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.