It’s not often that you see a “losing” coach get national recognition, but that’s exactly what happened to a former Notre Dame assistant.
Lance Taylor walked on to the Alabama program in 2000, and played for the Crimson Tide for four seasons before trying to make it in the Arena Football League and AF2. An injury ended his playing career, where he quickly rose up the coaching ranks, starting back with Alabama in 2007, then moving onto the NFL at various stops before landing in South Bend as the running backs coach.
He’d then stay with the Irish for three seasons, before taking the offensive coordinator role at Louisville and impressing the Western Michigan staff to make him their head coach in 2023. Over the weekend the Broncos seemingly had program
changing win over Michigan, only to see a questionable call at the end of the game go the Wolverines way and they’d stave off the upset.
That didn’t matter to the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Week committee, as on Tuesday they named Taylor as its recipient of the award. Taylor as built a very solid program, and is putting himself in a position to take a higher profile job. Congratulations to Lance on the accomplishment, as everyone in South Bend is watching to see how his career continues to ascend.
Congratulations to Coach Taylor on being named the @bryantawards National Coach of the Week! pic.twitter.com/1Q2DAjCzvX
— Western Michigan Football (@WMU_Football) September 8, 2026
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Former Notre Dame assistant is Bear Bryant National Coach of the Week
