What everyone has seen coming for days, even before the National Championship game, has reportedly happened. The Cincinnati Bengals are hiring Al Golden as their next defensive coordinator, creating a large hole to fill on the Notre Dame coaching staff as the Irish get ready to go back to work after coming up just short of the program’s 12th national championship. The search to replace Golden could be a relatively short one if Marcus Freeman wants to make an internal hire. Freeman is on the record saying secondary coach Mike Mickens is ready to be a defensive coordinator.
“He’s ready to be a defensive coordinator when he gets the right opportunity,” Freeman said ahead of the Sugar Bowl. “But I’m not excited to see him leaving our defensive staff anytime soon,” he added.
Well, he might not have to worry about that if Freeman feels like that right opportunity is the one he currently has to fill following Golden’s departure.
Mickens has been at Notre Dame since 2020 and has an impeccable record as a recruiter and talent developer. Before he arrived, cornerback recruiting at Notre Dame was a mess. That changed quickly under Mickens, resulting in the likes of Benjamin Morrison, Christian Gray, and Leonard Moore in the last three cycles alone.
Mickens was also instrumental in turning converted wide receiver Cam Hart into an NFL cornerback. He’s also proven to have an eye for talent in the transfer portal, with Notre Dame landing experienced nickel corners Thomas Harper and Jordan Clark, who played vital roles on the Irish defense each of the past two seasons. Notre Dame has Alabama transfer Devonta Smith transferring in to likely fill that role in 2025.
However, there is a big difference between being a great recruiter and position coach and being a great coordinator. To date, Mickens has not had to call a defense. That doesn’t have to be disqualifying. Clark Lea never called a defense before Brian Kelly tabbed him to replace Mike Elko in 2018, and that worked out just fine. Still, there is something to be said for having a coach on the staff with the kind of experience Golden brought.
As Freeman looks to hire a new defensive coordinator, the situation is vastly different from what it was three years ago when he plucked Golden from the same Bengals staff that Golden is returning to now. At the time, Freeman was a 36-year-old first-time head coach without any experience running a program. Golden, a former two-time head coach at Temple and Miami, was a critical hire for him because it gave him someone on his staff who ran a program for a big-time program. Freeman is still a very young head coach three years later, but three years of experience at Notre Dame – especially after a season as long as this one – is like having twice that amount of experience at a smaller program. While having an experienced coach as a confidant on the staff would certainly be nice, it’s not as critical as it was then.
Freeman’s background as a defensive coordinator could allow him to take a bit of a risk on a first-time defensive coordinator – especially with an experienced OC, Mike Denbrock, to run the offense.
Should Freeman hire outside of his current staff, he risks potentially losing Golden and Mickens in the same off-season. This scenario, which Freeman would most likely prefer to avoid at all costs, could affect how he moves forward.
I’d be shocked if Freeman didn’t at least have a few external candidates interview for the position, even if Mickens is the guy, to get some external options and ideas on the Irish defense and its personnel. Freeman will need to act relatively quickly since we’re already at the end of January because of how late the season ended with the newly expanded playoffs.
At ND, hiring first-time-ever candidates for major coaching positions has USUALLY been a disaster, at least in the post-WW II era, examples being Faust, Davie and Weis. Freeman at this early stage seems to buck that history, as did Clark Lea for DC when Elko left. The implied approach in the article could be the “third time is a charm” possibility, essentially being a three-peat of success (Freeman, Lea, Mickens). Additionally, I agree that three years in as a head coach, it is now LESS important that Freeman have an established, successful and very experienced DC on his staff as an extra voice of guidance and advice. Mickens seems SO pivotally important to our recent success in recruiting and developing DBs that losing him seems to be the worst case possibility in this whole situation; that is assuming he continues to be the leader in DB room growth and development. I hope he stays as DC. He’s earned it. And he should bring in a new younger DB coach to learn under him.
Clark Lea was never a coordinator before Notre Dame and that turned out alright.