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This week’s trip to South Florida isn’t the first homecoming for Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden. He’s come back in the years since the end of his tenure as head coach at the University of Miami.

But facing his alma mater, Penn State, in the Capital One Orange Bowl this Thursday night with a chance to advance to the College Football Playoff national championship game is sparking a different set of emotions.

Golden, 55, was a tight end at Penn State from 1988-1991 before a brief NFL stint with the New England Patriots.

“I’m excited that Penn State is doing well and happy for the program, but more importantly it’s been a great journey for us,” Golden said on Tuesday afternoon after the Fighting Irish arrived at the team’s hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “This is my third year at Notre Dame and I had an opportunity to build it with Coach (Marcus) Freeman and get to this point. It’s been a long time and we’re on the brink of being where we want to be when we had our first conversations.”

Golden, who coached Miami from 2011-2015, has been back to coach in South Florida on two prior occasions when he was an assistant coach for the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals.

But Thursday’s game will be the first time he’ll be on the sideline at Hard Rock Stadium for a collegiate game since he was fired in Week 8 of the 2015 season following a humbling 58-0 loss to Clemson.

At Notre Dame, Golden has helped build one of the top defenses in college football. The Irish rank second in the nation in scoring defense (13.6 points allowed per game) and fifth in passing yards allowed (167.4 per game). Golden has been rumored of late as a possible candidate to return to the NFL next season.

“For me, I’ve loved the people I had the opportunity to form relationships with when I was here and the student-athletes I had the chance to work with,” Golden said. “I’ve reconciled that stage and had great moments since.”

–Penn State continues to be aggressive and successful on fourth downs this season, which was a byproduct of having the depth it lacked in recent years, according to coach James Franklin.

The Nittany Lions have converted 16 of 23 such attempts this season, which puts them in a tie for 13th nationally in fourth down conversion percentage. Penn State ranked 88th in that category in 2021 before ranking in the top eight each of the past two seasons.

“You’ve got to play to your strengths, and sometimes your strength is to punt and play good defense and early on, that was our strength when we got here,” Franklin said. “We had a little bit more depth and talent on that side of the ball.”

–It’s unclear whether Notre Dame will have two of its top players available for Thursday’s game.

Linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who played 13 snaps against Georgia in the quarterfinals, continued to practice this week although albeit with a brace on his right knee. Jeremiyah Love is also working his way back from a knee injury, but it’s unclear how close he is to returning to action.

–The Orange Bowl brought back memories for Penn State wide receiver Liam Clifford, who was once recruited by Notre Dame out of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati. Clifford has caught 18 passes for 286 yards and a touchdown this season.

“I grew up a Notre Dame fan and the games I went to as a kid were always Notre Dame games, and my cousin was going there at the time,” Clifford said on Tuesday during the team’s media conference in Fort Lauderdale. “This is a cool full-circle moment for me. They have a ton of tradition, which makes this game awesome.”

–Field Level Media