Notre Dame Notebook: Al Golden Talks Job Openings, Xavier Watts, Starting Fast

Al Golden has put together a beast of a defense this season. Heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale at Stanford, Notre Dame’s second year defensive coordinator has a unit that has eye-opening numbers in several national defensive categories.

Among them are a No. 2 ranking in red zone defense. The ranking is a far cry from dwelling at the bottom of the nation just a year ago at the end of Golden’s return to college football after working as an NFL assistant from 2016-2021.

The method to Golden’s madness can be seen on the board in his office where the copious notes and bullet points he has scrawled led Irish head coach Marcus Freeman to say Golden looks like a “mad scientist”.

"Well, Sunday morning, I try to get in early and just clean up the previous game for us, and then I move on pretty early,” Golden began when asked about Freeman’s moniker for him. "So, by 9:30, 10:00, I'm on to the next opponent, and in this case, I was just finishing the last two games, because we started in the bye week. So, just see what direction they're going, write thoughts up on the board, look at the challenges that are presented, and they're numerous. They are. Some people might say there's gimmicks. I think it's clever, what they do. I do. I think they're clever.”

Golden’s Irish defense also ranks No. 2 in pass efficiency, No. 6 in total defense, No. 7 in scoring, and No. 10 in turnovers gained this season.

A Hot Commodity

Success breeds demand in the coaching world. Golden’s name was floated by a national college football reporter this week in connection with the recent opening at Syracuse.

"I don’t know,” Golden quickly said when asked about his name being floated. "I don’t look at any of that.

“I think the biggest thing right now is, we got our hands full,” Golden continued. "I mean, that's it. It is all day, every day, trying to win as many games as we can win. Obviously, we have a goal of winning 10, and to do that, we have to win this one, we have to find a way to win this one. So, if names are being mentioned, it's because of the success of the staff and the players, and that part of it is humbling.”

Should Watts Stay Or Go?

Xavier Watts currently leads the nation with seven interceptions. The senior has blossomed as a safety this season and has a decision to make at the end of the season on whether or not to declare for the NFL Draft.

While Watts is in his fourth year on the Notre Dame roster, he still has up to two years of college eligibility remaining. One for redshirting as a freshman in 2020 and another for the pandemic waiver granted by the NCAA. So, what’s Golden’s pitch to get Watts stay in college?

"That's for X and his family,” Golden stated. "If there's any conversations, those are private. Listen, I don't believe in pitching. If young people ask questions, you know, I just came from the other side (the NFL), right? I spent six years there. I know the inner workings of it, what all goes into those decisions, what they're looking for, how it’s scouted, how it's evaluated, and ultimately, how those decisions are made. So, I can help them with the secret sauce on the other side, but in terms of making a decision, I'm not here to influence anybody. Just make sure they understand how important they are and the role they would have moving forward, but other than that, we give them the facts and then they have to make the decision.”

Starting Fast

Notre Dame is 2-2 on the road this season with losses to Louisville and Clemson in their last two road games. Freeman said this week that starting fast is the key for the Irish in their game at Stanford this weekend.

"Execute right from the get-go,” Golden said when asked how starting fast applies to his defense. "Play fast. Play with clarity. Do the little things right, right from the get-go. Don't need an event to create a certain response. I think that's a fair way of looking at it. We don't need a negative event to all of a sudden lock us in, like, we got to be ready to go. And I think our guys know, obviously we lost to Stanford a year ago. Now we're going out there. There could be perceived distractions because of the timing of the game, and that's not part of our M.O. We gotta eliminate all that and get ready to play our best game.”

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