{"id":889416,"date":"2026-02-01T19:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T01:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/01\/who-is-notre-dames-aaron-henry-life-family-career-of-new-co-dc-joining-from-illinois\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T19:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T01:12:11","slug":"who-is-notre-dames-aaron-henry-life-family-career-of-new-co-dc-joining-from-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/01\/who-is-notre-dames-aaron-henry-life-family-career-of-new-co-dc-joining-from-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Notre Dame\u2019s Aaron Henry? Life, Family & Career of New Co-DC Joining from Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football <\/p>\n

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Aaron Henry is one of college football\u2019s finest defensive minds, with over a decade of coaching experience. He\u2019s been an integral part of Illinois defense for the last six seasons, known for developing young defensive stars. While his time at Illinois makes a mark, the coach\u2019s new chapter unfolds at South Bend.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Watch What\u2019s Trending Now!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Henry is expected to head to Notre Dame as co-DC and DBs coach, per CBS Sports\u2019 Matt Zenitz. Before the coach\u2019s transition takes place from being Illinois DC to Notre Dame\u2019s Co-DC, let\u2019s take a look at his personal and professional career.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Notre Dame is expected to hire Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry as a co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, sources tell @CBSSports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Has been a key figure in Illinois posting 19 wins the last two seasons, the winningest two-year run in school history. pic.twitter.com\/r7J1W0c3A8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Football Who is Aaron Henry?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Aaron Henry is a Florida native, born on November 28, 1988, in Immokalee, Collier County. His football career started at Immokalee High School, where he played on both sides of the ball, as a wide receiver and as a defensive back. He also excelled in basketball and was honored as an all-state football player and as an all-county basketball player.<\/span><\/p>\n

His relationship with Bret Bielema, head football coach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, began way early, during his collegiate career at Wisconsin, where he played under him. He played there from 2007 to 2011 before joining the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2012. However, his playing career was cut short before the NFL season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cCoach B\u2019s a significant part of my story and my journey because I remember when he offered me a job,\u201d Aaron said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Football Top Stories<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He returned to Bielema but to Arkansas to start his coaching career as a defensive graduate assistant, spending two seasons there. In 2016, he had his first full-time coaching role at Rutgers, becoming the DBs coach. He had multiple stops at NC State as safeties coach and Vanderbilt as CBs coach, and got back to Bret Bielema at Illinois in 2021. Started as a DBs coach, he was promoted as DC in 2023 for the Fighting Illini.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the last two seasons under Henry, Illinois won 19 games, the most ever in the program\u2019s history in two years. He was the winningest DC in the program\u2019s history, and the Fighting Illini had to let him go to the Fighting Irish for the 2026 season<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Football Who is Aaron Henry\u2019s wife, Camille?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Aaron Henry married his longtime girlfriend, Camille, in January 2022. Their love story began during their time at Wisconsin. Camille is a school psychologist who works with kids and young adults across various backgrounds. While their jobs sound opposite, Mr. & Mrs. Henry both strive to help young people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want the kids, the student-athletes, to know that even if you don\u2019t feel like going to him if something\u2019s going wrong, I want them to know they can come to me,\u201d Camille said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Camille has always been a supportive partner, which helped Aaron be more than just a coach, but develop a strong bond with the younger minds. They often invite players and families over to their house to create bonds outside the football facility. Aaron believes that the connections break barriers and change others\u2019 lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOpening up our home and having them over, we get more joy out of that than they probably do,\u201d Aaron said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Football Aaron Henry\u2019s twin daughters<\/b><\/h2>\n

Henry and his wife, Camille, welcomed twin daughters, Harlow Madison and Dakota Savoy, to the world in 2023. Their middle names, Madison and Henry, are kept with a purpose. Madison was the place where Aaron and Camille met, while Savoy is where they currently live. The couple balances the fun of raising their twin girls and their hectic full-time jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the cool thing is football\u2019s easy,\u201d Henry told the Illini Inquirer. \u201cI\u2019m sitting there trying to properly feed them, making sure I\u2019m not holding them the wrong way. It\u2019s just hard. My first night, they bring them in the room, and my wife is like, \u2018Make sure they\u2019re breathing.\u2019 We got two little humans to make sure they\u2019re going to live. Calling defense is going to be a piece of cake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Henry, with his supportive partner and their two kids, will head to South Bend and will now look to shape the young minds there at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a> Samatha Kucera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Henry is one of college football\u2019s finest defensive minds, with over a decade of coaching experience. He\u2019s been an integral part of Illinois defense for the last six seasons, known for developing young defensive stars. While his time at Illinois makes a mark, the coach\u2019s new chapter unfolds at South Bend. Watch What\u2019s Trending<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":889417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27323,3790,3730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-889416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dames","category-football","category-notre"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}