Official: Longo joins program as head of Strength Dept.

The Notre Dame athletic department made Paul Longo’s hiring official today, naming him the director of football strength and conditioning while naming Jacob Flint and Lorenzo Guess assistant directors of strength and conditioning.

This from Kelly’s official statement:

“Paul Longo has been an integral part of the success we’ve experienced over the last six seasons. He has done an incredible job of not only developing our players and getting them ready to play championship football in our program, but also helping prepare them for the NFL. Paul joins our offensive and defensive coordinators as leaders of this program. He cuts across the traditional strength and conditioning coach mold because he builds relationships with all players and coaches and serves as a leader, not just in the weight room, but throughout the program. Paul is a critical addition to our program because, arguably, no coach will have more contact with our players throughout the whole year than our strength and conditioning coach. Based on his track record and what I have personally witnessed, I can’t wait to see how he’ll make our team better moving forward.”

Flint and Guess will also come over from Cincinnati, with Guess transitioning back to strength and conditioning after spending last season coaching tight ends for the Bearcats. Guess was a two-sport athlete at Michigan State, earning four letters with the Spartan football team and two with the basketball squad. Flint played football under Kelly at Central Michigan, going from a walk-on to a scholarship earner and is a competitive bodybuilder in his spare time, ranking 25th nationally in his weight bracket in USA weightlifting events.

It’s tough to comment intelligently on strength staff additions, but I really like the fact that all three additions were scholarship football players and that they’ll be able to bring a personal knowledge of football played at an elite level to the weight room. I think that blends well with the training philosophies of both Longo and Kelly.

As we mentioned earlier, get ready for Longo Beach and the Freakazoid Club.