The Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator job has been open for greater than two weeks now, however there hasn’t been a lot motion on a doable hiring and now we all know why: The workforce was ready for Notre Dame to complete its season. Cincinnati is hiring Combating Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden, CBS Sports activities/247Sports nationwide school soccer reporter Matt Zenitz reviews.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor is extraordinarily aware of Golden, who served because the Bengals linebackers coach for 2 seasons (2020-21) earlier than taking the defensive coordinator job at Notre Dame. Taylor’s defensive coordinator job got here open on Jan. 6 when Taylor made the choice to fireplace Lou Anarumo. Within the 16 days since then, the Bengals had solely performed two recognized interviews and each of these got here within the first 48 hours of their search. The primary one got here on Jan. 7 with former Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and the second got here on Jan. 8 with Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington.
After the Covington interview, the search went quiet, which led to a whole lot of hypothesis that the Bengals had been ready on their superb candidate to turn into accessible, and because it seems, that was the case. With Notre Dame taking part in within the Faculty Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship on Monday, Golden wasn’t going to be accessible for a doable interview with the Bengals till after the sport, which the Combating Irish ended up dropping to Ohio State, 34-23.
Golden was truly requested in regards to the Bengals job on Jan. 18, however he did not have a lot to say.
“It is humbling that your title is talked about due to workforce success. However, not the time or place,” Golden stated, by way of Fox 19.
In the course of the 2024 season, Notre Dame surrendered simply 14.3 factors per recreation, which ranked second within the nation. The Combating Irish additionally ranked within the prime 10 in whole yards surrendered, giving up a mean of simply 298.3 yards per recreation.
The 55-year-old Golden left the Bengals for Notre Dame after Cincinnati’s Tremendous Bowl LVI loss, and now, he’ll go away the Combating Irish to move again to Cincinnati after a troublesome championship recreation loss with Notre Dame.
The Bengals will likely be getting a man with loads of teaching expertise. Golden has served as the top coach of two completely different school groups with five-year stints at each Temple and Miami (Fla.).
