Notre Dame gets its guy at DB, Illinois hard at work on staff and more coaching carousel notes
That was a busier-than-normal weekend, no?
News and notes from a busy weekend on the coaching carousel around the Midwest …
Notre Dame gets its replacement for Mike Mickens. What’s next?
Notre Dame made a splashy hire for its defensive backs coach opening, hiring Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry.
Henry, like Mickens before him, is expected to have a co-defensive coordinator title with the Irish. And like another recent defensive staff addition (Charlie Partridge), Henry has a connection to Chris Ash — a big one, in fact. Henry was a two-time All-Big Ten safety at Wisconsin in 2010 and ’11. Ash was the Badgers’ DBs coach that first year and their DC the second year.
That Wisconsin head coach, of course, was Bret Bielema, who is very close with Henry and took a chance in elevating him from the Illini’s DBs coach to DC in 2023, when Ryan Walters left to become Purdue’s head coach. Henry became the youngest coordinator in the Big Ten at the time. (Remember, Kevin Kane had been on the Illini’s staff and had tons of prior DC experience.)
Henry’s time as DC was a mixed bag, to put it nicely. Illinois never finished higher than 11th in the Big Ten in total defense. It probably serves both parties well to start anew, especially since Henry’s job with the Irish will focus on his bread-and-butter: DB play.
Seriously, look at the line of elite DBs to come out of Champaign during Henry’s run, which began in 2021: Devon Witherspoon (No. 5 pick in the 2023 draft), Quan Martin (47th in ’23), Sydney Brown (66th in ’23) and Kerby Joseph (97th in ’22).
This past season’s Illini team had four different DBs earn honorable mention All-Big Ten accolades: Matthew Bailey, Miles Scott, Juice Clarke and Torrie Cox Jr. And that doesn’t include Xavier Scott, who was a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2024 but missed 10 games in 2025 due to injury. (He’ll be back for 2026.)
