Golden was hired as Lou Anarumo’s successor last week and formally introduced to local media in a press conference Monday at Paycor Stadium.
“I got in the car at 5 a.m. on Thursday, and when I made that right off I-74 (I-75) and saw the stadium, I knew I was home,” Golden said. “So, it’s emotional. I was telling Zac this morning we went to work on July 16 and we just finished on Jan. 21. He keeps telling me to take a break, but I’m so energized by this opportunity.”
Golden said it was a difficult decision to leave his family behind when he departed for Notre Dame in 2022, but Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman was amenable to what he needed, and the drive back and forth, when time permitted, was manageable.
After three years as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, leading one of the nation’s top defenses to a national championship appearance this past season, Golden said he had no real reason to leave South Bend on a professional level. Cincinnati was the right fit overall because of the familiarity he had and the comfort level in returning to a place with a championship culture.
Now, being able to do the job with his family by his side is “awesome,” he said.
Golden played a key role in the Bengals’ run to the Super Bowl in 2021, and he still sees the organization as one with the drive and ability to get back to that level. And, he’s confident he can give head coach Zac Taylor what he needs on the defensive side of the ball.
“It starts with a championship culture,” Golden said. “I’m old enough to be around a lot of different places and the one thing I can tell you is it’s big business, but it’s family run. You can feel that when you walk in. So, making sure we identify people who are congruent with our culture and our values. It was talked about when I was here last time, just how many gym rats can you get on your team and how many leaders can you get on your team, how many football guys. … Those are the kind of guys when I was here last time, some of the linebackers that we identified who were leaders. They were guys that hung around football, that wanted to be here, that made us better and that’s what we have to do at every position on defense.”
Golden had been a position coach, coordinator and head coach in college before but never more than a position coach at the NFL level. He didn’t feel like he necessarily needed to go back to a college coordinator job to get that jump at the NFL level, but said he learned a lot about himself in his time at Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish also gave him a chance to do some “firsts” with the program, including hosting the first playoff game in the new 12-team system. They won the Orange Bowl and Super Bowl as part of a 13-game winning streak that came to a halt in the national championship loss to Ohio State.
“I certainly thought I could have made the jump without that, but I did feel like I utilized that time to be really efficient and learned how to delegate tasks and how to communicate on game day effectively,” Golden said. “I come in with a pretty good idea of what we have to get done starting next Monday.”
Taylor said he had a “high opinion” of Golden from their time working together in 2020-21, but watching Notre Dame the past couple of years re-affirmed Golden would be ready to walk back in the building and “hit the ground running” and help the Bengals “play great defensive football.”
That had been lacking the past two years, which led to the shakeup of the defensive staff and departure of Anarumo after six seasons as Taylor’s defensive coordinator. Familiarity with Golden is a plus but wasn’t a requirement, Taylor said.
Golden brings an aggressive style to the defense, as well as a unique knowledge of the talent coming out of the college ranks, which Taylor said he plans to take advantage of as the Bengals reload through the draft. Golden believes a lot of what he did at the college level will carry over into the NFL, as well.
“I was blessed to be around guys that had their house in order,” Golden said. “They just wanted to learn ball. Really smart team, really high FBI — football intelligence. That kind of background allowed us to push them and coach them in a way that was very much similar to what we experience here or in Detroit when I was there (in 2016-19). I think that’s really important because the biggest thing for us is it’s not so much we’re gonna do X, Y and Z. It’s the belief system that everybody involved believes the same thing. The secondary believes the same thing as the linebackers. The linebackers believe the same thing as the D-line. And when you get that unit strength and you’re bound by certain fundamentals or techniques or concepts, great things can happen. Obviously, that’s what we want to do here.”
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