The Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator job has been open for more than two weeks now, but there hasn’t been much movement on a possible hiring and now we know why: The team was waiting for Notre Dame to finish its season. Cincinnati is hiring Fighting Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden, CBS Sports/247Sports national college football reporter Matt Zenitz reports.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor is extremely familiar with Golden, who served as the Bengals linebackers coach for two seasons (2020-21) before taking the defensive coordinator job at Notre Dame. Taylor’s defensive coordinator job came open on Jan. 6 when Taylor made the decision to fire Lou Anarumo. In the 16 days since then, the Bengals had only conducted two known interviews and both of those came in the first 48 hours of their search. The first one came on Jan. 7 with former Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and the second one came on Jan. 8 with Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington.
After the Covington interview, the search went quiet, which led to a lot of speculation that the Bengals were waiting on their ideal candidate to become available, and as it turns out, that was the case. With Notre Dame playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, Golden wasn’t going to be available for a possible interview with the Bengals until after the game, which the Fighting Irish ended up losing to Ohio State, 34-23.
Golden was actually asked about the Bengals job on Jan. 18, but he didn’t have much to say.
“It’s humbling that your name is mentioned because of team success. But, not the time or place,” Golden said, via Fox 19.
During the 2024 season, Notre Dame surrendered just 14.3 points per game, which ranked second in the nation. The Fighting Irish also ranked in the top 10 in total yards surrendered, giving up an average of just 298.3 yards per game.
The 55-year-old Golden left the Bengals for Notre Dame after Cincinnati’s Super Bowl LVI loss, and now, he’s going to leave the Fighting Irish to head back to Cincinnati after a tough championship game loss with Notre Dame.
The Bengals will be getting a guy with plenty of coaching experience. Golden has served as the head coach of two different college teams with five-year stints at both Temple and Miami (Fla.).
