The Cincinnati Bengals were able to lure defensive coordinator Al Golden away from Notre Dame. And they might've been the only team capable of doing it. Golden impressed onlookers during his introduction early this week.

After losing Al Golden to the Cincinnati Bengals for their defensive coordinator position, the Irish have landed their replacement who brings vast experience across college and the NFL.

Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson has solidified himself as one of the NFL’s top edge rushers, finishing 2024 with a league-leading 17.5 sacks.

The Cincinnati Bengals continued their busy offseason with the introduction of newly-hired defensive coordinator, Al Golden, formerly of Notre Dame.

Al Golden's tenure at Notre Dame was marked by success and significant contributions to the team's defense. As the defensive coordinator, Golden led the Fighting Irish to one of the nation's top defenses, achieving impressive rankings in several categories.

One issue under Taylor's tenure in Cincinnati is that the start of each season is consistently slow. Golden has been with the club, so he's familiar with these issues.

Al Golden said he wanted to leave a place better than when he found it, and he believes he did that at Notre Dame.

“Sources: Chris Ash has accepted the job as the Notre Dame’s new defensive coordinator,” Pete Thamel said in a post. “Ash brings a blend of coordinating experience, NFL experience and high-end results as a collegiate coordinator. A deal is expected to be finalized in the near future.”

Notre Dame is working on a deal to bring Chris Ash in as the Fighting Irish's new defensive coordinator, per ESPN's Pete Thamel. Ash replaces ex-Notre Dame

The Bengals are still working on adding another coach or two to their staff, but they've finalized most of it, which includes the addition of Golden, defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, linebackers coach Mike Hodges and offensive line coach Scott Peters.

Stemming is a pre-snap motion for the defense but slanting and stunting is essentially a post snap motion for the defense. Slanting is taking the defensive line and moving them to a different position after the snap. Often accompanied by a blitz of some kind or at least sending a linebacker or defensive back while dropping a player on the front.