Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/998819
28 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW First-year defensive coordinator Clark Lea (right) will lead a unit that returns nine of its 11 starters — only the sixth time since the start of two-platoon football in 1964 that the Irish brought back at least that many — from a 2017 crew that improved its point prevention from No. 62 nationally in 2016 to No. 31 last season. DEFENSE SYSTEM If Notre Dame is to return to consistent prominence, how it stops teams must take a greater step forward PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL BY LOU SOMOGYI A recent Progressive Insurance com‑ mercial showed a mock group ther‑ apy session in which young adults lamented to each other about how they were "becoming like their parents." One noted how she "texts in full sen‑ tences" while another sadly admitted he re‑ fers to every child as "Chief." "Next thing I know, I'm telling strangers that defense wins championships," confessed one of the males. "Well it does!" shot back a female member. That seems laughable in today's era of prolific offenses where football rule changes over the past 40 years have given the ad‑ vantage to that side of the ball to enhance entertainment value. Alabama won the 2015 national title with a 45‑40 shootout victory versus Clemson, and the Tigers turned the table the following season with a 35‑31 last‑second triumph against the Crimson Tide to finish No. 1. Defense didn't exactly rule in either championship setting. The first College Football Playoff in 2014 had eventual national champ Ohio State ral‑ lying for a 42‑35 win over Alabama in one semifinal, and last year Georgia hung on to advance to the title game with a 54‑48 double‑overtime conquest of Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Philadelphia's 41‑33 win versus New England this February was the second‑highest scoring Super Bowl ever. Defense in modern football is quite of‑ ten about damage control rather than sheer dominance. Nevertheless … the "parents" are still cor‑ rect overall about defense. Since the start of the BCS Championship format 20 years ago (1998) that evolved into the College Football Playoff in 2014, only one of the 20 national champions finished lower than 25th overall in total defense — Auburn in 2010. Even then, the Tigers won the title game 22‑19 in a defensive slugfest against an Oregon team that had been aver‑ aging 50.1 points per game. Last year, national champion Alabama also happened to finish No. 1 in total defense and run defense, rendering its No. 91 rating in pass‑ ing offense (yards per game) inconsequential. Runner‑up Georgia was only No. 105 in passing, but it was No. 6 in scoring defense, highlighted by the 20‑19 win at Notre Dame in which it had to make crucial stops at the end, and the 28‑7 victory against Auburn in the SEC title game — after having lost 40‑17 to the Tigers earlier in the season. In head coach Brian Kelly's first eight seasons at Notre Dame, his worst offense in terms of scoring was the 2012 edition that