Notre Dame football losing LB coach Max Bullough, per reports
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SOUTH BEND — Max Bullough made a huge impact on Notre Dame football linebackers, both as a teacher and a recruiter, over the past three seasons.
Now, the high-energy assistant is headed home to Michigan State for a promotion, according to multiple reports.
Bullough, 33, will serve as co-defensive coordinator under new coach Pat Fitzgerald, according to Football Scoop. Michigan State visits Notre Dame Stadium next Sept. 19, followed by a return visit for the Irish to East Lansing in 2027.
A Traverse City, Mich., product who starred as a third-generation linebacker for the Spartans, following his grandfather Hank Bullough, uncle Chuck Bullough and father, Shane, the younger Bullough also had Notre Dame roots through his grandfather, former Irish running back Jim Morse.
A team captain in 1956, the late Morse died in 2023, and his legacy continues through an endowed football scholarship in his name.
Previously a graduate assistant at both Cincinnati and Alabama, Bullough was hired as a Notre Dame GA in early 2023 when James Laurinaitis returned to his alma mater, Ohio State, to coach linebackers.
Promoted to a full assistant in 2024, Bullough saw three of his former Irish linebackers drafted into the NFL: third-rounder Marist Liufau (2024), fifth-rounder JD Bertrand (2024) and fourth-rounder Jack Kiser (2025).
Bullough’s recruiting prowess helped the Irish land four-star linebackers Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and Madden Faraimo in back-to-back recruiting cycles. A former first-team all-Big Ten linebacker and three-year pro with the Houston Texans, Bullough brought along team captain Drayk Bowen and fellow linebackers Jaylen Sneed and Jaiden Ausberry for vital rotation roles.
After two seasons with Al Golden coordinating the Irish defense, Bullough adjusted to the style of first-year coordinator Chris Ash in 2025 after Golden returned to the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.
“Anytime our Notre Dame linebackers go on the field, we expect to be the most physical and dominant group,” Bullough said in late October. “That’s how we live and that’s what we are.”
With Bullough’s departure, senior defensive analyst Andy Buh would be a logical replacement. A former defensive coordinator at Stanford (2008-09), Nevada (2010-11), California (2013), Maryland (2016-18) and Rutgers (2019), the 52-year-old Buh worked with Ash at both Rutgers and Wisconsin (2012).
While Buh worked mainly with the nickelbacks this season, teaching freshman Dallas Golden the position in a matter of days before facing Purdue, Buh has coached linebackers at the vast majority of his stops, including Arizona (2020) and Illinois (2021-23).
He spent 2024 as a defensive analyst at Purdue, following former Illini defensive coordinator Ryan Walters.
“Coach Buh is an extremely detailed guy,” Irish defensive back DeVonta Smith, an Alabama graduate transfer, said in late November. “I’ve never been taught so detailed in my run coverage, my hand placement, my eyes, in playing the different coverages that we play. He’s just brought so much to me to help me stay detailed in my game.
“My pre-snap reads, getting all those down, learning all that, he’s allowed me to reach that next level as a football player. I’m tremendously grateful that I have him with me right now.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football reportedly set to lose LB coach Max Bullough
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