He was only the worst assistant that Brian Kelly has hired while he’s been at Notre Dame. He was a defensive coordinator for two seasons in South Bend. That includes the first four games disastrous 2016 season. The Irish allowed 33.5 points in those four games, and only beat Nevada.
Things weren’t working out, and he was fired after a loss to Duke.
For VanGorder, things haven’t improved in the years since then. He spent the rest of 2016 as a defensive analyst for Georgia, then took the same position at Oklahoma State in 2017.