Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544783
8 SUMMER 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA N otre Dame's spring football ses- sion was just as much about new coaches getting acclimated to their sur- roundings in South Bend as it was figur- ing out what the Fighting Irish have in the players they'll rely on in a 12-game regular season slate that needs to, for Notre Dame's sake, end with a better record than 10-2 and a qualification for the College Football Playoff. New defensive backs coach. New linebackers coach. New defensive line coach. That's a pretty significant over- haul for a program that had gotten used to continuity at the top. The head coach and coordinators are all the same, but former defensive backs coach Mike Mickens was a culture piece and some- one who was in lockstep with what Mar- cus Freeman practiced, preached and demanded. Former linebackers coach Max Bullough had grown into a foun- dational asset in that way, too, and like with Mickens, Freeman hasn't ever had a coaching staff sans former Irish defen- sive line coach Al Washington until now. So, in come Aaron Henry to coach the secondary, Brian Jean-Mary to work with the linebackers and Charlie Partridge to oversee the defensive line. Henry is not Mickens. Jean-Mary is not Bullough. Partridge is not Washington. They all have their own coaching styles and philosophies unique to them. But how their predecessors went about their business worked, and Free- man and defensive coordinator Chris Ash are mindful of that, so those two made sure drastic changes weren't im- plemented from the very start. Over- complicating things with new termi- nology and teaching components could have had adverse effects on a Notre Dame defense that's already stout in so many ways. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? "At times it could be a double-edged sword," Freeman said. "One is that ev- erybody has knowledge and everybody has wisdom, but what can we package UNDER THE DOME FRESH START Notre Dame eases three new defensive coaches into all things Fighting Irish Defensive coordinator Chris Ash enters his second season with the Fighting Irish with three new posi- tion coaches reporting to him. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER