The following is courtesy of Notre Dame athletics:
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame continues to build out its coaching staff as Dick Corbett Head Football Coach Marcus Freeman announced the hiring of 15-year coaching veteran Al Washington as the Bob and Leslie Mohr Family Defensive Line Coach and Defensive Run Game Coordinator.
“I have seen firsthand how talented Al Washington is as a coach,” said Freeman. “He is a great teacher and developer of his players on the field, but is just as impressive in how he goes about building great men off the field. On top of that, he is a passionate recruiter whose work in that area is going to help us compete for a national title.”
Washington comes to the Irish after spending the last three seasons at Ohio State. In his final season at Ohio State, Washington and the Buckeyes’ defense ranked in the Top-20 nationally in defensive touchdowns and turnover margin. Ohio State led the nation in defensive touchdowns with 6 and ranked 15th nationally in turnover margin with +9. Sophomore linebacker Steele Chambers was named an honorable mention All-Big Ten honoree by the media after totaling 47 tackles, 5.0 tackles-for-loss and 1.0 sack in 2021.
In 2020, he developed all four senior linebackers for the next level. Each of the four senior linebackers on the 2020 Ohio State team were in the NFL as of August 2021: Tuf Borland (Minnesota), Baron Browning (Denver), Justin Hilliard (San Francisco) and Pete Werner (New Orleans).
Werner was a Butkus Award Semifinalist in 2020 after he led the team in tackles with 54 and forced fumbles with two. Werner was a First Team All-Big 10 selection by the coaches following the season.