Notre Dame makes official hiring of Aaron Henry as defensive backs coach, one more title

Notre Dame officially has a new defensive backs coach. The Fighting Irish made official the hiring of Aaron Henry from Illinois on Saturday morning.

Reports surfaced Sunday that Henry was the man for the job. Less than a full calendar week later, the school itself made those reporters, including one from Blue & Gold, official. Notre Dame’s news release indicates Henry will also serve as the Irish’s co-defensive coordinator.

Former Irish defensive backs coach Mike Mickens left Notre Dame after six seasons to become the defensive backs coach for the Baltimore Ravens. He was widely billed as not just one of Notre Dame’s best assistant coaches in terms of development and day-to-day responsibilities related to coming to the aid of head coach Marcus Freeman, but Mickens was also considered the team’s top recruiter.

Needless to say, Henry has big shoes to fill. But the consensus is he’s capable of filling them.

Henry has defensive coordinator experience from his time at Illinois. He was only the DBs coach there in 2021 and 2022, but he quickly assumed the DC title in 2023 and held it for three seasons until taking the Notre Dame job. So while it’s technically a demotion being that Henry does not have even a co-defensive coordinator tag at Notre Dame, Mickens made it so that coaching the Irish secondary is a destination job in and of itself. There is much allure in coaching ND DBs of late.

Just on the 2026 roster alone, Notre Dame has potential 2027 NFL Draft picks in cornerbacks Leonard Moore and Christian Gray, as well as Colorado transfer DJ McKinney, and safeties Adon Shuler and possibly even redshirt sophomore Tae Johnson could get a look at the next level after the upcoming season as well.

Bottom line, Henry inherits a wealth of riches.

And just like Chris Ash eventually put his stamp on the Notre Dame defense as a whole in taking over for Al Golden as defensive coordinator, Henry has a chance to make it so that this Irish secondary is his own.

Yes, the No. 1 objective is to not try to fix what’s not broken. There isn’t much tinkering that needs to be done on Henry’s part to get Notre Dame’s defensive backs to play well this fall. Ultimately, though, Henry needs to find a way to strengthen and enhance the foundation laid by Mickens. This is a hire Freeman and Co. made to ensure longterm success, not just to quickly fill a vacant position.

Here is “The Henry File,” courtesy of Notre Dame Athletics:

The Henry File

Hometown: Immokalee, Fla.
High School: Immokalee
College: Wisconsin (2011), Arkansas (master’s degree, 2015)
Wife: Camille
Children: Harlow and Dakota 

PLAYING EXPERIENCE

• 2007-11 Wisconsin (Defensive Back)

COACHING CAREER

• 2014-15 Arkansas Graduate Assistant, Defense
• 2016 Rutgers Defensive Backs Coach
• 2017 NC State Safeties Coach
• 2018-19 NC State Cornerbacks Coach
• 2020 Vanderbilt Cornerbacks Coach
• 2021-22 Illinois Defensive Backs Coach
• 2023-25 Illinois Defensive Coordinator/Secondary Coach