Cavalier Corner Digital

WILL COACHING TURNOVER LEAD TO DEFENSIVE TURNOVERS? BY DAN MURPHY W hen Notre Dame's defense succeeded under former coordinator Bob Diaco it did so with simplicity and logic. Diaco's philosophy with the Irish consisted of one core belief that stemmed into three secondary tenets. MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY The core: avoid allowing points at all costs. To do that Notre Dame first focused on stopping big plays. In the last two seasons the bend-without-breaking approach has been obvious in many of the team's big games. Next the Irish tried to take away an opponent's bread and butter. The Rose Bowl-bound Michigan State Spartans, for example, ran for a season-low 119 yards against Notre Dame while scoring only 13 points in their only loss this fall. Then, and only then as an added bonus, did Diaco teach his players to seek out opportunities for turnovers. As head coach Brian Kelly often says, you get what you emphasize in coaching. And this season Notre Dame did not get turnovers. The Irish finished among the bottom 10 teams in the bowl subdivision in creating turnovers. They have a total of 13 through 12 games. If they don't intercept a pass or recover a fumble against Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl next week, they're in danger of setting a program record for the fewest takeaways in the last 126 years of Irish football. The current record of 14 was set only two seasons ago by the same staff. In that year like this one, a team with legitimate BCS aspirations in August played a December bowl. They finished the season with eight wins. The Irish had 23 takeaways a year ago and won 12 games. There are hundreds of reasons why teams win and lose football games. To pin the rise and subsequent fall of the past two seasons on a defense creating or not creating enough turnovers would be unfair. But it certainly can't hurt to have a few more potential game-changing plays each week. The nine other teams at the bottom of the turnover barrel with Notre Dame this season averaged 2.88 wins. Not one is headed to a bowl game, and only Troy reached the six-win mark to be eligible for a postseason trip. Meanwhile, five of the top 10 defenses when it came to creating turnovers played for a conference title in their most recent game. With Diaco packing his bags for Connecticut this month, Kelly has a decision to make about the next leader of his defense. Whether he hires a newcomer as coordinator or promotes one of his trusted assistants — most likely co-coordinator Kerry Cooks — a new face provides the potential for the Irish to emphasize different things with their defense. Does it make sense to set new priorities or stick with the ones that have led to impressive results in most other important defensive categories? Kelly didn't seem overly concerned about the lack of turnover production this fall. When he was asked about the recordsetting pace, he said he was more focused on his offense hanging on to the ball than his defense taking it away from others. It doesn't sound like Kelly was looking for much radical change in whomever he hires next. Former defensive coordinator Bob Diaco's bend-but-don't-break approach resulted in only 13 turnovers for the Irish defense this fall, which will set a school record for the fewest takeaways in a season if the Irish don't force one against Rutgers. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND "One of the most important things is you don't have a lot of knowledge of your opponents unfortunately with so many different teams that come in and off our schedule," he said last week. "The defensive coordinator has to have that ability to handle a variety of different offenses. It can't be, 'I just do this.' We've got to have some flexibility, and to do that, you've got to be able to run both three-down and four-down [linemen]." Diaco's answer to playing the wide array of offenses was too keep the ball in front of his group, rather than trying to generate pressure and getting burned by the unfamiliar. On the other hand, Notre Dame felt most comfortable in attack mode against ✦ PAGE 17 Arizona State's offense. The Irish forced a season-high three turnovers that game, which they converted into 14 points in a three-point win. Perhaps players like senior outside linebacker Prince Shembo (three tackles for loss and a hurry that forced a pick-six against the Sun Devils) just needed the chance to be aggressive. The decisions Diaco and Kelly made during the past four years yielded morethan-satisfactory results for what they expected of their defense. With the chance to build on those principles under a new leader, with so many games won and lost on turnover margin, it makes sense to at least consider a new emphasis. ✦ E-mail Dan at dmurphy@blueandgold.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @BGI_DanMurphy.

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