Notre Dame’s new defensive coordinator is a familiar face to Ohio State fans.
Chris Ash, who helped lead Ohio State to a national championship in 2014 in the first year of a two-year tenure as the Buckeyes’ co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach, officially became Notre Dame’s new defensive play caller on Saturday.
Welcome to the Irish family, Coach Ash
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) February 1, 2025
https://t.co/MnkXZLLlHX#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/uRXM8c6UJ5
Ash replaces Al Golden, who left Notre Dame to become the defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Ash spent the last four years in the NFL, serving as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ safeties coach in 2021 and as the Las Vegas Raiders’ secondary coach in 2022 and 2023 before returning to the Jaguars as a scout this past season. Before that, Ash was the defensive coordinator at Texas for one season in 2020 after joining the Longhorns as an analyst in 2019.
Ash left Ohio State after the 2015 season to become the head coach at Rutgers, where he spent nearly four years before being fired one month into the 2019 season.
Notre Dame’s move to hire Ash comes after the Fighting Irish were among the teams who made a run at former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who instead left the Buckeyes for Penn State. Oklahoma, which also made a run at Knowles after losing defensive coordinator Zac Alley to West Virginia, announced Saturday that Brent Venables would take over defensive play-calling duties rather than hire a new defensive coordinator.
Ohio State had not yet hired a new defensive coordinator to replace Knowles as of Saturday.
