Former Notre Dame football assistant Chris O’Leary has had enough of Jim Harbaugh.
O’Leary left South Bend last winter to be an assistant coach with Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers and is headed back to the college ranks. This time, he’s headed to the MAC and will call plays for the first time in his career.
According to Pete Thamel, the former Notre Dame football assistant coach will take the defensive coordinator position with Western Michigan. The Broncos started looking for a new DC after their unit allowed more than 30 points per game in 2024.
https://x.com/PeteThamel/status/1885345565292003761
Former Notre Dame football assistant Chris O’Leary had enough of Jim Harbaugh
While Western Michigan had serious problems on the defensive side of the ball, O’Leary helped the Chargers' defense to be among the best in the NFL. Harbaugh’s defense was the best in the entire league regarding points allowed.
O’Leary has quite a reputation outside of his one season in the pros. He’s the man who worked with and helped develop stud defensive backs like Xavier Watts and Kyle Hamilton. The assistant focused on coaching safeties when he was in South Bend.
Despite being relatively young, O’Leary is already putting together quite a resume. He played wide receiver at Indiana State from 2011-14 and then began his coaching career at Georgia State from 2015-16 before coaching safeties at Florida Tech in 2017.
He spent most of his coaching career with Notre Dame from 2018-2023. He started as a defensive analyst for the first two years and then was promoted to defensive backs/safeties coach for his last three seasons with the program.
O’Leary worked alongside Mike Mickens, who handled cornerbacks while the former handled safeties. As it turns out, it appears that both men are now defensive coordinators. O’Leary is running his own defense at Western Michigan while Mickens is expected to officially be named a co-defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame football team, working alongside new arrival Chris Ash.