SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There was not so much as a hint of culture shock Wednesday afternoon at Notre Dame Stadium from new Irish defensive coordinator Chris Ash’s regarding his re-entry into college football after a four-year run in the NFL.
That is, until the subject of recruiting came up.
“Boy, we don't have all day,” he said with a smile during an introductory press conference on how much the seismic changes, even in the last year or two, have forced him into remedial mode in terms of learning the new guardrails and dynamics.
“I mean, it's completely different. And I'm running, I'm scrambling, and I'm really just picking up bits and pieces about NIL, the transfer portal, all of those things and how it's different, how it's changed. And there's a lot of good things around it as well.
“So, I'm learning every single day. Every recruiting meeting that we have, meetings I have with recruiting staff, just trying to ask questions, gather information, and see how everybody operates and what is truly different about it today than it was four years ago when I was doing it.”
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Ash’s last college job, and thus having recruiting responsibilities, was with Texas in 2020.
The on-field part of his new position with the Irish is a more natural fit, especially with the way he’s chosen to approach it — Al Golden 2.0.
Golden left in late January to become the defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals after a successful three-year run in the same position for the Irish under head coach Marcus Freeman. Earlier this month, Golden was named the 2024 Broyles Award winner, as the nation’s top assistant college football coach.
“As we approach this situation here, I look at it [as] if it's not broke, don't fix it,” Ash said Wednesday as he and new running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider split 30 minutes answering questions from the Irish beat media. “And that was really the conversation that coach Freeman and I had about this situation.
“There has been really good football played here on defense. There's been standards, there's been accountability. They've been well-coached, and we're just looking at ways that we can try to enhance it and make it better.
“Conceptually, we're going to keep doing a lot of the same things that have been done here. Terminology may change a little bit, some fundamentals may change a little bit, but at the end of the day, the way Notre Dame has played defense is the way Notre Dame is going to play defense in the future.”
And that theme was reinforced throughout. With the presumptive start of spring practice less than three weeks away, on March 18, here are the other top takeaways from Ash’s Wednesday press conference:
WHY NOW? WHY NOTRE DAME?
The 51-year-old Ottumwa, Iowa, native spent last season as a scout for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and wasn’t looking for a job when the opportunity kind of found him.
“I really enjoyed what I was doing,” Ash said. “I was actually in personnel this last year in Jacksonville. It was a great learning opportunity. Coach Freeman called, and we started to have some initial conversations, and I looked at the whole thing.
“It's Notre Dame, the type of people that come to Notre Dame — players, staff. Obviously, the recent success, the opportunity for sustained success in the future. All of those things together made this a no-brainer for me, and it was going to take a lot to leave where we were at, but this was one of those jobs that you just can't pass up on.”
And that first impression became more indelible the deeper Ash got into the interview/hiring process.
“I was really excited that coach Freeman called me and had trust and belief and faith that I could come here and lead the defense. But when I came here to campus and the people that I met with, I could tell there was absolute alignment from the top, from Father Bob [Dowd] all the way down. And everything was first class. Everybody was great, professionals. Like this is the type of place I want to be a part of.
“So, I didn't need to talk to anybody else. I made that decision on my own, and it really was because of the people and the alignment that I saw here, and that everybody wants this place to be great — not only academically, but athletically. It was an easy choice for me.”
KEEPING A MULTI-POSITIONAL FOCUS
Ash is a safeties/defensive backs coach by trade, but like Golden did during most of his time at ND, he won’t coach a specific position group.
“I'm going to walk around and be able to observe all coaches in all positions,” said Ash when asked if he might assist defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, who oversees both cornerback and safeties.
“And talking about coach MIckens, he doesn't need my help. He's a great coach, great person. He’s done a nice job here coaching in the secondary. And I've known Mike for a while, for a long time, and he does a great job with the players.”
STAYING TRUE TO HIS ROOTS
Chris Ash can’t remember when exactly in his career timeline he made the more-than-a-decade-old instructional DVDs about playing “aggressive 4-3 defense.” And they’re available as a three-pack still from Championship Productions for the sale price of $104.99.
But even with him embracing Golden’s scheme and Freeman’s culture, and all the changes in his own philosophy and the college game. Ash says there’s still time-tested concepts from those DVDs that still play well in 2025.
“It's more about play style than it is anything else,” he said. “I don't care if we're 4-3, 3-4, 5-2. I don't really care about any of that stuff. It's about the play style.
“We want to play fast. We want to play violent. We want to be physical. We want to win at the point of attack. That's all that it's about. We want to play with energy and enthusiasm. We're going to coach, teach, and we're going to practice that way, and hopefully we'll play that way too.
“I probably have a little more gray hair now than I did back then and probably a little bit more right here [touching his belly], but hopefully the play style comes to life. It's really not going to be hard for me, because that's the way this defense has to be played. We're going to try to continue that.”
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE IRISH PLAYERS HAVING TO ADAPT
“I'm here to become one of them,” he said. “They're not here to adjust to me. I'm here to adjust to them — the staff, the players, the scheme, the whole overall culture of the organization. That's what I'm coming to be a part of.
“This is Notre Dame's defense. This is not my defense. This is Notre Dame's, and I'm coming here to try to help continue the success that they've had on defense and find ways to try to make it better. That's it.”
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