SOUTH BEND—For the second time in five days, Notre Dame football has lost a key defensive assistant coach to the NFL.
Thursday night, Jan. 29, brought multiple reports of Al Washington’s departure for the Miami Dolphins. A source confirmed the move, which came on the heels of Mike Mickens’ Jan. 25 hiring as defensive backs coach and pass defense coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens.
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Washington, 41, is expected to coach linebackers for the Dolphins under new coach Jeff Hafley. The two worked together at Ohio State in 2019, when Washington coached linebackers, and Hafley worked as co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.
When Hafley returned to the NFL in early 2024 after four seasons as head coach at Boston College, Washington was a finalist to be his replacement. A former Boston College defensive tackle, Washington lost out to former NFL and Penn State coach Bill O’Brien, who left Ohio State without ever coaching a game as its offensive coordinator.
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Hired to Marcus Freeman’s initial coaching staff in early 2022, Washington was moved from defensive line coach back to linebackers coach on Jan. 2. That opened the door for Notre Dame to hire defensive line guru Charlie Partridge away from the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
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Partridge and Irish defensive coordinator Chris Ash were teammates at Drake University in the 1990s.
Despite the switch, Washington was slated to remain the defensive run game coordinator for the Irish, who ranked seventh nationally in run-defense efficiency (93.4) according to Pro Football Focus in 2025.
A year earlier, Notre Dame ranked 23rd (89.3) in its 2024 run to the College Football Playoff national title game.
Notre Dame has now lost all three defensive assistants Ash inherited when he was hired to replace Broyles Award winner Al Golden after the school’s CFP run. Golden returned to the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, where he previously coached linebackers and now serves as defensive coordinator.
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Max Bullough, a former star linebacker at Michigan State, returned to his alma mater on Dec. 11 as co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach after three seasons at Notre Dame.
Andy Buh, another Ash associate at multiple stops, remains on the Irish staff as senior defensive analyst. Buh has coached linebackers at 10 FBS programs over the past quarter-century, including eight at the former Power-5 level.
Buh, 52, most recently coached linebackers at Illinois (2021-23) and was a defensive analyst at Purdue in 2024.
On Wednesday night, former Irish defensive backs coach Chris O’Leary left Western Michigan to return to the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers as defensive coordinator. O’Leary, a Terre Haute, Ind., native, spent six seasons at Notre Dame before leaving in early 2024 for the Chargers, where he coached safeties.
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Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football loses another key assistant to the NFL
