If Bill Diedrick didn't have a family, chances are pretty good he'd still be in Canada.

The current Notre Dame offensive coordinator spent two years in the Canadian Football League as offensive coordinator for the Edmonton Eskimos. Life was good for Diedrick, who coached in a league that featured high-octane offenses.

"As an offensive coach, it was a lot fun," he said. "I don't think I'd like to be a defensive coach."

The only problem was that Diedrick's family still lived in the United States. And after Diedrick's middle son, Justin, won a high school state championship, Diedrick realized he missed watching his sons play football.

So he took some time off coaching football to be with his family. But just one year later, he landed a job at Washington and in 1998 accepted the role of offensive coordinator at Stanford under Tyrone Willingham.

"He's the reason I wanted to go to Stanford and the reason I followed him to Notre Dame," Diedrick said. "I think when you look at how he's not only a wonderful, outstanding person he is exactly who he is."

Diedrick utilizes an offensive system that emphasizes balance between the run and the pass, a philosophy that evolved from his coaching days in the CFL. In Canada, teams could pass at will. But teams were separated by their ability to run the football. And when Diedrick went to Washington, he added a running game to his wide open, West-Coast style of offense.

Now an established offensive coordinator, Diedrick doesn't feel the pressure he once felt early in his career to keep moving from position to position. Notre Dame is his reward for coaching for 30 years.

"When you're young, you feel like you need to move to keep moving ahead," he said. "As long as you can keep moving ahead and each opportunity is a higher level, you get forced to that. Once you get to this level and have an opportunity to stay at some place, that's really the goal of a coach. The last four years have been wonderful and I'm looking forward to a wonderful career here."

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