg.), 1992 (4th at 37.2 ppg.), 1993 (9th at 36.6 ppg.) and 1996 (tied for 10th 37.0 ppg.). The Irish also averaged 32.6 ppg. (15th) in 1988 and 33.8 (11th) in 1989.

The middle three offenses under head coach Bob Davie (1997-2001) were pretty good. Jim Colletto served as Davie’s first offensive coordinator as well as offensive line coach. The first of those squads averaged 22.8 points per game in 1997 (67th) and then 27.3 in 1998 (43rd).

The arrival of Kevin Rogers as offensive coordinator in 1999 marked a scoring increase at 29.0 ppg. in 1999 (35th nationally) and 31.3 ppg. in 2000 (29th). But when the offense stumbled badly in 2001 – 19.4 points per game to rank 99th – the Davie era came to a close.

The offensive struggles continued under head coach Tyrone Willingham (2002-04) and offensive coordinator Bill Diedrick. In fact, they reached a low point in the modern era with a 91st ranking in 2002 (22.3 ppg.), a 93rd slot nationally in 2003 (20.2 ppg.) and 72nd in 2004 (24.1 ppg.).

Exit Willingham, enter Charlie Weis, whose promise of an offensive schematic advantage proved true…at least with Brady Quinn at quarterback and Jeff Samardzija and friends at receiver in 2005-06. Quinn set numerous passing records that will stand the test of time, even with Ian Book coming back in 2020 as a third-year starter.

With former Irish receivers/defensive back Mike Haywood serving as coordinator the first four years of the Weis era (but Weis calling the plays), Notre Dame averaged 36.7 points per game (8th) in 2005. The Irish averaged 31.0 points per game (16th) the following season before a precipitous fall to No. 116 in 2007 (16.4 ppg.).

Weis’ last Irish squad (2009) averaged 30.0 points per game (32nd nationally) with no offensive coordinator designation outside of offensive line coach Frank Verducci’s title of run-game coordinator.

Kelly has had five offensive coordinators at Notre Dame – Charley Molnar (2010-11), Chuck Martin (2012-13), Mike Denbrock (2014), Mike Sanford (2015-16) and Chip Long (2017-19) -- with inconsistent results.

The most productive offenses came under Long with the 13th-ranked scoring offense in 2019 at 36.8 points per game and the No. 24 scoring unit in 2017 (34.2). The 2015 offense – coordinated by Sanford – worked under Denbrock calling the plays. That group tied for second in the Kelly era at 34.2 points per game. (Note: Sanford did not call plays as offensive coordinator in 2015-16.)

None of the offenses coordinated by Molnar nor Martin reached the 30-point scoring mark in a season. Each of the three offenses with Denbrock and Long as the coordinator and/or play-caller reached the 30-point average.