Sources: Troy to hire Irish OC Parker as coach

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker is set to become the next coach at Troy, sources told ESPN. A deal is expected to be finalized and announced Monday, per sources.

Parker is a veteran coach who has served as Purdue’s interim coach and has been an assistant coach at places like Penn State, West Virginia and Duke.

Parker has a similar background and personality traits to the last two coaches to have success at Troy — Neal Brown and Jon Sumrall. Parker played at Kentucky with both of them and worked with Brown for two years as an assistant at West Virginia.

He’ll replace Sumrall, who won back-to-back Sun Belt titles before leaving for Tulane recently. Sumrall went 23-4 in his two seasons at Troy.

Parker is a high-energy coach who brings a wide swath of experience. Per sources, Troy officials were attracted to his background both as an offensive coordinator and a recruiting coordinator. He’s the second football hire at Troy for athletic director Brent Jones, who brought in Sumrall.

His departure leaves one of the highest profile coordinator jobs in the sport. Notre Dame just landed former Duke star quarterback Riley Leonard in the NCAA transfer portal, which will be an attractive asset to help lure a top coordinator. This will mark Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman’s third offensive coordinator in his three years at Notre Dame.

Troy has won or shared eight Sun Belt titles since 2006. The school is at or near the top of the league in its financial investment in football, which allowed them to go lure a coordinator from a major conference school.

Troy Chancellor Jack Hawkins has long prioritized athletics success — and football investment — as paramount to the school’s growing profile.

Troy plays Duke in the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 23.