A year ago, Chris Ash felt ready for college football.
He had been a head coach and defensive coordinator at Power Four programs, but there was one major X-factor: Ash hadn’t been in the college game since 2020.
Notre Dame’s defense struggled during the first three games of the season, and while it would be unfair to pin all of those issues on Ash, there was no denying the adjustment period.
Marcus Freeman’s defensive coordinator was returning to the college game, joining a new staff and working with players he had never recruited or coached.
Now, Ash enters 2026 with an entirely different mindset.
In fact, Ash admitted last September that getting back into the college game required an adjustment.
“It was my first time back in college for four years,” stated Ash. “I've been in the NFL for four years and just getting back into some of the rules that are different, being in a new environment with a new staff that I had never worked with any of them before. New players that I had not recruited or been around. There was a big learning curve for me to go back to college in a new environment, a new process here that I had never been a part of before.”
That learning curve is gone.
Ash is confident he and the Irish defense can hit the ground running in 2026 and pick up where they left off last November, when Notre Dame emerged as one of the nation's top defensive units.
“It's a completely different experience for me going into game one,” explained Ash. “I'm comfortable with the process, with players, what we do, how we do it, all of it, from travel to road games or home games, that whole process is different.
“What does that mean? I don't know, but it feels a lot different this time around than at this point last year.”
The first hurdle will come Sunday night at Lambeau Field, where Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph presents an immediate challenge.
A year ago, Joseph was the Sun Belt Player of the Year at Old Dominion, throwing for 2,624 yards while rushing for another 1,007 and accounting for 34 total touchdowns.
Ash knows Joseph's athleticism will allow him to break contain at times. The key will be making sure those moments are the exception rather than the rule.
“We're always aware that the quarterback's the main priority for us,” said Ash. “When he drops back to pass, making sure that we make him throw from the pocket and stay in the pocket and not let him get out.
“He's going to get out. Most athletic quarterbacks in the course of the game do get out, but we've got to limit those opportunities, and then just make sure that we're doing a great job on the coverage part, so if he does get out, you know we can rally and pursue and make sure that we take care of our coverage.”
Joseph’s dual-threat ability will give most coordinators a lack of sleep throughout the week, but the good news for Ash is his defense has seen this before.
“Colton's a really good athlete,” Ash stated. “In college football, you face a lot of athletic quarterbacks. Last year, we played Arkansas, and they had one of the fastest quarterbacks in America. This isn't new or unique. It doesn't mean that we're ready for the challenge yet. We've got work to do, but our players understand how hard this is going to be.”
Joseph may be the biggest immediate concern, but Ash also has a good problem to solve up front.
Notre Dame appears to have considerable depth along its defensive line, particularly on the interior. The Irish could potentially go six deep at the position, but Ash's challenge isn't simply finding six players he trusts.
It's figuring out which combinations give Notre Dame the best chance to win.
“There's a lot of things that you'll look at to decide who's going to start, who's going to rotate, who's going to play together,” Ash explained. “Every year it's different. Every week it may be different based on what the strengths of the players are and what we need to stop.
“We'll look at a lot of those things. Sometimes somebody needs to be with a really good communicator. There's a lot of things that can go on based on how we're aligning our front, a three-technique may need to play a nose. A nose may play three-technique based on what the offense is doing.”
One aspect of game day that won't change for Ash is where he'll be coaching.
Ash will once again call the defense from the sideline, a decision shaped by his experience as a head coach at Rutgers.
“Where it changed for me is after I was a head coach at Rutgers on the sideline, and I became a lot more comfortable being down amongst the players and in the action,” stated Ash. “After I did that, I started coordinating from the sideline, and I think that's where my training—because I had been in the box pretty much my whole career until I did that—and once I did that, I got a lot more comfortable being on the sideline. I could see the game better. I could talk to the players.”
Could that eventually change? Ash isn't ruling it out.
But for now, he believes being on the sideline gives him the best vantage point to communicate with his coaches and players. And with Notre Dame putting every position coach on the sideline except quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli, the Irish will have a staff built to operate in the action.
“It’s not just what's best for me, it's what's best for the staff, and that's really where it starts,” said Ash. “What's best for the staff and what's best for players? Right now, for me, I feel best down on the sideline amongst the coaches that are down there, the players are down there. If that ever changes, I feel comfortable going upstairs too.”
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