Matt Tallman Position: Associate Head Coach Alma Mater: Catholic University

Matt Tallman is entering his eighth season at Notre Dame and his third as associate head coach. Tallman spent his first five campaigns serving as assistant coach for the Fighting Irish before his promotion in July 2006. His recruiting efforts have produced some of the top classes in the history of the program, which in turn has made Notre Dame a factor on the national scene.

Tallman joined the Irish staff in 2001, shortly after the Notre Dame Athletic Department announced that all its sports would receive full funding. With increased scholarship aide, he has made the Irish competitive with the top programs in the nation on the recruiting front by attracting some of the country's top prep prospect. The efforts of Tallman have paid dividends in the pool, as the Irish have broken over 40 University records over the last seven years.

Tallman helped guide the Irish to their first BIG EAST championship in program history in 2005 and the Irish repeated as champions in 2006 and 2008. Those three campaigns were the most successful in the history of Notre Dame swimming and diving, as the 2008 edition of the Irish program set eight school records and peaked at No. 17 in the CSCAA rankings.

In the fall of 2004, Notre Dame appeared in the CSCAA dual meet rankings for the first time ever by debuting at No. 21. In 2005-06, the Irish climbed to No. 18 in the rankings, which was then a program-best mark. A lot of expectations were placed upon the 2005-06 team and they delivered with a second straight BIG EAST title. The Fighting Irish claimed three event titles at the conference meet and produced 13 all-BIG EAST performers en route to the 224.5-point victory over Pittsburgh and the rest of the 11-team field. A total of seven school records were set during the season. Diver Michael Bulfin became just the third student-athlete in program history to qualify for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships and the second in as many seasons, following swimmer Tim Kegelman, who did so in 2005. Bulfin made a second trip to the NCAAs in 2008 and brought home the program's first ever All-American honor.

The 2005 squad earned a meet-record 902.5 points in the conference meet to defeat Pittsburgh, the eight-time defending champion, by 275 points. That same year, Notre Dame sent its first swimmer, and second student-athlete ever, to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships as Kegelman, a sophomore, swam the 100 Fly, 200 Fly and the 200 IM at the national meet. In all, the 2004-05 team eclipsed 12 school records, claimed four individual BIG EAST titles, and entered the national rankings for the first time.

Tallman has been a key in the growth of the Irish program, and his first seven seasons have seen a number of superlatives. In his first campaign, Notre Dame matched the third-highest win total in the history of the program, ending up 11-3 in dual meets. After failing to win their own Notre Dame Invitational for the first time in four years the season prior to Tallman's arrival, that meet has seen five Irish victories, including an impressive 2003 performance that featured Notre Dame setting a then meet record for points scored and claiming a 710-point triumph over a talented second-place Harvard team. The Irish have similarly been dominant in the Notre Dame/Dennis Stark Relays, setting all 11 meet records since Tallman's arrival. The 2003-04 season also featured the Irish posting their highest-ever point total in the BIG EAST Championships to that point, en route to their first runner-up result in four years. Among the high points of that meet was Notre Dame's first-ever 1-2 finish in the meet, which took place in the 400 IM.

In addition to recruiting, Tallman assists head coach Tim Welsh in all facets of the Irish swimming and diving program, including on-deck coaching and teaching, training, supervising dryland workouts, and day-to-day operations.

Prior to his stint at Notre Dame, Tallman served as an assistant at the University of Maryland in 2000-01. He helped the Terrapins send a school-record number of female qualifiers to the NCAA Championships. Maryland peaked at 16th in the national rankings that season, its highest listing in school history.

Before his season at Maryland, Tallman spent two years as the head swimming coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. While at IUP, he was selected as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1999 after helping the women's team to the PSAC title, ending Clarion University's 23-year stranglehold on the championship. He also helped the IUP women's team to sixth- and seventh-place finishes at the NCAA Division II championships. In his two seasons at IUP, the women's squad was 18-0 in dual meets. Fifteen IUP swimmers achieved All-America honors under Tallman's tutelage while 18 swimmers earned all-PSAC accolades and five student-athletes were named Academic All-Americans.

A 1997 graduate of The Catholic University of America, Tallman swam for four seasons and captured 11 titles at the Capital Athletic Conference Championships. He set school and conference records in the 100 and 200 Breast, along with the 200 and 400 Medley Relays.

Born Sept. 24, 1973, in Camden, N.J., Tallman has a number of Notre Dame connections. His father Dennis is a '73 graduate and his grandfather, Edgar F. Bailey, played football for the Irish in the 1940s. Tallman married the former Heather Grzeskowiak in the summer of 2006. The couple, along with her daughter Hannah, and their son, Martin, resides in Mishawaka, Ind.