Notre Dame Football: Who is Mike Mickens?

Notre Dame hired Mike Mickens to replace Todd Lyght as defensive backs coach. Who is he, and what does he bring to the program?

It was no secret that the Notre Dame staff underwent a shakeup this off-season. The most notable role change was at offensive coordinator. The Irish parted ways with Chip Long, which made room for Tommy Rees to be promoted to offensive coordinator.

That wasn’t the only change, though. Notre Dame legend Todd Lyght also left the program. The former All-American had previously held the role of defensive backs coach. Over his 5 years in the program players like Julian Love, Jalen Elliott, and Alohi Gilman became stars.

Taking over for him, in what will be a truly difficult act, is Mike Mickens.

Mickens is young, at only 32-years old. Like Lyght, he was a college corner, who played for Cincinnati, with Brian Kelly being his head coach for some time. That, likely, is where the two formed the connection that led to this hiring. While in college Mickens was All-Big East, three-time Second Team All-Big East, and Second Team All-American.

After Cincinnati, Mickens had a brief NFL career. Over the course of a season, he bounced to three different teams. The next year he played his only season of Canadian Football for Calgary. After that, it was back to Cincinnati, where he found himself a defensive assistant, beginning his coaching career.

Mike Mickens has been a rising star as a cornerbacks coach. In 2013, he found himself at Idaho. After that, Bowling Green brought him in to be their cornerbacks coach through 2017. Then, in 2018, he had a homecoming at Cincinnati with Luke Fickell now their head coach.

Now, at Notre Dame, it seems the next step up for Mickens will be as defensive coordinator.

If he’s going to take that next step forward, he’ll need to keep doing the things that got him to Notre Dame. The characteristics that made him great were that he obsessed over the details and poured effort into every practice.

Tony Pike, a former teammate of Mickens, said of the new Notre Dame defensive backs coach, “It’s not just about bringing it on game day for Mike. It’s Wednesday walkthroughs, whatever. Mike’s giving everything he’s got.”

Meanwhile, Fickell praised his interview, expressing that Mickens knew exactly how he wanted to coach his corners and that he was able to talk for a half-hour about how he would be coaching press-man coverage. It caught Fickell’s attention enough to get the job there. The success that Mickens had at Cincinnati was enough to get him the job at Notre Dame.

Mike Mickens will have a lot of talent to work with and mold at Notre Dame. He’s the right man for the job from a standpoint of motivation and development. Coming to the Irish as a rising name in coaching can only mean one thing, he’s about to blossom.