Blue and Gold Illustrated

BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 1, 2025 53 P erhaps the only individual still up- set with the Notre Dame defense is Plankton, the pint-sized villain in the classic children's cartoon Sponge- bob Squarepants. That's because Plankton lives for one thing and one thing only, and Irish head coach Marcus Freeman continues to deny its existence. "It's no secret formula," Freeman said. "As we continue to say, the answer lies in the work: The game plan, the teaching, the practice, the study that our players put into it." The results speak for themselves: Af- ter entering Week 4 tied for 118th in the country in scoring defense, Notre Dame is now ranked 47th. Havoc creation has improved dramatically, too. The Irish were tied for 119th and 133rd, respec- tively, in takeaways and sacks per game during their 0-2 start. They are now tied for 12th and 34th. Notre Dame took another step for- ward Oct. 11, when Freeman said the defense played its best game yet this season. The Irish held North Carolina State to 7 points, forced 3 turnovers, sacked Wolfpack sophomore quarter- back CJ Bailey 4 times and even scored 2 points on a safety. Those numbers are very similar to what they did to Boise State (7 points, 4 turnovers and 4 sacks), but the dif- ference, Freeman said, was dominance. "I think we gave the ball to the offense twice inside the 20-yard line," Freeman said, referring to interceptions by red- shirt sophomore safety Adon Shuler and sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Vil- iamu-Asa. "And then you get a safety. Now those are explosives for defense. Just like on offense, you're efficient and you create an explosive play. "When you're starting to take the ball away, you're starting to get a safety, you're winning on third down, that's when it be- comes a dominant performance." Freeman was also impressed with the way Notre Dame responded after North Carolina State's lone touchdown, which it scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass thrown over the head of true freshman nickel back Dallas Golden. "It could have been, 'Here we go again,'" Freeman said. "There were some adjustments to how we called the game, but it was, 'We're good. Here were the issues. We know what hap- pened. Let's get them corrected and let's go out there and play with confidence.'" Notre Dame is playing with more confidence every week. There is far less visible confusion before the snap and visible frustration after the whistle. As Shuler and redshirt sophomore defen- sive end Boubacar Traore pointed out after the game, the Irish are playing together in ways they did not prior to Week 5. That showed up against the Wolfpack when the Irish constantly closed the cutback lanes, holding a rushing attack led by Bailey and star redshirt sopho- more running back Hollywood Smoth- ers to just 51 yards on 28 carries (includ- ing sacks). Notre Dame would not have been as successful if it was not playing 11 as one. "That was a huge key to victory," Freeman said. "Smothers is as good as anybody we'll see. He's going to make some people miss. "We had to gang tackle, pursue, so that if he made one miss, two guys miss, there was a whole pursuit of defenders going after him. We did a really good job with that." ASH ECHOES FREEMAN: 'WE JUST DO IT BETTER' Chris Ash sat down for his first meet- ing with reporters since Aug. 17 with a smile, which would have been incom- prehensible a month ago. At that time, Notre Dame had allowed 41 points to Texas A&M and 30 to Pur- due in back-to-back weeks. On Sept. 21, Freeman held a defensive staff meeting that he described as "not a comfort- able meeting, but I didn't want it to be comfortable." Ash's seat was as hot as a defensive coordinator's seat can be three games into his tenure. Since then, the Irish turned it around. However, Ash pushed back at the notion that he changed or simplified his play sheet in the month that followed Notre Dame's stumble out of the gate. The defense's progress, he explained, comes down to one thing. "There's nothing that's changed," Ash said. "We just do it better." The biggest improvement, Ash be- lieves, is consistency. "I watch every game, I watch every play, I evaluate every single thing. Most people want to just focus on what the result was," Ash said. "There was a lot of good football that was played in those games. It was inconsistent, though. And when you give up explosive plays, you're not going to get the results that you want. "Let's not play 50 minutes of really good football or 55. We have to play 60." From Weeks 5-7, Notre Dame played 60 minutes of good football. It's do- ing so in ways that, as much as no one in the building wants to talk about last year (for good reason), feel sustainable because it looks like the Irish are getting back to their roots. That, as it turns out, might have been the secret formula all along. ✦ No Secret Formula To the Defense's Turnaround Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE Redshirt sophomore safety Adon Shuler con- tributed an interception to Notre Dame's strong defensive effort against North Carolina State. The Wolfpack only scored 7 points, had 3 turnovers and was sacked 4 times. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER

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