Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 JANUARY 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Freeman's Defense Finally Figured It Out By Tyler Horka The 565 yards North Carolina piled up on Notre Dame on Oct. 30 was a wake-up call to defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman and the entire Notre Dame defense. The Fighting Irish still won the game, but the defen- sive effort was far from impressive. What happened over the next four games was the very definition of impressive. Notre Dame did not let any of its final four oppo- nents eclipse 300 total yards. The Irish went three whole games without allowing a touchdown. The November opponents — Navy, a Brennan Armstrong-less Virginia, Geor- gia Tech and Stanford — weren't great by any stretch, but Freeman can't control the level of play of the opposition. He has a direct impact on how his own players perform, though, and they did exactly what they were sup- posed to do against those foes. If anything, they even exceeded expecta- tions. How many teams are expected to allow nine points over the course of three games? Freeman doesn't get enough credit for the way Notre Dame played early in the year either. The season opener at Florida State was bad. No other way to spin that. But Notre Dame immediately followed that up with five consecutive games in which it held teams to less than 400 yards. When Notre Dame was playing poorly in those games, nobody was pointing a finger at Freeman's defense. It was the Notre Dame offense that wasn't up to snuff. Tommy Rees led a season-altering revamp of the Notre Dame offense, yes. But what Freeman steadily did with the Notre Dame defense, capped by a dominant final month, was just as important. Facing A Longer To-Do List, Rees Gets The Edge By Todd D. Burlage Only about two months ago, all of ND Nation was anxiously watching and wondering if there was any hope or way to "fix" the "broken" Irish offense. Halfway through its 12-game regular season, Notre Dame was allowing 4.0 sacks a game and averaging only 97.3 rushing yards per outing, troubling marks that situated the team in the bottom five nationally in both categories. Blessed with a well-timed bye week, second-year Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees re- alized that status quo had to go, and he went to work. Some personnel shuffling along the offensive line quickly helped stabilize performance in the trenches. But it was a risky midseason strategy shift by Rees that proved most brilliant and helpful when he flipped from deliberate to up-tempo. Splitting the 2021 season in half, Notre Dame allowed 24 sacks through its first six games, then only nine its final six, while at the same time, production in the rushing game more than doubled to 207.7 yards per game during the season's second half. As my fine colleague Tyler Horka accurately points out, first-year defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman also orchestrated a dramatic turnaround with his unit, but the challenges the new Irish head coach faced didn't compare to what Rees was up against. Freeman's task was to teach experienced players a new scheme, while Rees needed to replace a three-year starting quarterback, four offensive linemen, and several key skill position players. The steady improvement for both the Irish offense and defense ran con- gruently this season. But given the greater production voids and personnel challenges, I'll give Rees the improvement edge. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHICH SIDE OF THE BALL SHOWED THE MOST IMPROVEMENT DURING THE REGULAR SEASON? TOMMY REES MARCUS FREEMAN "Wash, rinse, repeat," that's one way Notre Dame head football equipment manager Chris Bacsik succinctly described his important role when the Fighting Irish arrive in Glendale, Ariz., for their New Year's Day date with Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. Keeping the Notre Dame players ready and looking good, and the Irish coaches fully equipped with everything from headsets to chewing gum, can be a thankless job. However, with the help of his assistant Dan Glynn and a student staff of more than a dozen, Bacsik and his crew will make sure every equipment need is met and any inevi- table surprises are handled. Bacsik, 42, graduated from Notre Dame in 2001 and has worked with the football program in some capacity ever since, taking on his current role about four years ago. Blue & Gold Illustrated caught up with Bacsik to discuss some of the challenges he and his crew will face in Arizona. BGI: What does your year-round schedule look like? Bacsik: "From the workouts that start in mid January whenever the guys get back to school, then through spring ball, and then another two months of summer workouts, it's go-go-go. But we have plenty of hands that help us out and make things a lot easier on ev- erybody." BGI: What will a day look like in Arizona? Bacsik: "We'll go over in the morning to the high school [where the team will practice] and set everything out for the players, have practice in the af- ternoon, and then get all of that cleaned up. "Then on game day, we will do our typical stadium set up, have a walk through, play the game, and then have both trucks packed up and ready to go so the drivers can hit the road and have everything back a few days later in South Bend." BGI: What does your Fiesta Bowl itinerary look like? Bacsik: "The bigger truck [53 feet] will leave on Dec. 22 and get out there on Christmas night. Our practice truck [26 feet] will leave sometime the night of the 23rd and get out there early on the 26th. "From there, Dan [Glynn] and I will set up the high school in anticipation of the first practice out there on the 27th." BGI: What's your postgame pro- cess like? Bacsik: "Normally, when the guys leave the field, the first thing we collect is the helmets, and then we have rolling hampers that we position throughout the locker room for their game pants and jerseys, and all of the stuff that they're wearing in pregame. "We have to collect all of it fast because normally from the time the clock hits zero until the time that the first bus rolls out is typi- cally 50 minutes to no longer than an hour from when the game is over. It's pretty high paced." BGI: You are caring for about 100 players and coaches, nearly 2,000 miles from home. How do you prepare for that? Bacsik: "We like to make sure that we have multiple backups of everything you can think of. We have extra shoulder pads and helmets, and extra pants if something should rip. We have a full backup set of jerseys, numbers 1 through 99. "We'll bring extra practice jerseys, shoulder pads, helmets, clothes, you name it." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … NOTRE DAME HEAD FOOTBALL EQUIPMENT MANAGER CHRIS BACSIK BACSIK