Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL As good as the early stretch was, the second half was equally as bad. Over the final seven games of the sea‑ son, Notre Dame allowed 451.1 yards and 36.4 points per contest, the worst stretch in Irish history. Notre Dame began the season with a young and inexperienced defense that featured 14 freshmen and sophomores in the rotation. It got worse. Suspen‑ sions and injuries made an already young and thin depth chart even younger and more depleted. Notre Dame is looking to compete for a berth in the 2015 College Foot‑ ball Playoff, but that will not happen without dramatic improvements on defense. The Irish need to put more pressure on the quarterback and cre‑ ate more negative plays in the back‑ field. Consider these numbers from 2014: Notre Dame had just 73 tackles for loss (5.6 per game), 26 sacks (2.0 per game) and 55 passes defended (4.2 per game). That level of production, when taken in context of the philosophy of the Fighting Irish defense, is not good enough. A look at other top programs with similar philosophies makes that apparent. Ohio State had 110 tackles for loss (7.3 per game), 45 sacks (3.0 per game) and 80 passes defended (5.3 per out‑ ing). TCU had 110 tackles for loss (8.5 per game), 40 sacks (3.1 per con‑ test) and 78 passes defended (6.0 per game). Clemson had 131 tackles for loss (10.1 per game), 45 sacks (3.5 per game) and 53 passes defended (4.1 per game). And Michigan State had 84 tackles for loss (6.5 per game), 42 sacks (3.2 per game) and 68 passes defended (5.2 per game). Notre Dame's inability to disrupt the backfield was the driving factor in its struggles against the run (171.2 yards allowed per game) and why quarterbacks were able to complete 60.3 percent of their passes against the Irish. This season, Notre Dame's defensive coordinator will have a much better feel for the strengths and weaknesses of his players. Just as important, his players will have a much better un‑ derstanding of what he expects and what their respective roles are within the defense. The Fighting Irish defenders should be able to play with more confidence, speed and aggressiveness. This alone should result in overall improvements. However, head coach Brian Kelly has noted that his defense currently lacks the ability to get consistent pres‑ sure on the opposing backfield with just its front four. In order to get the level of disruption desired, VanGorder and the Irish defensive staff will have to get creative with how it attacks the opposition. Here is some of what you could see from the Notre Dame defense in 2015: MAXIMIZING THE PERSONNEL Finding players with the ability to win individual matchups is impera‑ tive to developing an effective pass rush. Even the best and brightest de‑ fensive minds are going to run into matchups where the offense is able to slow down the pressure packages.