Al Golden Defense Analysis While At Notre Dame

Some stat comparisons of recent Notre Dame defenses as DC Al Golden moves on to the NFL.

The Irish unfortunately came up short in the National Championship game. I’ll be dissecting that a bit later but there’s something a bit more timely I wanted to touch on.

The news of defensive coordinator Al Golden’s departure to the Cincinnati Bengals was made official less than 72 hours removed from the Ohio State natty loss. I’ve got no hard feelings about it. The Freeman-Golden duo has given us some of the most exciting (albeit stressful) defensive performances we’ve seen from Notre Dame in a long time.

Nothing lasts forever and I’m also a strong supporter of going out on a high. Hats off to Golden for a great season and setting the defense up for a lot of success in the future.

We all know what we’ve seen from the Irish defense this season but I wanted to see how Al Golden’s defensive units stack up against each others and other and prior defensive coordinators’ products. The analysis’ big condition is I start things off in the beginning-ish of the 2000s era with Tyron Willingham’s first season and defensive coordinator.

Total Points Allowed

Notre Dame’s defense allowed 248 total points to be scored against it in 2024. For some reference Golden’s offense allowed 207 total points in 2023 and 299 points in 2022. The really big caveat here and for pretty much all CFB analysis in this new CFP soap era is that ND played 16 games this season. Prior to this year, defenses had never played more than 13 games in a season.

Average Points Allowed

Looking at points allowed per game helps to standardize things. 2024 was the best of Al Golden’s three defenses in South Bend. They allowed an average of 15.5 points per game in 2024, 15.9 points per game in 2023 and 23 points per game in 2022.

Total Offense Allowed

The 2023 defense was the best in terms of total offense allowed. Opponents recorded 276.3 yards of total offense per game that season. In 2024 they allowed 307.4 yards of total offense per game and the stat was 329.3 yards per game in 2022.

Passing Completions Allowed

One of the defining stat characteristics of Golden defenses has been their strength against the pass. In 2024 they allowed opponents to complete an average of 14.7 passes per game and that stat was 15 passes per game in 2023.

Opponents’ Passing Accuracy

The situation was pretty similar in terms of opponents’ passing accuracy. The average completion rate allowed in 2024 was 52.1% and it was 52.4% in 2023.

Passing Yards Allowed

The 2023 defense was the best in terms of passing yards allowed. Opponents recorded an average of 157.3 passing yards per game that season. In 2024 they averaged 169.4 passing yards per game and the stat was 198 passing yards per game in 2022, Golden’s first season.

Rushing Yards Allowed

Of his three units, Al Golden’s 2024 squad was the least effective against the run. The 2023 unit allowed an average of 119 rushing yards per game and the 2022 allowed 131.2 rushing yards per game. The 2024 defense wasn’t far off though, with 138.1 rushing yards allowed per game.

Opponents’ Rushing Efficiency

Turnovers

Turnovers are what a lot of us will remember Al Golden for. The 2024 unit tied with the 2002 unit (Kent Baer, 1^st season) for the most forced turnovers during the analyzed period. The 2024 performance was the culmination of a consistent trend during the Golden era. The 2022 squad finished with 15 turnovers and the 2023 unit upped the ante to 23 turnovers.

I’m still extremely excited about where Notre Dame football is headed, despite the National Championship loss. And I’ve got a feeling that the defense will be in a pretty good spot next season, even though the defensive coordinator won’t be along for the ride.