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If you’ve ever been to the Jersey Shore, you can feel it.
The breeze coming off the shore. The smells of cotton candy and funnel cakes wafting through the air. A Bruce Springsteen song playing over the loudspeakers.
For Al Golden, this is paradise.
This is the place that shaped him, that made him into one of the best defensive minds in football. The place that helped him handle the highs and lows of a career in football. The place that served as the perfect respite from the stress of a physically and mentally taxing job, knowing that down the Jersey Shore, everything would be all right.
“Some people go on trips. Some people go take vacations. Some people go to Europe. I go to New Jersey,” Golden said. “That’s it. Man, leave me alone. People see me with my cigar on the boardwalk, and that’s it.”
Notre Dame isn’t one win away from its first national championship since 1988 without its Colts Neck native defensive coordinator. “The Godfather” of Notre Dame’s defense, as some of his players call him, has his group playing at an exceptionally high level right now. They limited No. 2 Georgia to only 10 points and completely swung the game when RJ Oben, who grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, stripped Gunner Stockton deep in the Bulldogs’ territory with less than a minute remaining in the first half. One play later, Notre Dame was up 13-3, a lead it would never relinquish.
Against Penn State, cornerback Christian Gray delivered the heroics, intercepting Penn State quarterback Drew Allar with only 33 seconds left in the game. It improbably turned a game that felt destined for overtime into a thrilling 27-24 win after Mitch Jeter kicked a 41-yard field goal.
The toughest test for Golden and his crew comes Monday night against Ohio State. Notre Dame…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/its-a-jersey-thing-al-goldens-stingy-notre-dame-defense-evokes-hard-nosed-garden-state-attitude/
Author : John Talty
Publish date : 2025-01-19 20:08:00
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