University of Notre Dame Men's Soccer

McFarland Family Head Men's Soccer Coach Chad Riley enters his ninth season as the McFarland Family Head Men's Soccer Coach in the fall of 2026. In his eight seasons at the helm, Riley has led the Fighting Irish to two College Cups (2021 & 2023) and three NCAA quarterfinal appearances. Under Riley the Irish had one of their most successful seasons in program history, reaching the NCAA national title match as the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament. Notre Dame recorded its first ever undefeated season in ACC play, finishing with a record of 6-0-2 to clinch the ACC Coastal Division crown and earn the top seed in the ACC tourney. The 2021 season was a historic one for the program in Riley's fourth year at the helm, capturing its first ACC Championship title in program history. Riley served as the head coach of the highly successful Dartmouth men's soccer program from 2013-17 and was a former standout Irish men's soccer player and assistant coach. Riley's Dartmouth teams won a combined 51 games over his five seasons and captured Ivy League titles each of the last four years. A 2004 Notre Dame graduate with a degree in theology, Riley was a four-time monogram winner and remains one of the all-time Notre Dame leaders in assists with 32 in 78 games. He also spent six seasons as an Irish assistant coach (2006-11) under legendary coach Bobby Clark.

Jeff Rowland is an Assistant Coach for Notre Dame Men's Soccer with seventeen seasons of collegiate coaching experience at Harvard, Creighton, Washington, and Notre Dame. He was a member of the United Soccer Coaches National Coaching Staff of the Year in 2023 and has guided five Elite Eight appearances with four in the last five years, including two College Cup appearances and one College Cup Final appearance with Notre Dame. Rowland has helped teams win conference championships at every school he has coached, including two ACC titles with Notre Dame, two Pac-12 titles at Washington, one MVC title at Creighton, and one Ivy League title at Harvard. As a player, he attended the University of New Mexico, was named a 2005 Hermann Trophy Finalist, led his team to the 2005 College Cup Final, earned two-time First Team All-American and Academic All-American honors, was drafted by Real Salt Lake, and played with RSL, FC Dallas, and the Wilmington Hammerheads. He coached twenty-nine MLS players during ten years at Washington, including Cristian Roldan of Seattle Sounders and U.S. National Team, and four MLS players in three seasons at Notre Dame.

Mike Graczyk is entering his seventh season as an assistant coach at Notre Dame heading into the 2026 fall season. Head men's soccer coach Chad Riley added Graczyk to his staff in March 2020 as an assistant coach. The goalkeeper coach enjoyed a historic season with the Irish during the 2023 campaign, as Bryan Dowd was named the TopDrawerSoccer National Player of the Year and the United Soccer Coaches First Team All-American. Graczyk and the Notre Dame coaching staff was named the United Soccer Coaches National Coaching Staff of the Year following the 2023 season. Dowd and the Irish went undefeated in ACC play during the regular season for the first time in program history and earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Championships. The Irish advanced to the College Cup for the second time in three seasons and defeated Oregon State to play in the NCAA College Cup Final for the second time in program history. Dowd finished with career-highs in saves (70), save percentage (0.824), clean sheets (11) and wins (12) while allowing just 15 goals on the season for a career-best 0.699 goals allowed per match. Graczyk played a key role in Notre Dame's historic 2021 season, helping the program win its first ACC Championship title and advance to the second College Cup in program history. Graczyk brought 12 years of coaching experience at professional, DI and club levels to the Irish after stints with New Mexico United (USL), New Mexico, Stanford and Harvard. Before arriving at Notre Dame, Graczyk

Sam Biek joined the Notre Dame men's soccer program in January of 2026 as an assistant coach/director of operations. Biek is no stranger to the South Bend area, as he played collegiately at Bethel University down the road in Mishawaka. He was a two-time captain as a Pilot and earned All-America honors. The defender then played his final season of college soccer at Western Michigan and earned All-MAC First Team accolades. Following his collegiate career, Biek spent five seasons playing professionally in three different countries, representing teams including Charleston Battery (USL Championship), Miami FC (USL Championship), FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt (Germany), SV Horn 2 (Austria), and FC Tucson (USL League One). In January of 2025 Biek made the jump to collegiate coaching at Western Michigan with the men's soccer staff as an assistant coach and served the program for a year before joining the Irish.