Notre Dame football hires defensive assistant away from Michigan

The Notre Dame football program is looking to bounce back after missing the playoffs for the 2025 season in controversial fashion. Many felt the Fighting Irish were snubbed of a spot in the big dance after finishing the season with 10 straight wins, and Marcus Freeman and company elected to decline their bowl game invitation as a result.

Now, the Irish are looking to improve along the margins in anticipation of the upcoming 2026 season, and on Monday, they poached an assistant coach from another blue-blood school in the college football landscape.

“Notre Dame is working to hire Brian Jean-Mary as linebackers coach, sources tell me,” reported Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports on X, formerly Twitter, also crediting Tom Loy for the report. “(Jean-Mary) was Michigan’s LB coach and defensive run game coordinator the last two years. Before that, was LB coach at Tennessee for three years. Has coached double-digit future NFL players.”

Indeed, Jean-Mary has an extensive list of star players coached under his belt, and was a key part of Michigan’s defensive staff over the last two years, which remained among the best in the country, even as the offense fell from its championship heights of 2023.

Notre Dame was mostly solid on defense throughout the 2025 season, but did have some shaky performances against Miami and Texas A&M in the first two games of the season, which ended up being enough to keep the Fighting Irish out of the college football playoff.

Notre Dame will also need to work to replace the production of star running back Jeremiyah Love, who is taking his talents to the NFL Draft, on the offensive side of the ball, and that’s far from the only question mark for the Irish on that end.

In any case, the Fighting Irish will kick off their 2026 season, with Jean-Mary on the sidelines, in September.

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