Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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corner in KeiVarae Russell, who was sidelined in 2014 but did practice Van- Gorder's scheme that spring. It's easy to say Russell was "rusty" this year, but in 2012, as a running back recruit, he fit in well on the esteemed top-ranked defense, earning Freshman All-America notice despite being re- cruited as a slot receiver/running back. The same with sophomore Matthias Far- ley, a converted wide receiver who came out of nowhere to excel at safety. While the 2015 defense has had its moments — including adjusting well to the triple-option attacks of Georgia Tech and Navy, holding No. 1 Clemson mostly in check over the final 55 min- utes, ranking near the top 10 in three- and-outs and streamlining some com- munication issues to play better against up-tempo attacks — the more injury- riddled offense had to carry the freight most of the time, especially in fourth- quarter rallies at Virginia, Temple and at home versus USC. With Notre Dame leading Stanford 36-35, the Cardinal backed up at its 27 and only 25 seconds left, all the Irish needed was one stop to keep alive their College Football Playoff aspirations. When the job didn't get done in the de- feat, VanGorder became the easy scape- goat based on the defensive travails the past two seasons. FINDING A HAPPY MEDIUM For many a season the past two de- cades, people joked that the ND logo stood for "No Defense." Finally, some stability was brought to the defensive coordinator position with Bob Diaco from 2010-13 under Kelly. During Diaco's four years, Notre Dame never finished lower than 27th nationally in scoring defense. That was the best such four-year streak in that cat- egory since 1974-77, from the end of the Ara Parseghian era to the 1977 national title under Dan Devine with defensive coordinator Joe Yonto. Under Diaco, games were won in 2012 by scores of 13-6, 20-3, 17-14, 20-13 (in overtime), 21-6 and 22-13. In 2013, the Irish registered a 17-13 victory over Michigan State (its lone defeat), a 14-10 triumph versus USC and 23-13 win against BYU. The 2012 unit that led Notre Dame to the BCS National Championship Game is the gold standard, at least in the regular season, in the 35 years from 1981-2015. Alas, when Alabama had six weeks to study and dissect it, the unit became exposed as too simplistic and, in the words of Crimson Tide players, "pre- dictable." Kelly agreed after the 42-14 loss. "We were too vanilla," Kelly told Blue & Gold Illustrated this summer. "If you had any time to scout us … we had two defensive calls, we had issues, we had no situational substitution groups. So that was the next level. "We were going to change person- nel groups and get into all those things anyway, and we were starting to evolve to it when we got Brian. That's the next level for us defensively, and having the ability and depth to it." Now, after two seasons and a ma- jor bowl game pending, the itch for a change has re-emerged, at least on the outside. Whereas Diaco's scheme was deemed too elementary and passive, VanGorder's is often categorized as too complex and unproductive.