Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL will be better. The players will have a stronger feel for the weak spots in protections, and VanGorder can bring a wider variety of pressures. The more unpredictable Notre Dame can be, especially out of its base de‑ fense, the more big plays it will create for itself. MORE AGGRESSIVENESS FROM THE SECONDARY The return of senior cornerback Kei‑ Varae Russell and the improvements made by junior safety Max Redfield give VanGorder more weapons than he had a season ago. Russell's return should greatly ben‑ efit the pass rush. Having a player of his caliber at one cornerback and a talent like Cole Luke at the other spot gives VanGorder one of the nation's premier cornerback tandems. Both ex‑ cel in man coverage, which affords VanGorder the opportunity to be more aggressive with his pressures than he could have been a season ago. Russell will also help as a pass rusher. He is stronger and more ex‑ plosive than Luke or last year's other starting cornerback, Cody Riggs. Nei‑ ther player was a threat as a blitzer, but Russell can be. Do not be surprised to see the Irish coaches bring more corner blitzes this season with Russell coming hard off the edge from the short side of the field. Notre Dame plans on using Russell in the slot at times when it goes to its nickel defense, which is the spot occu‑ pied by Matthias Farley in 2014. Rus‑ sell can provide better man coverage from that spot and also brings more explosiveness off the edge as a blitzer. The ability to lock down on the out‑ side, combined with strong play from Redfield, should allow VanGorder to bring his strong safety and linebackers on more disruptive pressures. Those players will be better protected on the back end, which was not the case last fall. OUTNUMBERING THE PROTECTION Another benefit to having Russell, Luke and Redfield in the secondary is it allows VanGorder to be a bit more "risky" in how he attacks. VanGorder brought very few overload blitzes in 2014. Outside of Luke, he simply lacked the man coverage ability to take that kind of risk. Unlike former Irish defensive coor‑ dinator Jon Tenuta, who was known for his high‑risk pressures, VanGorder likes to be more sound with how he pressures. He was not going to bring the overload pressures that give of‑ fenses so many problems without having the personnel on the back end to protect the blitz. VanGorder now has the players to bring these types of pressures, which will go a long way towards creating more big plays for the defense in normal game situations. Having the ability to protect the blitzes will allow VanGorder to be more aggressive and make the Irish defense far more effective. ✦ Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com.