Rising defensive coordinator Aaron Henry joins Notre Dame, bringing a history of forcing turnovers and developing top talent to bolster the Irish secondary.
Irish Breakdown has confirmed the hiring of Aaron Henry, former Illinois defensive coordinator as the next defensive backs coach at Notre Dame. The Irish and head coach Marcus Freeman were in search of a new defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator after the departure of Mike Mickens who is headed to the Baltimore Ravens.
The Florida native was current Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash's first defensive backs coach at Rutgers in 2016 when Ash was the head coach of the Scarlett Knights. They also worked together in 2014 when Ash was the defensive coordinator with the Arkansas Razorbacks and Henry was a Graduate Assistant on defense.
Henry was promoted to defensive coordinator for the Fighting Illini in 2022; he was their defensive backs coach in 2021 and 2022. Over the last two seasons, Illinois won 19 games which is the best two-year span in program history. Henry's defense played an integral role in that happening. As their defensive coordinator in 2024, Illinois finished the season ranked 10th in the country with 15 fumbles forced.
This past season, eight of 11 of the defensive starters for Illinois earned Big Ten honors. In their post season matchup with Tennessee in the Music City Bowl, the Illini defense held the high-powered Volunteer's offense to a season-low 278 total yards. Illinois went on to win 30-28. Henry is a young talent that will have a chance to learn under Freeman and Ash; he was the youngest defensive coordinator in the Big Ten when he was hired back in 2023.
Henry is walking into a winning situation with the Fighting Irish defense. Notre Dame returns four key starters on the back end including cornerback Christian Gray, safeties Adon Shuler and Tae Johnson and Unanimous All-American cornerback Leonard Moore. They also picked up two key pieces in the portal with DJ McKinney coming over from Colorado and Jayden Sanders coming over from Michigan.
The Irish also bring back rising sophomores Mark Zackery IV, Dallas Golden and Ethan Long from the 2025 class. Zackery and Golden saw a lot of meaningful minutes during the 2025 season and Long tallied an interception against Syracuse in the final home game of the regular season. They, along with the 2026 recruiting class that features Joey O'Brien, Khary Adams, Ayden Pouncy and several other, round out the depth in the best returning secondary in the country.
We'll continue to discuss this hire as the offseason progresses, but the process to replace Mickens, the best defensive backs coach at Notre Dame in my lifetime, took less than a calendar week. Henry has big shoes to fill, but his expectation won't be 'coach like Mickens'. But he will have to continue this extremely talented group of players and manage the back end of the Notre Dame defense.
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