Notre Dame football has wasted little time attempting to fill its defensive coordinator vacancy after losing Al Golden to the NFL. The Irish are eyeing former Rutgers Scarlet Knights head coach Chris Ash to join head coach Marcus Freeman’s staff as the program attempts to build off its College Football Playoff runner-up finish this season,

Following the now-concluded regime of former Bengals coordinator Lou Anarumo, Golden returns to Cincinnati a rejuvenated coach following a highly successful period as defensive coordinator of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Here are five things to know about Golden, his past influences and his latest work in the game.

Cincinnati is finalizing a deal to hire Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden to run its defense. Golden helped lead the Fighting Irish to Monday night’s College Football Playoff national championship game where they lost to Ohio State. He is expected to officially sign with the team on Thursday.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost Monday, but Al Golden is favored to be the Bengals' defensive coordinator this week.

Two days after the Fighting Irish lost in the national championship game to Ohio State, they lost Al Golden, who will become Bengals defensive coordinator.

Notre Dame football officially is losing Al Golden to the Bengals. However, the Irish could have an immediate replacement.

The Dolphins are scheduled to play a home game in the upcoming season against Cincinnati, though one of their home games will be played in Spain.

The Cincinnati Bengals made the hire of Al Golden as the team's new defensive coordinator official on Thursday afternoon. Head coach Zac Taylor fired Lou Anarumo immediately after the season and held a limited search in hiring his replacement. It was clear from the begining that Taylor wanted to hire Golden for the position.

The Cincinnati Bengals are hiring Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden as their defensive coordinator, according to multiple reports. Golden will replace Lou Anarumo, whom the Bengals fired at the conclusion of their season. The Colts hired Anarumo as their defensive coordinator on Monday.

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

It took only a couple of days for the Notre Dame college football team to lose several of their most important pieces to this year's successful season. But few losses loom larger than defensive coordinator Al Golden leaving for the NFL.