Notre Dame working to hire Illinois DC Aaron Henry as co-DC, DBs coach

Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame are expected to hire Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry as its new co-DC and defensive backs coach, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. Henry has spent the the last three seasons leading the Fighting Illini defense.

The 37-year-old Henry is a former defensive back at Wisconsin (2007-11) who played under current Illinois head coach Bret Bielema during his time in Madison and joined the Illini coaching staff as a defensive backs coach when Bielema was first hired in 2021. Henry was promoted to Illinois’ defensive coordinator in 2023.

Henry has also coached defensive backs at Arkansas (2014-15) as a graduate assistant and Rutgers (2016), NC State (2017-19), and Vanderbilt (2020) as an assistant coach. As the Irish DBs coach and co-defensive coordinator, Henry will work alongside second-year Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash, whom he also worked under at Rutgers in his first year as a position coach.

The hiring of Henry would help fill a void on the Notre Dame coaching staff created by the departure of Mike Mickens, who recently accepted a role as the Baltimore Ravens‘ defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator.

As a player, Henry played both cornerback and safety over his five-year collegiate career at Wisconsin. He was named as a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2011 after starting 30 of the 42 games he played in Madison. After two years in a reserve role, Henry started all 27 games for the Badgers between 2010-11, during which he tallied 125 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, six interceptions, 17 passes defended, three forced fumbles, one sack and one forced fumble.

Marcus Freeman answers if he would ever take over pre-snap defensive play-calling duties

Throughout his career, both as an assistant and now as the head coach at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman has been known for his excellent defenses. This year, however, the Irish have stumbled out of the gate on that side of the ball, which has left Freeman looking for answers.

This has come after Notre Dame made a change at defensive coordinator from Al Golden to Chris Ash. Now, there has been some push for Freeman to take over playcalling duties on the side of the ball that’s been his calling card. However, for the time being, he is pushing back on the idea that it’s the playcalling and not some other underlying issue holding the Irish back on defense.

“If I thought it was a call,” Freeman said in late September after a 1-2 start to the regular season. “If I thought we weren’t calling the game the right way — trust me, I know the definition of insanity. If that was the case, you gotta do what’s best with your program. But that’s not, to me, the issue when I’m evaluating our defensive play. It’s not what we’re calling at this time or why we’re calling it. It’s, okay, why aren’t we executing?

“Me saying I’m gonna call the defense means, it’s a call. If I’m gonna call the defense, it’s based on a call. We’re not calling the right calls. I don’t believe that’s true or I would say, ‘Hey, Chris Ash, call this.’ It’s, okay, we called this for this reason and it didn’t work. They executed an explosive play. What’s the reason behind it? And that’s what we spend a lot of time evaluating and discussing.”

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.