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Former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker will be Troy University’s next head football coach, The Messenger has confirmed.

Parker will replace two-time Sun Belt Champion Jon Sumrall, who departed to take the head coaching job at Tulane earlier this month. Parker played college football at Kentucky with Sumrall and former Troy head coach Neal Brown.

Parker has been an assistant coach at Notre Dame since 2022, serving first as tight ends coach and then taking over as offensive coordinator this season.

Parker, a Louisa, Ky., native, played wide receiver at Kentucky. During his senior season, he caught 15 passes for 168 yards. After his football career ended, Parker began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Raceland-Worthington High School in Kentucky. He then went on to become a graduate assistant at Kentucky 2007.

In 2008, he became running backs coach at UT-Martin before becoming the pass game and run game coordinator there in 2010. He coached the wide receivers at Marshall from 2011 through 2012 and then became recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach at Purdue in 2013. He also coached the wide receivers at Purdue from 2014 through 2016.

In 2016, Parker was named interim head coach at Purdue for the final six games of the season. He served as offensive operations assistant at Duke in 2017 and then became Duke’s receivers coach, under David Cutcliffe in 2018.

In 2019, Parker served as receivers coach and pass game coordinator at Purdue and then joined Neal Brown’s staff at West Virginia in 2020 as wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator. He served as offensive coordinator at West Virginia from 2020 through 2021. Parker’s 2020 offense at WVU was one of the most improved offense’s in the country.

Parker’s offense at Notre Dame in 2023 averaged 39.1 points-per-game, second in the country, and the balanced offense featured a running back that had one of the best seasons in school history.

Parker was a finalist for the Troy job along with SMU offensive coordinator Casey Woods and West Virginia defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley. Troy will hold an introductory press conference for Parker on Dec. 19. The time has not yet been announced.