Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman should promote Mike Mickens to the role of defensive coordinator
Over the last two seasons the Notre Dame defense has been one of the nation’s best units, and the coordinator of that unit is now off to the NFL. Defensive coordinator Al Golden has decided to return to the NFL, where he will be running the Cincinnati Bengals defense. That means head coach Marcus Freemanmust replace one of the nation’s top coordinators.
Losing a coach like Golden is certainly a blow, and replacing him will be incredibly challenging. The good news for Freeman is that the ideal fit for that replacement works just a few doors down from him. That would be secondary coach Mike Mickens, who should ultimately be the replacement for Golden.
Mickens is the perfect fit to replace Golden. The biggest reason is a desire for continuity, as hiring Mickens would result in the least amount of change for the defensive players from both a coaching personnel standpoint and a scheme and verbiage standpoint.
Mickens is also the architect of the Notre Dame coverage structure, which has fueled the team’s success on defense the last two seasons. Mickens joined the staff as the cornerbacks coach in 2020, but he was promoted to Pass Game Coordinator prior to the 2023 season. Notre Dame immediately made a huge jump in pass game production, and Mickens played a key role in that by helping design the pass defense and also being responsible for a different coverage calls throughout games.
In 2022, the first year with Golden running the defense and Mickens just coaching cornerbacks the Irish defense ranked 39th in scoring, 23rd in passing yards allowed, 23rd in yards allowed per attempt, 41st in pass efficiency defense, 45th in completion percentage allowed and they ranked just 125th in passes defended.
Despite returning most of the same personnel from the back seven, the team took a huge boost in pass defense in 2023, which was the first year with Mickens as the Pass Game Coordinator.
Notre Dame led college football in pass efficiency defense in each of the last two seasons. It ranked 2nd in completion percentage allowed in 2023 and led the nation in 2024. Notre Dame ranked 4th and 3rd in passing yards allowed the last two seasons, respectively. It also ranked 3rd and 6th in yards allowed per pass attempt. Notre Dame shot up to 22nd in passes defensed in 2023 and then all the way up to third in 2024.
Notre Dame allowed 20 touchdown passes and picked off just 10 passes in 2022, but the Irish had 8 and 16 (TD-INT) in 2023 and 14-19 (TD-INT) in 2024. It’s unlikely a coincidence that the defense made such huge improvements across the board after Mickens was promoted to Pass Game Coordinator.
The Ohio native has also shown himself to be an evaluate talent evaluator and recruiter at cornerback. In the last three seasons Notre Dame has had a true freshman make the Freshman All-American squad (Benjamin Morrison in 2022, Leonard Moore in 2024). Retaining Mickens gives the Irish a great chance of continuing to put out elite secondary units, and that has fueled the team’s defensive success the last two seasons.
Freeman has sang Mickens’ praises the last two seasons, including making this comment prior to the team’s Sugar Bowl matchup against Georgia.
“He’s ready to be a defensive coordinator when he gets the right opportunity, but I’m not super excited to see him leaving our defensive coaching staff at any point soon.”
Now we need to see if Freeman believes that enough to promote Mickens to run his defense.
The drawback is that Mickens lacks experience as a defensive coordinator. Yes, he had a crucial role as the Pass Game Coordinator, but ultimately that’s a lot different than running the entire defense. Freeman would have a good sense of where Mickens is in that regard, and any concerns could be alleviated by Freeman helping to mentor Mickens along the way. Mickens is basically the same age that Freeman was when he was promoted to head coach after leading the defense in 2021. I’ve also always believed that if you have the chops to be a great coach you always had the chops, and that will become evident quickly. That was certainly true for Clark Lea, who was promoted to full-time DC in 2018 after Mike Elko departed. Like Mickens, Lea had never been a coordinator, and things turned out quite well with Lea in charge of the defense.
It’s now time for Mickens to get that shot, one that he has more than earned during his brilliant tenure at Notre Dame.