Notre Dame football staff stays intact after rival's new hire

The Notre Dame football team is still on one heck of a run. While they’re having some serious fun on the recruiting front, they got an entirely different piece of good news on Friday afternoon. It turns out that a defensive staff behind one of the best units in the country is going to stay in tact for the 2024 season.

The latest coach who was reportedly at least considered for a new job in the last few months is defensive line coach Al Washington. He was apparently considered as a top candidate for Boston College. In fact, he was one of the top two candidates.

However, the Golden Eagles decided they wanted to go with the more proven commodity as a head coach. Boston College hired Bill O’Brien on Friday. Certainly bad news for Washington, but very good news for Notre Dame football.

O’Brien’s hiring was, of course, an interesting one because B.C. is now his second new job in the last month. Earlier in January, he was hired by Ohio State as their new offensive coordinator. But it appears this is enough of a promotion that he left the Buckeyes in the dust.

It also appears this wasn’t a sudden move, considering OSU went out and immediately hired Chip Kelly to replace O’Brien.

Notre Dame football staff stays intact after rival's new hire

For the Fighting Irish, the turn of events on Friday afternoon was a chance for the program to take another big sigh of relief. This winter, there have been plenty of reports about schools showing interest in Notre Dame coaches.

Defensive coordinator Al Golden was the first to have seemingly been on a list of possible moves. He ended up staying. Then there was a report that defensive backs coach MIke Mickens was a target by Cincinnati for their defensive coordinator job. He too, stayed in South Bend.

Now Al Washington is staying behind as well. Of course, UCLA will now be looking for a new head coach and assistants. So Notre Dame football might not be entirely out of the woods yet.