First-year defensive coordinator Chris Ash will get the opportunity to coach against an old friend and colleague, Dave Doeren, as NC State travels to South Bend on Saturday. Between coaching stints together at Drake University and later Wisconsin, the pair have operated teams together with big-time success. The Ash-led Irish defense will take on Doeren’s Wolfpack for the first head-to-head contest between the two in 15 years.
Playing with Doeren at Drake University, Ash goes way back with the Wolfpack head coach. After overlapping as players, Doeren began his coaching career with his alma mater in 1995 with Ash joining two years later in 1997. Doeren served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, while Ash served as a graduate assistant during an 8-3 season. Doeren left in 1998 to work at USC as a graduate assistant, while Ash stayed on for another two seasons as the full-time defensive coordinator.
Later, the two coached at Wisconsin together, helping lead an 11-2 Badgers team with JJ Watt to the Rose Bowl in 2010. Coaching under Bret Bielema, Ash was the defensive backs coach, while Doeren was the defensive coordinator.
Both share immense respect for one another as colleagues, teammates and now friends.
“I know Chris well,” Doeren said on Monday when asked about Ash. “He’s a good friend, and he’s a really good football coach.”
The pair faced off for the first time in 2011 after Doeren left for a two-year stint as the head coach of Northern Illinois, leaving Ash to assume defensive coordinator duties in his wake. This game was a stomping for the Russell Wilson-led Badgers, who were ranked No. 7 at the time of the game. Wisconsin comfortably won the contest 49-7 en route to a stellar 11-3 season, ending as the No. 10 team in the country.
Meanwhile, Doeren’s group also finished the season 11-3 and defeated Ohio to win the second Mid-American Conference title in school history. They also beat Arkansas State in their bowl game. In 2012, Doeren again led NIU to the most successful season in school history, where they won 12 games and went undefeated in conference play. They won their second consecutive MAC title before Doeren was hired to NC State. They finished the season ranked No. 22 in the country.
Doeren has been at NC State from 2013 until now, touting a 114-71 total record. His best season came in 2021, when the Wolfpack finished 9-3 and tied for second in the ACC. This season, despite a 4-2 start, the Wolfpack have been shaky in their last three games of conference play with a 1-2 record.
After his three-year period at Wisconsin, Ash moved on to Arkansas as the defensive coordinator, followed by Ohio State after only one season with the Razorbacks. There, he led a Buckeye defense loaded with NFL talent to a national championship in 2014 under head coach Urban Meyer, the first of the College Football Playoff era.
Ash was hired to a long-term contract at Rutgers in 2016, where his team struggled in the Big Ten. Ash was fired midway through his fourth season, holding an 8-32 overall record. Ash then bounced around in the NFL with the Jaguars and Raiders before becoming defensive coordinator for Notre Dame.
While the season got off to a slow defensive start, with the Irish losing the first two games by a combined four points, Ash’s group is back on track, winning their last four games to help the team vault back inside the AP top-20. The defense has gotten some of the concerning statistics back in check, as they now rank No. 78 in yards allowed, No. 43 in rushing yards and No. 70 in points allowed per game, large improvements from the 0-2 start. Doeren was asked about Ash’s coaching approach, and said, “They do a good job mixing up coverages, zone and man, line stunts and pressures. They’ve improved as the year’s gone on, which happens when you have a new defensive coordinator.”
The Irish will take on the Wolfpack for the first time since 2023, an opportunity for the coaches to reunite on opposite sides of the college football cathedral. In a game that holds more weight than simply another Irish versus ACC matchup, Chris Ash’s defense will play against Dave Doeren’s NC State Wolfpack on Saturday, Oct. 11, under blue skies and fair weather. Ash hopes to improve to 2-0 against his former colleague and friend to help keep playoff hopes alive in South Bend.
