Less than a week after losing its defensive coordinator to the NFL, Notre Dame is set to lure Chris Ash from the NFL to be the new DC in South Bend, Ind., ESPN first reported Wednesday.
Ash, 51, has been in the NFL since the 2021 season and was a scout for Jacksonville in 2024. He replaces Al Golden, who departed ND last week to be the new defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Ash went 8-32 as the head coach at Rutgers from 2016-19, getting fired after a 1-3 start to the 2019 campaign. Prior to that, he was the DC at Wisconsin, Arkansas and Ohio State, where he was co-coordinator with Luke Fickell on the Buckeyes’ 2014 College Football Playoff championship team.
Ash coached safeties with the Jaguars in 2021 before going to the Las Vegas Raiders to coach defensive backs in 2022 and 2023.
Ash also spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons at Texas, the latter as DC and safeties coach under Tom Herman.
Under Golden in 2024, the Fighting Irish defense finished fifth in the nation in points allowed per game (15.5). Notre Dame lost to Ohio State in the CFP championship game.
