Notre Dame turns to another former college head coach to manage her defense.
A few days after the departure of Al Golden to become the defensive coordinator of the Bengals of Cincinnati, the Fighting Irish hired the former coach of Rutgers Chris Ash to be their new defensive coordinator, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN. Ash has been in the NFL since the start of the 2021 season and worked as a scout for Jacksonville jaguars in 2024.
Sources: Chris Ash has accepted work as a new defensive coordinator of Notre Dame. Ash brings a mixture of coordination experience, NFL experience and high -end results as a college coordinator. An agreement should be finalized in the near future. pic.twitter.com/1qojdpb6jf
– Pete Thamel (@pethamel) January 29, 2025
Golden, a former head coach from Miami and the Temple, had been the defensive coordinator of Notre Dame for the first three seasons of the mandate of the coach Marcus Freeman. Notre Dame had one of the best defenses in the country in 2024, the Irish only granted 15.5 points per game and 4.8 yards per game. Only four teams – including Ohio State, the team that beat Notre Dame during the national championship match on January 20 – gave less points per game.
Ash was chief coach at Rutgers from 2016 to 2019 after working as a defensive coordinator at Wisconsin, Arkansas and Ohio State in the 2010s. ASH was co-coordinator of Ohio State with the current Wisconsin Luke Fickell coach when the Buckeyes beat Alabama and Oregon to win the first play football playoffs at the end of the 2014 season.
However, ASH’s mandate with Scarlet Knights did not go well. Rutgers had only 8-33 in its time in charge after being hired to succeed the current coordinator of the Texas offensive, Kyle Flood. ASH was dismissed in September 2019 after a start to the season of 1-3.
Since Rutgers training, Ash has worked for Jaguars and Raiders. He spent a season as a jacksonville security coach in 2021 before driving the defensive backs of the raiders in 2022 and 2023.
To Notre Dame, Ash will have a solid core of defenders in 2025. Although the Irish people lose players like Jack Kiser, Xavier Watts and Rylie Mills, players like Drayk Bowen, Adon Sheler and Jaida ausberry should come back.
