Ad Disclosure
Al Golden joked that on his first day on the job at Notre Dame, he got a ticket. The drive from Notre Dame Stadium to Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati is about 4 hours. Golden made the 248-mile trek from South Bend to Cincy more times than he could care to count. When he left the Bengals in 2021 to take the defensive coordinator position on Marcus Freeman’s staff, his family stayed behind in Ohio.
He has children who attend high school in Cincinnati. He didn’t want to uproot their lives again. So, when Bengals head coach Zac Taylor offered him the defensive coordinator position, it was hard to turn down.
But, when he was introduced to local reporters by the Bengals on Monday, he took a moment at the beginning to thank Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman for his 3 years in South Bend, for Freeman’s willingness to be amenable to Golden’s family needs, and for the Fighting Irish team understanding why he made the move he made.
“It’s very seldom that you have a chance to do firsts at Notre Dame, but to host the first Playoff game, to win the Orange Bowl, win the Sugar Bowl, win 13 in a row, that was great,” Golden said. “I had an opportunity to sit down and talk to all the players. That doesn’t always happen that way, but Coach Freeman encouraged it.
“Man, I tried to reach every player I could. Those that I didn’t see personally, I communicated to. I thought that was important.”
Golden coordinated the Irish defense for 3 years. Prior to that, he was a linebackers coach with the Bengals. Asked how hard it was to leave the Bengals the first time, Golden admitted it was challenging. And it was just as difficult to leave the Irish.
“It’s always hard to leave because you invest so much in people,” Golde said. “That part of it was challenging. But I think even the young kids understood the value of this. There’s only 32 of these, you know, and there’s even less that have Joe Burrow.”
But, on the heels of a College Football Playoff National Championship game appearance, Golden believes Notre Dame can remain atop college football in the years to come.
Freeman still has to hire a new defensive coordinator. He was reportedly interested in Ohio State’s Jim Knowles, who eventually took the Penn State job. According to The Athletic’s Pete Sampson, Freeman is also eyeing former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash.
Notre Dame will also need to replace key pieces at every level of its defense, with Xavier Watts and Benjamin Morrison heading to the NFL and Rylie Mills exhausting his eligibility.
The Irish ended the 2024 season ranked second nationally in opponent-adjusted EPA per play, per Game on Paper. And they’re among the early favorites (+1200 via FanDuel) to win the 2025-26 national title.
“I think they’re built to last for a really long time now,” Golden said. “When you get to be my age, not everything works the way you want it to work but the one thing I always wanted to do was leave something better than I found it, and I believe that in my little part of that, I did and we did.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
