Al Golden becomes the final and most intriguing Notre Dame coaching piece

Worth the wait?

For Notre Dame and Al Golden, the Irish football program’s next defensive coordinator/linebackers coach, formally announced Wednesday, the riddle cuts both ways.

In December of 2004, as newly anointed Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis initially slow-played recruiting and assembling a coaching staff to live a double life of sorts, Golden’s name came wafting into the mix.

Eventually, Weis, pulling double-duty as the outgoing offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, chose Rick Minter to run his defense. Golden, a dynamic recruiter and rising star as a defensive coordinator, stayed put at Virginia.

A year later, he became the second-youngest head coach in the FBS, at age 36, taking over a reclamation project at Temple — a program that had gotten kicked out of the Big East for falling woefully short of even approaching mediocrity.

Eight defensive coordinator openings and roughly 17 years later at ND, Golden is back. And a perceived fit. And a splendiferously compelling wild card in 36-year-old Marcus Freeman’s plucky evolution of the head coaching position at Notre Dame.

The 52-year-old New Jersey native comes to Notre Dame from the Cincinnati Bengals, where he served as linebackers coach for the past two seasons. His courtship was elongated by the Bengals’ unlikely run to the Super Bowl, Golden’s insistence on not making headlines or a final decision during it, and Freeman’s belief that patience trumped moving on to Plan B.

Golden's résumé, out of context, has a sort of point/counterpoint feel to it. But context is everything in this hire.

The former Penn State tight end came out of former Irish All-America O-lineman Quenton Nelson’s high school — Red Bank (N.J.) Catholic — which is also where he got his coaching start after a brief NFL career. As an offensive coordinator.

Golden hasn’t been a defensive coordinator since 2005 and hasn’t coached in the college ranks since 2015.

But he brings 10 years of head-coaching experience, something Freeman values.

His initial rise in the college coaching world came from learning the 3-4 defense that his boss at Virginia, Al Groh, wanted to run. Golden owned it and flexed it.

But he is schematically flexible. And he has to be. Golden will be tasked with collaborating on Freeman’s defense and with defensive assistants he inherited instead of hiring.

“Al Golden doesn’t have that massive ego, so he’ll be able to work well with Marcus. I think that’s a big key,” said longtime recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who’s known Golden well for a couple of decades.

“Having a former guy who’s been a head coach and with NFL experience, coming back to work with a guy who’s younger than him, he's got to put his ego aside and work for the good of the team. And he’s that type of guy who will do that. So, I think he’s the perfect fit.”

The seventh of seven assistant coaching openings to find a match post-Brian Kelly to LSU, Golden was formally introduced via a cool graphic on social media a day after news broke that he and ND had reached a deal.

But he and Notre Dame don’t need to be introduced to each other. Their paths have crossed several times, including:

• In 1990, when Golden scored the tying touchdown as 18th-ranked Penn State rallied past a No. 1-ranked Notre Dame team, 24-21, at Notre Dame Stadium. Former Irish tight ends coach John McNulty was a teammate (safety). The Nittany Lions, favored in 1991, won the rematch too, 35-13, in Happy Valley.

• In three seasons as Boston College’s linebackers coach (1997-99), when the Irish routed the Eagles in the first meeting (52-20), squeaked by them in the second (31-26) and lost to them in the third (31-29).

• Golden’s most recent encounter came during Notre Dame’s 2012 season that ended in the BCS National Championship Game. The Irish flattened Miami, 41-3, in Chicago for their fifth of 12 wins that regular season.

Three years later, Golden was fired, in season, after Miami’s worst loss ever at the time. A 58-0 late-October romp by eventual national title runner-up Clemson turned out to be his last college game, three weeks after the Tigers survived a Notre Dame rally in a 24-22 Clemson win.

Golden was 32-26 overall at Miami and 17-18 in the ACC.

“He’s a much better coach than that record showed,” Lemming said. “He inherited all kinds of NCAA sanctions at Miami, and the high school coaches in Miami-Dade County never warmed up to him. That was a tough combination to overcome.”

Now he’s back in the college ranks with something to prove and a stage that will amplify that process as well as the scrutiny that comes with it.

Golden joins fellow staff newcomers Brian Mason (special teams), Harry Hiestand (offensive line), Chansi Stuckey (wide receivers), Al Washington (defensive line), Deland McCullough (running backs) and Gerad Parker (tight ends).

“I think Al Golden would have done well had Charlie Weis hired him,” Lemming said, “and I think he’s an even better version of himself now. Much better.

“He's got a great track record as a coach. He knows defense. He’s what Marcus wants in a recruiter. He’s personable and intelligent. He’s exactly what Marcus was looking for.”

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Born July 4, 1969

Hometown: Colts Neck, N.J.

High School: Red Bank (N.J.) Catholic High

College: Penn State (Pre-law 1991); Virginia (Master’s in sports psychology 1996)

Family: Wife Kelly; Son A.J.; Daughters Addison, Grace.

PLAYING CAREER

Penn State (tight end, 1988-91)

New England Patriots (tight end, 1992)

COACHING CAREER

Year: Team - Position

1993: Red Bank (N.J.) Catholic H.S. - Offensive Coordinator

1994-96: Virginia - Graduate Assistant

1997-99: Boston College - Linebackers

2000: Penn State - Linebackers

2001-05: Virginia - Defensive Coordinator

2006-10: Temple - Head Coach

2011-15: Miami (Fla.) - Head Coach

2016-17: Detroit Lions - Tight Ends

2018-19: Detroit Lions - Linebackers

2020-21: Cincinnati Bengals - Linebackers

---------------------------------------------------------------

• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.

• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.

• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND and @TJamesND.

• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports

• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports