Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman will have much more on his plate now that he is the lead man in South Bend. That means that his days of calling the defensive plays are over and he needed to find the next leader of the Irish defense.
It looks like Freeman has found his man, as reports from multiple sources have Al Golden leaving the Cincinnati Bengals to oversee the Notre Dame defense. The Bengals lost the Super Bowl, in a highly contested affair against the Los Angeles Rams and now losing their linebackers coach with Golden moving on.
Sources: Al Golden has accepted the job to become Notre Dame’s new defensive coordinator. He’s agreed to a three-year deal, which may take a few days to finalize.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 15, 2022
Golden had a short career in the NFL after playing for Penn State, just the 1992 season, before moving to a high school coaching role in his home state of New Jersey. He then quickly rose up the ranks, coaching at schools like Virginia, Boston College, Penn State and then back to Virginia as their defensive coordinator in 2001.
He then had stints as a head coach at Temple and Miami, FL before moving to the NFL. Golden was the tight end coach for Detroit from 2016-2017, then became their linebackers coach from 2018-2019. He then spend 2020-2021 as Cincinnati’s linebackers coach, and now Golden will return to the collegiate level as the Irish’s new defensive coordinator if the rumors are true.
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