Al Golden Ready to Enhance Notre Dame's Defense
Al Golden showed his former head coaching experience earlier this month as he won his opening press conference. If there was doubt he wanted the defensive coordinator job, Golden answered it. Those who questioned the hiring likely became more intrigued with the hiring.
If you flip roles, Golden wanted to work with Marcus Freeman, but he also is fired up to get rolling with Notre Dame's roster after seeing the team face to face.
"We're going through the roster now and I had a chance to meet a lot of them," stated Golden. "A lot of good-looking kids, a lot of smart kids, so I'm excited about that. In terms of what's in place, it's great because it's multiple, right? It can be four down, or it can be three down. You need that."
Freeman was patient in his pursuit of finding his first defensive coordinator. Fit was at the forefront
of Freeman's decision and that includes the ability to adapt and enhance the Irish defense.
"I'm not hiring him to run my system," explained Freeman. "I want him to evaluate what we've done and find out how we can enhance from this as a beginning point. This is what our players know.
"There's only so many different ways you can play defense. If we can try to keep some terminology the same, I think that's going to help tremendously. If Al Golden can evaluate and say, okay, here's what they do, here's what they know, how can we enhance it? I think that's all I'm looking for is somebody to start and really evaluate where they're at."
Since Mike Elko's arrival in 2017, the Irish defense has been one of the nation's most consistent units despite having three transitions. Sure, there were some roadblocks early in Clark Lea and Freeman's tenure, but they got the ship sailing in the right direction.
Golden will have a chance to continue the tradition of great defense and improve it with his experience.
"I think there's a lot of things there that we can build on," Golden said. "The way Marcus and I have talked about it is it's our system. We got a lot of great coaches in there. I spent the last few days with these guys and there are a lot of great ideas.
"It's really what we build from here, but it's like moving into a new neighborhood. Don't just take the fence down because you don't like the fence. You got to find out why the fence is there. That's what we're doing right now."
Notre Dame will also likely see positive change in situational football under Golden. The NFL is a situational game, but Bengals players have raved about how Golden makes the game simple while also being extremely solid in scheme.
Golden also plans to listen to his assistants, so they have a voice in the defense.
"Whether it's contributing to the early downs, first and second down, those types of things, worked a lot in the redzone, worked a lot with the run game, then ultimately, as a staff, you're contributing to the game plan and ultimately what gets called on game day," said Golden. "Lou (Anarumo) did a great job down there (Cincinnati) and he did an awesome job in his adjustments, especially in the second half in the playoffs. He was spot on. But there's a lot of things that go into it.
"The biggest thing for me with our staff is empowerment. Empowering them. If you want the best out of them, give them an area that they can spearhead and bring it to the table and then from that standpoint, get all the ideas on the table and make the best decision for the players and for that particular concept or offense that you're facing."