SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Al Golden’s voice had every bit the urgency on Saturday after a spring football practice than it did in the days last October when he was tasked with crafting a game plan to contain USC’s seemingly uncontainable QB Caleb Williams.
Which speaks boisterously to why Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was so eager to sign the 54-year-old defensive coordinator to a four-year extension in February.
That, and the results of what turned out to be a smothering of Williams and USC that mid-October night and by the end of the 2023 season the best national ranking in total defense in more than four decades (fifth) in Golden’s second year with the Irish after a six-year run in the NFL.
“I'm excited to be here,” he said Saturday after practice No. 8 of 15 this spring and in his first comments to the media since late December. “It's a blessing obviously to be on the staff and work for this institution.
“And it's even a greater blessing to be able to coach these kids. So, to me that's what's fun. That's what makes you get up, work hard and do all the little things you’ve got to do to make these kids as good as they can be.”
Which means taking nothing for granted, including the return of four key players who deferred their NFL aspirations for another year — All-Americans, safety Xavier Watts and nose guard Howard Cross III, as well as defensive tackle Rylie Mills and linebacker Jack Kiser.
Junior cornerback Ben Morrison is another key returnee from a unit that topped the nation’s pass-efficiency defensive statistic, the first time since the NCAA started using that metric in 1990 that an Irish team finished No. 1.
“That's what the spring is for — to figure out who you are and what you do best,” Golden said about the building process that has ensued. “And we're not the ’23 defense. We’re the ’24 defense. We could certainly learn a lot from what we did last year, but you can't really carry it forward, if you know what I mean.
“Each group has its own personality, its own leadership. So, we're waiting for all those things to kind of emerge, and we're trying to decide as we go.”
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Perhaps no one personifies that process this spring more than junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed. The highest-ranked recruit in the 2022 Irish class has spent his first two seasons at ND as a mostly intriguing, sometimes enigmatic reserve/niche player with a clear path to a starting role at rover in 2024.
“Mature, settling in, fun to be around,” Golden offered of Sneed’s spring. “Much more consistent. It's slowing down for him. And again, starting to just see him do a lot of things well, whether it's in the box, in the apex, third down, special teams — just, he's talented. And he's starting to turn it into skill, which is fun.”
From the outside looking in, though, the 6-foot-1, 218-pound Hilton Head, S.C., product, though, is the kind of player who at his peak could elevate an already veteran defense with a strong track record. A notion Golden didn’t push back on.
“We’ve got to get him to his peak here pretty soon,” he said with a chuckle. “No, I just think the versatility, right? He's got length. He’s sudden. He can cover in space. But if you just think he's out there to cover, then you can bring him. He can blitz.
“On third down, he can move around. Is he covering the back? Is he rushing the quarterback? Is he a spy? Can he drop from wherever he's aligned? Like, what I'm describing is hard. If one person can do that, that's pretty good. And he can.
“So, we do ask him to do a lot, but he's settling in, and I love his attitude right now and just excited to see him grow. Physically, he's growing. Mentally, he's grown. He's more mature. So, we’ll just see where his next three months go.”
Rising safeties
Some staff shuffling this offseason, prompted by safeties coach Chris O’Leary’s departure to coach in the NFL with the L.A. Chargers, has given Golden more freedom to move among the different position groups than be anchored at linebacker.
He’s taken that opportunity to spend a good share of that time with the safeties, where sophomores Luke Talich and Adon Shuler have been auditioning to be All-American Xavier Watts’ sidekick.
Talich, whose freshman season was cut short by a broken collarbone, actually played in more games (8 to 5), but Shuler took more snaps at safety (52 to 6) as Talich’s role was primarily on special teams.
June-enrolling Northwestern transfer Rod Heard II is still the long-term favorite to land that role opposite Watts, but at the very least Shuler and Talich are making a case to expand the positional rotation and to be a part of it.
“The big thing with Adon that you admire is like he's just not going to be outworked,” Golden said. “He's just got that blue-collar mindset, and he's always in the building. He's always trying to be better. He's ultra-competitive. He loves the game. He's fun to communicate with.
“So yeah, I mean those are all those are all great traits. You need those things to be a good safety, and he's going in the right direction, and we're excited about that.”
Talich, meanwhile, was converted from walk-on status to a scholarship after the 2023 season.
“Luke’s smart and he cares,” Golden offered. “I think the biggest thing with Luke is how quickly can we get him to transition from knowing it to playing with his heart to playing with energy and doing all that.
“And that's a tough little journey for a lot of guys, and everybody takes it at a different speed, if you will. And that's the journey we're trying to help him through right now — to have it go from his head to his heart, so he's not thinking as much, so he's not worried about this, or ‘if they do that …’
“Just go play. And so, it gets a little bit challenging in the spring, because we're installing a lot, but I expect him to catch up here shortly.”
Bullish on Bullough
One of the calculated chain reactions of O’Leary’s departure was the promotion of grad assistant Max Bullough to a full-time role coaching the Irish linebackers.
“He's smart,” Golden said. “He's talented. He has experience, because he played the position, and I think he's tough. There's a mental toughness aspect to going through what he did as a GA, whether it's at Alabama or here.
“I did it for three years. It's tough. It's hard, and he exemplified that. Whether it's drawing cards or doing the breakdown or all the little details that are going to make you a better coach, he did that at a really high level. And he earned that opportunity. So, I'm glad he's with us.”
Golden then took time to reflect on his own experience as a graduate assistant, a role he held for three years at Virginia (1994-96), working with linebackers and special teams after playing tight end at Penn State and briefly with the New England Patriots.
“We didn't have all these cut-ups like these guys,” Golden said. “We had to make our own cut-ups. You were doing scouting reports by hand, but all of that is part of it. Like coach [Bill] O'Brien said when I first started, ‘You don't want to skip that. If you skip that learning, or that step, there's a hole in who you are as a coach.’
“And being a young GA and breaking down all these different offenses and learning how offenses are attacking you as you're breaking it down and trying to help your staff understand on Sunday, Monday of game week, ‘Hey, this is how they're attacking us’ — like that's a big step. And I think that's probably what I remember most.”
Kiser on a roll
The intrigue when it comes to Notre Dame’s linebacker corps is how quickly and thoroughly the young wave of ultra-athletic, high-pedigreed prospects evolve into top-flight college linebackers.
The surprise, perhaps, is that the veteran among them — sixth-year returnee Jack Kiser — has made that kind of quantum improvement this offseason and it has discernably carried over into spring football.
“I thought Jack's December was incredible,” Golden said. “I thought Jack really focused on some things in December, and then if you look at him now, he's 235 pounds and just strong.
“Jack could always run, but now he's strong. He's playing bigger in the box, but still has the catch-up speed that you need to cover and do all those things. So, I'm really excited about Jack, and he's really had a good spring.”
And he continues to help accelerate the learning of the likes of sophomores Drayk Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry and freshman prodigy Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa.
“One of our biggest tenets is just empowerment,” Golden said of the learning process of the ascending, young players. “Let them let them figure things out — teach them how to fish, if you will. Don't feed them.
“Don't stand behind them during practice and tell them to get lined up here or lined up there or ‘you should have done that.’ Don't yell at them during the play or before the play. Let them learn how to do it. Let them go through it and let them learn how to make decisions.
“In other words, don't create an environment where indecision is OK. Let them learn how to make a decision. And then when they come over to the sideline, we help them understand, ‘Well, maybe try this next time’ or ‘That was a great solution, but here's what we would want to do in a game.’ So, that's really how we're based.”
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