Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE common; they both often outthink the room. While elite college teams keep strategies simple, perfect what they do and dare opponents to stop it, these two coaches believe brains beats brawn. Weis and VanGorder boastfully cel- ebrate their ability to install a new scheme each week to fit and counter what the next opponent plans to do. It's a coaching routine that works well in the NFL where players are full-time employees. It's also a strat- egy that doesn't necessarily render itself to the college game where time restrictions limit coach and player contact to 20 hours per week. "It's harder in college, just under- standing the time constraints you have with the 20-hour rule," said Notre Dame defensive backs coach Todd Lyght, a 12-year NFL veteran. "In the NFL, you had them all day so you could be detailed in what you do." Last year with a defensive unit that featured three team captains and NFL prospects such as linebacker Jaylon Smith, defensive lineman Sheldon Day, cornerback KeiVarae Russell and others, it's hard not to wonder why the Irish defense under- achieved so mightily. Just how much better could this unit have been last year if super athletic linebacker Nyles Morgan wasn't kept on the sidelines because oft-injured Joe Schmidt was the main player on the field who understood VanGorder 's scheme well enough to get his team- mates properly lined up in it? "Athletically, [Schmidt] struggled at times in space to make plays, and everybody saw it," Irish linebackers coach Mike Elston conceded. "But the tradeoff was he was going to be in the right spot to get the other guys around him in the right spot." According to research provided by Notre Dame blogger Bobby Norell at SlapTheSign.com, Notre Dame has allowed 46 scoring drives of 75 yards or more during VanGorder 's first two seasons on the job. A unit that is supposed to be predi- cated on pressuring quarterbacks and forcing turnovers, Notre Dame's de- fense during the last two seasons has finished 78th and 70th in sacks, and 110th and 41st in forced turnovers. And while VanGorder 's Irish de- fense loses quality players and lead- ers within every position group for the upcoming season, this year 's Blue-Gold Game provided plenty of promise that there are talented rein- forcements in place. "This defense is going to play the kind of defense necessary for us to get into that playoff hunt again," head coach Brian Kelly vowed imme- diately after the spring game. "There are good enough players out there for us to do that once again." But only if those players are good enough to figure out VanGorder 's scheme, or if he is good enough to find a better way to teach it. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com