Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JUNE/JULY 2024 23 BY JACK SOBLE J unior quarterback Steve Angeli thought he had the defense beat. On the last play of Notre Dame's "jersey scrimmage" — in which the offense and defense compete for the right to wear blue practice jerseys as op- posed to white — Angeli had sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse lined up across from a linebacker near the goal line. That's a matchup the offense will take any day as it prepared to run a sprint-out pass. Angeli ran to the right and fired it to an open Greathouse, looking for six. One problem: He wasn't open. An- geli didn't see sophomore safety Adon Shuler in the passing lane, and he threw it right to him. Shuler's interception sealed the de- fense's win, one engineered by pick sixes from junior cornerback Jaden Mickey and graduate student safety Xavier Watts. It was the first time in Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man's tenure that the defense won the jersey scrimmage, and it signaled what most assumed about the 2024 Irish. This team will be difficult to score on, and a major factor in that is continuity. "Year 3," Freeman said after the scrimmage. "It's the same thing I said to you guys last year after Year 2." Freeman is, of course, referring to de- fensive coordinator Al Golden's tenure with the Irish. Most of Notre Dame's core contributors — Watts, gradu- ate student defensive tackles Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills, graduate stu- dent linebacker Jack Kiser and junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison — are entering Year 3 as starters, too. Defen- sive passing game coordinator Mike Mickens and run game coordinator Al Washington are entering, you guessed it, Year 3 (actually Year 5 for Mickens, but it's his third season with this group). That matters. Notre Dame installed its basic defensive scheme a long time ago. Entering Year 3, Golden has the lib- erty to dial up whatever he likes. "When you go into Year 3 now, pretty much between Golden, Mickens and Al Washington — being consistent in terms of the voices in those rooms — Year 3 is in the same scheme, and it's an NFL pro-style defense," Freeman said. "There's a lot of defense." Reporters saw a lot of defense in the scrimmage, as Golden dialed up some diabolical blitz packages against his own team. In addition to the continu- ity, Notre Dame's lockdown defensive backs and a bevy of diverse rush options up front allow him to throw anything he can imagine at opposing quarterbacks. He made life difficult for Irish offen- sive coordinator Mike Denbrock's unit, which was still finding its footing in the ex-LSU OC's first spring back in South Bend. "What you'll see from the offensive side is that they're going to get every look imaginable," Freeman. "They're not playing against a Marcus Freeman defense, where you're going to see a couple of different things. You're going to see everything with Al Golden." As painful as it might have been for Denbrock and his players, Freeman be- lieves it should help them in the long run. "It's going to help them improve," Freeman said. "If they can understand — which I think they do; the coaches do — this is really good for you. What you're seeing defensively, this is really good for you. You're going against one of the best in the country. "This is going to be one of the best defenses in the country. That's what our offense is going against every day, but at the end of the day, that's gonna make you better." Some speculated over the offseason that Golden would look elsewhere. His name appeared on short lists for power- conference head coaching jobs, and there was always the possibility he'd look at returning to the NFL. Golden coached linebackers for the Lions and Bengals be- fore Freeman hired him at Notre Dame. That speculation ended when Golden signed a four-year contract extension Feb. 16. If spring ball is any indication, GOLDEN YEAR In Year 3 under Al Golden, Notre Dame's defense looks primed to dominate again After three years installing his system and terminology, Golden has the liberty to dial up whatever he likes. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER