Al Golden Shares Thoughts on Recruiting and the Future of Notre Dame's Defense

Al Golden might be in Cincinnati, but the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator went 1-on-1 with ISD in New Orleans to discuss recruiting and what helped pave the way for the Irish to have one of the best defenses in the nation over the last two seasons. 

Notre Dame has recruited a different type of athlete on defense since Marcus Freeman took over three years ago and Golden took that a step further. 

”In general, for our defense, we love kids who are smart, love the game of football and are really football guys,” Golden stated. “Leonard Moore is a football guy - a guy who respects the history of the great players who have come before him. 

“We still want to play a physical brand of football. At the end of the day, linebackers have to be leaders, or it's hard to have a great defense. Communication is key. Max (Bullough) has done a great job with the evaluations. It takes a collective effort.” 

Bullough’s recruiting style isn’t one where kids are talking about their great phone conversations with him. What recruits rave about is the time spent with Notre Dame’s linebacker coach in the meeting film. 

The level of detail is almost always highlighted, while Bullough demonstrating drills in the room is also a usual occurrence, which has been a hit with recruits. 

Bullough’s hands-on style shows how he’ll coach each player, but it’s also a way to test recruits on the traits the staff covets in a linebacker. 

“As they come to visit, you have meetings,” Golden explained. “Are they waiting for lunchtime or asking questions? Max does a great job with individual meetings of showing them the techniques, scheme and how it would apply to them. Each linebacker is different. You have Jaiden Ausberry and Kyngstonn (Viliamu-Asa) in the same linebacker room, but they have different body types and different things they bring to the overall defense.

“Max does a great job of showing the players the future and how they’ll be used. If they’re not inquisitive, then maybe they’re not for us and that’s OK. Not everyone is for Notre Dame. At the end of the day, we have a clear picture of what we’re looking for at that position.” 

It’s clear Golden had a great deal of trust in Bullough when it came to the recruiting process. Yet, it wasn’t just Bullough. It was the whole staff at Notre Dame and in every aspect of the program. 

“Everybody on defense,” said Golden. “Trust in recruiting. Trust on the field. Trust on game day. One of the misconceptions is there is some secret recipe when you’re a defensive coordinator. There’s not. If I do anything well, I defer to what the coaches see and what they feel their players can execute at a high level and we get rid of everything else. You can’t do that without trust.” 

The offer process is one of the areas Golden noticed a significant change in since his days as a college coach and even a player for Penn State. 

It’s a sped-up process as recruits are being offered as freshmen and sophomores in high school, but also, the quantity of offers each school hands out is much greater than in the past. 

“That’s a challenge right now in recruiting,” Golden stated. “Offers have changed. There’s all kinds of qualifiers on offers in our business. That’s not the way it was when I was growing up. When you received an offer, it was a big deal. Now, there’s a lot of offering and a lot of over-offering. 

“I’m sure Leonard didn’t have 100 offers when he was a sophomore, but he kept evolving and getting better. I think there are a lot of guys who are like that on our defense. It’s why it’s important to know what you’re looking for.” 

As for the future of Notre Dame's defense, Golden believes Notre Dame has a leader in the middle of the defense who reminds him of a player he drafted in 2020 and will now get to coach for a second time in Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson. 

“I didn’t think of that,” Golden said when asked if Bowen and Wilson were similar. “Logan can play straight and strong. I think Drayk does that. Drayk is a knockback tackler and can play in the box really well. He has enough lateral quickness to get to the perimeter and is a good leader. I think Drayk will end up being bigger physically. People don’t realize how big Draky is right now. He’s a big, physical linebacker. That’s a great comparison.” 

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