Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 APRIL 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W hen Marcus Freeman finally completed his 10-week staff construction project with the hiring of Al Golden as his de- fensive coordinator in February, the first-year Notre Dame head coach emphasized two reasons why he be- lieves this was the perfect fit for his most important assistant hire. First, Freeman needed and wanted someone with head coaching expe- rience. Golden spent five years as the head man at Temple (2006-10) before taking the top job at Miami for five seasons (2011-15). Second, needing to bring in a third different Irish DC in the last three seasons, Freeman explained that he wasn't interested in a complete de- fensive overhaul, nor was he look- ing for a "my way or the highway" coach. And with Golden, Freeman believes he landed the candidate who perfectly fit both criteria. "I was looking for a person that didn't want to come in here and just drop his playbook and say, 'Hey, this is what we're doing,'" Freeman explained. "Al Golden was a guy who said, 'Hey, let me evaluate what you all are doing. Let me evaluate your players and let's put together the best scheme.'" As a former head coach, Golden not only provides a valuable veteran been- there-done-that resource and sounding board for a rookie head coach, but he's also a wingman who's willing to learn and respect Freeman's defensive vision, but is unafraid to tweak, enhance and add to it as needed. "Al Golden is the defensive coordina- tor. Marcus Freeman is not the defensive coordinator," Freeman emphasized. "He has to take this thing over, and the abil- ity to come in and adapt to what our players know, I think, is a huge benefit." It's also, Freeman explained, a testa- ment to the kind of person Golden is. It's no secret that successful coaches often have big egos and can be inflex- ible and stubborn in tinkering with the styles or strategies that have served them well. For the 52-year-old Golden — who began his college coaching career in 1994 when Freeman was 8 years old — to graciously accept Freeman's chal- lenge of enhancing the defense instead of bulldozing it has made for a quick coaching bond and a successful start to spring. THE GOLDEN TOUCHES Only two practices into the spring season, Freeman and Notre Dame of- fensive coordinator Tommy Rees ad- mitted to being pleasantly impressed with how a suggestion from Golden to start the early spring practices with a heavy emphasis on red zone perfor- mance was already benefiting both the Irish offense and defense. Rees explained that through his per- sonal coaching career, red zone con- centration always came later during instillation. "Our first two installs were all for the red area, which is something that Coach Golden had brought up early, and some- thing that they had done," Rees said. "You're not going to have as many guys running out early in camp where they can pull a hamstring. "You condense the field, and really, you're going to get a chunk of time on an extremely important situation." And given that Notre Dame fin- ished only 102nd nationally in red zone offense and 89th in red zone defense last season, Freeman fully approved of Golden's fresh installa- tion approach. " We 're d o i n g so m e d i f fe re n t things that we didn't do in the red zone, and I think our guys are really embracing it," Freeman said. "They still understand the things we did last year and how that's part of our defensive scheme now, and I think they are embracing the enhance- ment of it." Additionally, Golden has brought a broader approach to the practice routine. In a safeguard against the inev- itable unknowns every football season brings, Golden is having several of his players cross train this spring at mul- tiple positions and position groups. "We just want to make sure we are building depth," Golden said. "You never know what's going to happen both on game day or throughout the season. We're just trying to cross train a bunch of guys in multiple roles, and that's going to make us stronger in the long term, and also help us develop a conceptual mindset of what's going on around them, which is important." And so far so good, Golden said, in terms of early returns, coaching conti- nuity and player engagement. "They're yearning for information," Golden explained of his players' buy- in. "They're trying to learn and it's been awesome. They are such a good group in terms of bringing it every day and being the same group every day, and the lead- ers have been awesome." ✦ Golden has already provided some positive input this spring, including bringing a broader approach to Notre Dame's prac- tice routine. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Defensive Coordinator Al Golden Is Making An Immediate Impact UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com