Bengals hire Notre Dame Al Golden as defensive coordinator

Notre Dame football’s outstanding defensive coordinator has earned a promotion to coach in the professional ranks. On Wednesday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the Cincinnati Bengals are set to hire Al Golden for the same position.

The 55-year Golden, a Colts Neck, N.J., native, just completed his third season with the Fighting Irish. He will rejoin head coach Zac Taylor’s staff in Cincinnati, where he served as the linebackers coach from 2020-21. The Bengals reached the Super Bowl during the 2021 season. He joined the Irish in 2022, coach Marcus Freeman’s first as head coach.

Golden directed the Notre Dame defense to three remarkable seasons. Under his tutelage, they were top-25 in total defense every year. The Irish were also in the top 10 in scoring defense in the last two seasons. Last month, the Broyles Award — presented annually to college football’s top assistant coach —named Golden one of five finalists.

When Golden took over the Irish in 2022, it was the first time he had been a defensive coordinator since his days at Virginia from 2001-05. He became Temple’s head coach from 2006-10 and Miami from 2011-15. Before his time with the Bengals, Golden was the Detroit Lions tight ends coach from 2016-17 and the linebackers coach from 2018-19.

He also coaches linebackers at Boston College (1997-99) and Penn State (2000), where he graduated in 1991. He started coaching at Red Bank (N.J.) Red Bank Catholic as an offensive coordinator in 1993. After that season, he had his first stint in Virginia as a graduate student from 1994-96.

Who will Notre Dame hire as defensive coordinator?

With Golden off to Cincinnati, Freeman will have to appoint a new coordinator to his staff for the fifth time. Four of those hires involved coaches who had previous ties to Freeman.

After the 2022 season, he had to fill vacancies left by offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and special teams coordinator Brian Mason. Freeman promoted tight ends coach Gerad Parker to offensive coordinator and tapped Ole Miss special teams coordinator Marty Biagi to lead Notre Dame’s unit. Biagi was a special teams analyst with the Irish in 2016. Mason replaced former Irish special teams coordinator Brian Polian, who followed Brian Kelly to LSU after 2021.

When Parker — who coached with Freeman at Purdue from 2013-16 — left Notre Dame after the 2023 season to become the head coach at Troy, Freeman snagged LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. Freeman worked with Denbrock at the University of Cincinnati from 2017-20. Mason was also on the Bearcats’ staff.

Golden’s departure marks the program’s fifth defensive coordinator search since 2017.