Max Bullough feels right at home coaching linebackers for Notre Dame football

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.”

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.

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“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….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/max-bullough-feels-home-coaching-090239154.html

Author : South Bend Tribune

Publish date : 2024-02-28 09:02:39

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