Notre Dame Defense Must Answer Important Questions This Spring
Notre Dame had plenty of good moments on defense last season, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. If the Irish are going to get the defense back on track there are some very important questions that must be answered, and that begins this spring.
There is no question the Notre Dame offense needs to get a lot better, and it was the offense that struggled in big games and held the program back at times during the 2022 season. What also cannot be ignored is that the Irish defense took a step back in 2022.
Notre Dame had its lowest efficiency ranking (FEI) since 2016, its lowest scoring defense ranking since 2016, its lowest yards per rush yards allowed since 2017, its lowest pass defense ranking since 2017 and its worst third down defense since 2018.
Notre Dame cannot afford to take another step back on defense, and it's up to Al Golden and defensive staff to right the ship and allow the Irish to once again play playoff caliber defense. To make that happen the Irish must answer questions or make changes in five areas:
1. Red Zone Defense - Notre Dame's red zone defense was epically bad last season. Notre Dame ranked 130th nationally in red zone defense a season ago, and the Irish ranked dead last in red zone touchdown defense. If Notre Dame simply improves in this one area the defense will be much, much better.
If Notre Dame simply keeps all of its statistics the same but improves to 70th in red zone touchdown defense, with all six of the stops needed turning into field goals, the Irish would go from 39th in scoring defense (23.0) to 25th in scoring defense (21.1).
If Notre Dame makes that same touchdown improvement, and three of those six stops result in no points, the Irish would jump from 39th to 19th in scoring defense (20.5).
If Notre Dame were to really make a jump in red zone defense and jump up to 20th, which means dropping 10 touchdowns, with all of them ending in field goals instead, the defense would jump from 39th to 16th in scoring defense (19.9).
If half of those 10 stops ended with no points (meaning five additional field goals) the defense would jump from 39th to 11th in scoring defense (18.8).
If Notre Dame simply matched its 2021 red zone rates, without any other improvements in any other area, the Irish would have had the 9th best scoring defense in college football last season.
Now you see why red zone defense is without question the biggest area where Notre Dame must improve, without taking a step back in other areas.
2. Where Will The Pass Rush Come From? - Notre Dame has racked up 79 sacks the last two seasons, and it has been a very long time since the Irish had that kind of sack production in back-to-back seasons. In fact, I've gone all the way back to 1988 and the only two-year span that comes close was back in 2002-03 when the Irish defense racked up 76 sacks.
The issue is that 47 of those sacks (59.5%) are now gone from the roster. That includes the 22 from Isaiah Foskey, who left for the NFL following the 2022 season. Notre Dame will need to find a way to generate a pass rush without having to up its blitz rate.
So who steps up this spring to fill that void? Will it be Jordan Botelho? Will it be Rylie Mills? Will it be Josh Burnham? Will it be Javontae Jean-Baptiste? We don't know the answer, but those players will be important, and Notre Dame needs them to step up this spring. The more of this group that steps up, and the more other players along the line that get better at getting after the quarterback the better the defense will be.
On top of the volume, the 2023 defense needs to be more clutch with its pressures (sacks, hits, hurries) than it was in 2022. Even if the sack numbers alone don't improve, the overall pass rush getting better will have a big impact on Notre Dame getting better in every aspect.
3. More Linebacker Production - I'll have a more detailed article about this during the week, but Notre Dame needs to get a lot more production from the linebackers. This is true in every possible way.
Notre Dame's 2022 linebackers accounted for 227 tackles, 22 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, one interception, four pass break ups and just one forced fumble last season.
Since 2010, not once has a Notre Dame defense produced fewer tackles for per game (17.5) and fewer passes defensed (5) from the linebacker corps than what we saw in 2022. It's the lowest tackle for loss number since 2014, and it's tied for second lowest in forced fumbles since 2010.
Notre Dame must get better in each of these areas, especially the disruptive areas like tackles for loss, passes defensed (interceptions + pass break ups) and forced fumbles.
4. Interior Of The Line Must Be Better - Notre Dame returns a lot of depth inside, but the interior defensive line was too inconsistent from an effectiveness and production standpoint last season. The loss of Jayson Ademilola and Chris Smith doesn't help matters, and instead of staying and competing for a starting role this season, Jacob Lacey decided to transfer.
Notre Dame moved Rylie Mills back inside, and returns Howard Cross III and Gabriel Rubio from last year's rotation. There are young players like Jason Onye, Aidan Keanaaina and sophomores Tyson Ford (assuming he moves inside) and Donovan Hinish battling for spots this spring. Notre Dame also welcomes early enrollee freshman Devan Houstan on campus for the spring.
Questions abound inside. Can Mills finally turn his potential into consistent production? Can Notre Dame find the sweet spot for Cross from a snaps standpoint? Can Rubio take a big jump in year three, and is it finally time for Onye to breakout? Can Keanaaina give the Irish some beef inside, and is there a chance that one of the young players forces their way onto the field?
The more of those questions that get answered in a positive fashion the better the interior will be, and if the interior takes a step forward the defense will get much, much better in 2023.
5. Will Golden Be Willing To Simplify? - This is ultimately the biggest key for Notre Dame. Al Golden is a very, very smart football coach, there's no doubt about that. That's why he was so successful as a defensive coordinator at Virginia, as the head coach at Temple (where he reversed decades of bad football) and why he was so successful as a position coach in the NFL.
The issue for Golden isn't that he's a bad coach, or not smart, the issue is it appears his time in the NFL, where he spent six seasons before coming to Notre Dame, has caused him to have a bit of a struggle on how to create an elite defense in college.
Golden ran the 2022 Notre Dame defense a lot like a NFL team. He had "run game plans" and "pass game plans", which varied week to week. Golden's defense last season had a hard time being good against the run and pass in the same week, and the lack of continuity from week to week was a factor in the defense being as inconsistent as it was.
The NFL is also more of a scheme driven level of football, whereas college football must be about a balance between strong scheme and strong technical performances. Golden's linebackers weren't nearly as technically sound as they needed to be, and it was due in part to him trying to be more of a pure DC and not enough of a position coach, which resulted in first-year coach James Laurinaitis (who had never coached before) running the linebackers.
Outside of the USC game, I never felt like Notre Dame was out-schemed under Golden. The problem was the emphasis on scheme over fundamentals, and the complexity with which Golden ran his defense, resulted in players not being able to execute the scheme at a high enough level. It's partly why Notre Dame's linebackers regressed in 2022, and why younger front seven players struggled to get onto the field.
Golden needs to find a sweet spot in 2023. He must restructure his practices and the defensive install in a manner that allows his coaches to spend more time on dynamic fundamental teaching, which means he must scale the volume of scheme and adjustments. Scheme is still very important, but finding the balance in strong scheme and strong fundamentals is the difference between having a good defense (which Notre Dame had in 2022) and having an elite defense.
Does Golden see it this way? Based on what we saw in 2022, he does not. If he doesn't reverse course the defense won't be as good as it could and should be. If he does make the adjustment I have no doubt Golden and lead a defense that makes a huge jump in effectiveness in 2023.
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