Overcoming injuries and scrutiny, Al Washington transformed Notre Dame's defensive line into a pressure-generating powerhouse, earning a national coaching award nomination.
Notre Dame defensive line coach Al Washington named a finalist for Football Scoop's Defensive Line Coach of the Year Award. Washington is one of five finalists up for this award from Football Scoop. The Fighting Irish defensive line coach had been under some scrutiny over the last few seasons, by some, for a couple of different reasons varying from on-the-field performance to performance along the recruiting trail. After the past two seasons, Washington should absolutely be a finalist for this award.
Last season, Notre Dame suffered a handful of significant injuries on their way to the National Championship game. They lost Boubacar Traore, Jordan Botelho and Jason Onye for the year in the regular season, Howard Cross, Josh Burnham and Gabriel Rubio for stints throughout the regular season and lost Rylie Mills in for the rest of the post season after an injury sustained in the first round of the College Football Playoffs.
This season, however, Traore, Onye and Botelho all returned, Burnham played an extremely important role and was a force on the exterior down the stretch and other young players continued to step up for this unit. Notre Dame's defense finished the season ranked 1st in the country in total pressures according to Pro Football Focus. As a defense, they finished with 285 total pressures and 79 hits plus sacks on the quarterback. The Fighting Irish defensive line accounted for 206 of those pressures and 51 of those sacks plus hits on the quarterback.
Washington's playing experience helps play a big role in player development. He played at Boston College from 2002 to 2005 before starting his coaching career at 2007. Washington returned to his Alma Mater in 2012 as the defensive line coach until he departed for the same role at Cincinnati in 2017. He was at Michigan in 2018 as their linebackers coach and took on the same role at Ohio State from 2019 to 2021. Washington was hired at Notre Dame in 2022 and is currently their defensive line coach as well as their defensive run game coordinator.
Notre Dame's defensive line was led by Traore, a redshirt sophomore, and Bryce Young, a true sophomore. Traore and Young led the team in pressures combining for 59 total pressures, 25 hits plus sacks on the quarterback, and that was with Traore sitting out against Navy due to their triple option offense. Washington also helped develop players like Burnham and Junior Tuihalamaka who came to the program as linebackers. He also got the most out of Jared Dawson who transferred from Louisville; Dawson was their most consistent interior defensive lineman at times.
The defensive line was a major question mark heading into the season after losing guys like Cross and Mills, but by the end of the season, it was an overall strength of this defense. Their improvement on the field, combined with Washington's stellar performance on the recruiting trail, makes him an obvious finalist for the Defensive Line Coach of the Year Award from Football Scoop.
Football Scoop Defensive Line Coach of the Year Finalists
Kenny Baker/LaAllan Clark, Texas
Todd Bates/Miguel Chavis, Oklahoma
Sean Spencer/Tony Jerod-Edie/Stan Watson, Texas A&M
Zarnell Fitch, Texas Tech
Al Washington, Notre Dame
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