Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM APRIL 2023 25 coordinator torch has been passed on to Gerad Parker, and what comes next is anybody's guess. Parker has two years of offensive co- ordinator experience at West Virginia, but he was a Neal Brown puppet in those seasons. The offense was not his own, and he was not the primary play-caller for that duration of time. Now serving a second-year, defensive-minded head coach, Parker has the freedom to con- coct a college offense in a way he never has before. The principles will still run in lock- step with what Freeman wants. Notre Dame is going to be a run-first team with dominant play from linemen on both sides of the ball. But even Wake Forest abided by the technical definition of the former attribute. The Demon Deacons had 505 rushing attempts to 473 passing attempts. Move 38 sacks, which ranked tied for 107th nationally, to the other column and the former number dips to 467 while the latter increases to 511. A near perfect swap. So, in essence, Wake threw the ball — or tried to throw the ball — more than it ran. But barely. The point is, even a team with an of- fense designed to take shots down the field — especially with a quarterback like Hartman at the helm — had its fair share of runs mixed into the offense. It's not a surprise that Notre Dame wants to run the rock. But what it can do in the passing game beyond what Rees did with Pyne last year and even beyond what he did with Coan the year before that is what can make all the difference for Parker and the Irish. Three of last year's College Football Playoff participants ranked inside the top 16 nationally in rushing attempts. But ev- ery single one of them also ranked inside the top 25 in yards per passing attempt. Two of them, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 5 Georgia, were top-five teams in that cat- egory. They played a semifinal that went down to a last-second field goal attempt. A stout running game is critical for any elite team, especially a program like Notre Dame. But Parker must get the most out of Hartman and the Irish pass- ing game to have a memorable season. DEFENSIVE IDENTITY CRISIS A unit bringing back every on-field position coach and a slew of experi- enced players generally doesn't have many reasons to worry. That doesn't feel true of Notre Dame in 2023. Led by Al Golden going into his sec- ond season as defensive coordinator, the Notre Dame defense is searching for a calling card early in the offsea- son. The program's all-time leader in sacks, Isaiah Foskey, is gone. Two of his best running mates along the defensive line, Jayson and Justin Ademilola, went with him. Big Chris Smith's one year as gap-stopper in the interior of the D-line came and went. When you think Notre Dame defense, you usually think big, powerful defen- sive linemen. Maybe the Irish have some who are ready to break out. They do not really have any who are going to land on offseason hot lists, though, and that's a tad concerning. The experience comes from the middle of the field in a bevy of gradu- ate student linebackers led by Marist Liufau, JD Bertrand and Jack Kiser, but how much better can those players get in their fifth collegiate seasons? Their services have been appreciated by Irish fans aplenty, but it's as if those same people are just waiting for younger backers like Jaylen Sneed, Prince Kol- lie and even true freshmen like Drayk Bowen to prove to coaches in practices their playing time is more valuable than that of their elders. Notre Dame needs a true game-wrecker at the second level of defense. It felt like there wasn't one to be found in 2022. Outside of freshman sensation Benja- min Morrison, Notre Dame did not have a ball-hawking defensive back last year either. Morrison had 6 interceptions and is the type of player who is going to garner a ton of offseason attention. Rightfully so. Last year, it was Brandon Joseph receiving that sort of attention. He was a part of a Notre Dame second- ary that ranked No. 125 out of 131 FBS teams with 2.62 passes defended per game. His only such tally of the season came on a halftime Hail Mary heave. The Notre Dame defense can still be good as currently constructed. But can it be great? That would require more than just one player greatly exceeding expectations. Imagine if Notre Dame had a Morrison at every level of the de- fense? Now we're talking a champion- ship-caliber unit. ✦ 2023 SPRING FOOTBALL OVERVIEW The Notre Dame defense needs more players like sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison to exceed expectations for the Fighting Irish to be elite in 2023. PHOTO BY DAVID BECKER