Notre Dame's coaching carousel spins as departures ignite mailbag questions on defensive strategy and national title aspirations.
Another week of the offseason has come to a close and we are another week closer to the start of the 2026 football season. Like we do most weeks, Irish Breakdown had their Friday free-for-all mailbag. We answered questions about Al Washington's departure to head to the Miami Dolphins, some stat projections and had a handful of questions about other teams across the country. There's a lot of questions surrounding the Notre Dame defensive coaching staff. After all, every coach that was a part of the 2024 season has now moved onto other opportunities.
Al Golden is now the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals. Mike Mickens and Al Washington are also in the NFL with the Ravens and Dolphins respectively. Max Bullough is the only former assistant who remained at the collegiate level; he returned to Michigan State to be their co-defensive coordinator. We answered all these questions in today's Friday free-for-all mailbag.
You can watch the full episode here:
Here are some of the questions we answered in today's free-for-all mailbag:
On Al Washington's Departure...
"It's a definite blow. The defensive line at Notre Dame has been one of the most underrated units in the country the last two seasons. The job Al Washington did in South Bend in 2024 and 2025 was exceptional. He took a position with a former coach that he coached with at Ohio State and was the head coach at his alma mater Boston College. Now, the search begins for a new linebackers coach, a position that Marcus Freeman holds near and dear to his heart."
On Changes To Linebacker Coaching Philosophy...
"One big thing I would like to see improve is the linebacker's ability to play in space. With as much zone coverage as Chris Ash likes to run, improving their ability to play in space would be preferable. It's not that they did a bad job before, but as a room, there's some room for improvement in that area. Adding more tools to the toolbelt in pass rushing skillset would also be a nice cherry on top to that as well. Again, it wasn't bad in 2024 or 2025 by any means, but what are we talking about here? It's about competing for national titles."
On Dabo Swinney's Tampering Comments...
"More coaches need to do what Dabo did and call it out. It wasn't like other coaches who would call it out and whine about it, but not follow it up with action. Dabo called them out by name and listed what Ole Miss did, with Clemson's athletic director sitting right beside him. If there's going to be any real change to what's happening right now in college football, more coaches, athletic directors and presidents need to take a stand against what's been happening. Same thing goes for the Duke and Miami situation with Darien Mensah."
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