Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/276022
tial All-America candidate, will head- line that group. He was fifth on the team with 51 tackles a year ago and finished the year with his strongest performance to date (one interception and three passes broken up) in the Pin- stripe Bowl against Rutgers. Russell will be joined by sopho- mores Cole Luke and Devin Butler, both of whom got quality experience as nickel backs and regular corner- backs in the 2013 season. Newcom- ers like fifth-year senior transfer Cody Riggs, who is set to arrive in June, and converted safety Matthias Farley will also battle to be part of that rotation. Farley is another calming, veteran presence in the backfield. He was bumped inside out to make room for the batch of talented young safeties ready for more regular roles in the coming fall. "It's a new system, it's a new every- thing, so when I have a fresh start, I feel like that's been the storyline of my career — adapting to new situations," said Farley, who came to Notre Dame as a wide receiver before flipping to defense as a sophomore. "It probably fit my skill sets better. … There's a lot less space, just training your eyes, reading your keys." Farley's combination of experience at safety and his move to cornerback makes him a logical candidate for the nickel back position as well when the Irish opt to put five defensive backs on the field. With the addition of Riggs, who played nickel for two seasons with the Florida Gators, that gives Notre Dame four viable options at the nickel position. Safety Elijah Shumate and Luke both played in that role dur- ing their true freshman seasons. Given the depth the Irish have in the secondary and the lack of big bodies up front, it wouldn't be surprising to see five defensive backs used more frequently as a base defense look than in the past. "My experience tells me to always do a good job evaluating the current talent, the current players and then make decisions that best play to their strengths," VanGorder said when asked about how he would prefer to line up his defense. "That's the process that we'll be in right now." Notre Dame's initial spring work- outs point to at least a little more ex- perimenting with using four down linemen as a base, as opposed to the 3-4 look that was the default set up under former coordinator Bob Diaco. What used to be the "Cat" linebacker position is now referred to as the rush linebacker in the Irish playbook. The "Dog" position will be known as the Sam linebacker, typical nomenclature for a 4-3 base. Most of the 3-4 versus 4-3 debate has become little more semantics for Notre Dame, which uses both fronts almost evenly depending on the type of of- fense they are facing in a given week. Kelly said that the team still plans to have both formations in its repertoire moving forward. "It just really depends on who we're playing on the schedule," Kelly said. "It's so easy now to get in and out of the three-down and four-down de- fense. The way we're going to con- struct it, it's really going to be week to week. It's going to be similar to what the New England Patriots are doing.