Notre Dame Names Mike Golic Sr. Radio Color Analyst for 2026

Notre Dame Athletics announced Wednesday that Mike Golic Sr. will serve as color analyst for The SoFi Notre Dame Radio Network for the 2026 season, joining play-by-play voice Tony Simeone and studio host Johnny Soper. The release, published Aug. 5 on fightingirish.com, said Golic is taking over for Ryan Harris, with his first broadcast set for Sunday, Sept. 6, when Notre Dame plays Wisconsin at Lambeau Field at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The hire turns over half the booth for the second time in three years and brings in a voice with a longer national radio résumé than anyone who has held the chair in the modern era of the broadcast.

Golic played defensive line for the Irish from 1981 through 1984 under Gerry Faust, captaining the team as a senior and wrestling for Notre Dame as well. Houston drafted him in the 10th round in 1985, and he spent 10 seasons in the NFL with the Oilers, Eagles, and Dolphins. The broadcasting career that followed is the more familiar one to most of the audience that will hear him on game days — Golic co-hosted ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” alongside Mike Greenberg for nearly 18 years, one of the longest-running national morning shows in the format.

“Some places never leave your heart; Notre Dame is one of those places for me,” Golic said in the release. “To now have the opportunity to serve on the radio team with Tony and Johnny is both humbling and exciting.”

First change in the booth since 2018

Harris had held the role for eight seasons. He took over in 2018, succeeding Allen Pinkett, worked six seasons alongside Paul Burmeister, and then paired with Simeone when Simeone became the play-by-play voice in 2024. Harris announced in May that he was leaving the booth to pursue NFL and television opportunities while finishing his final semester of law school at the University of Colorado.

Simeone enters his third season on play-by-play with his second color analyst – a booth still finding its footing rather than one settling into a long-running pairing.

Golic is already talking about this Notre Dame team

The Golic family thread at Notre Dame runs deep. Mike Sr. was the youngest of three brothers to play for the Irish, following Bob — a unanimous All-American and captain in 1978 — and Greg. His son, Mike Golic Jr., played offensive line in South Bend from 2008 to 2012, including on the team that reached the BCS National Championship Game. The two launched “The Golics,” a new ESPN Radio show, on Aug. 3, two days before Notre Dame made the radio hire official.

The pair appeared together on The Rich Eisen Show this week and framed Notre Dame’s playoff path around a phrase coming out of the program itself: leave no doubt. Golic Jr. argued the Irish can absorb one loss as an independent, but that two would likely leave them on the outside again, and the segment circled back to last season’s exclusion as the backdrop for the year. It’s a reasonable preview of the register Golic Sr. will bring to the color chair — direct, program-sympathetic, and unbothered by the independence debate. (Watch the full segment here.)

Between the daily show and the Irish broadcast, Golic will be talking sports nationally through the week and then handling the color chair on game weekends.

Debut set for Lambeau opener

Notre Dame opens on a Sunday night (September 6) at Lambeau Field, coming off a 10-2 season that ended with an AP No. 10 finish. Simeone and Golic will start to settle into their rhythm in a game in which the Irish are heavy favorites and might not have a close contest to call together until November when Miami comes to town.