Who is Chris Ash? Four things to know about new Notre Dame defensive coordinator

It didn’t take long for Notre Dame to fill its vacant defensive coordinator position. The Fighting Irish have come to terms on a deal to be finalized “in the near future” with former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the news Wednesday. It was quickly confirmed by On3’s Pete Nakos and has since been confirmed by the Blue & Gold staff.

Ash replaces Al Golden, who became the Cincinnati Bengals’ defensive coordinator after three seasons in South Bend. Here are four things to know about Ash.

Midwest roots

Ash, 51, was born in Iowa and played his college ball there as a safety at Drake University. in the 1990s. He received his master’s degree from Iowa State before beginning his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Drake in 1997.

Ash came up through Drake around the same time as NC State head coach Dave Doeren. Former Florida Atlantic head coach Charlie Partridge also attended Drake in that era.

Extensive defensive coordinator history

Ash first became a collegiate defensive coordinator at Drake in 1998. His first FBS defensive coordinator opportunity, though, came at Wisconsin in 2011. In the intermediary, Ash spent a lot of those years as a defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Iowa State. He also had a two-year stint at San Diego State holding those two titles.

In total, Ash has six years as the sole defensive coordinator or a co-coordinator at Power Five programs; Wisconsin (2011-12), Arkansas (2013), Ohio State (2014-15) and Texas (2020).

Ash won the College Football Playoff national championship game in the first year of the CFP’s existence in 2014. The Buckeyes had the No. 15 total defense and No. 18 scoring defense in the country that year.

Ash’s co-coordinator at Ohio State was Luke Fickell, now the head coach at Wisconsin. That’s where a connection to Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman comes into play. Fickell gave Freeman his first big break in collegiate coaching by naming him the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati when Fickell was hired as the Bearcats’ head coach in 2017. Freeman worked for Fickell for four seasons at Cincy.

Head coaching experience

Freeman recently said he hired Golden as his first defensive coordinator three years ago largely because he had head coaching experience at the college level. It was not a prerequisite in this coaching search, but Ash checks the box anyway. He was the head coach at Rutgers from 2016-19.

Ash had a record of 8-32 at Rutgers. He was fired one-fourth of the way through his fourth season there. His best season in New Jersey was a 4-8 mark in 2017. He went 1-11 the following year. He started the 2019 season 1-3 and was promptly fired by former Rutgers athletics director Pat Hobbs following a 52-0 loss to Michigan.

“This change is especially difficult because of the steadfast commitment that Chris and his family have made to our student-athletes,” Hobbs said at the time. “Progress has been achieved in many areas, but, unfortunately, that progress has not been realized on the field of play. As such, it is in the best interest of the program to make a change.

NFL experience

After his one year as the Texas defensive coordinator, Ash went to the NFL to be the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive backs coach. He teamed back up with Urban Meyer, who hired him at Ohio State, there. That’s not insignificant; Meyer, one of the greatest college football head coaches of all time, trusted Ash enough to hire him twice. There’s some respect there that should not go unnoticed.

The next two years, Ash was the defensive backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. Ash was a scout for the Jaguars in 2024.