2018 Notre Dame Football Preview

2018 Notre Dame Football Preview

Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview

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4 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY LOU SOMOGYI T here is popular opinion that to thrive in the spotlight as the Notre Dame head coach, it is mandatory to have had suc‑ cessful previous experience as a college head coach elsewhere. That premise is built on the fact that Terry Brennan (1954‑58), Gerry Faust (1981‑85), Bob Davie (1997‑2001) and Charlie Weis (2005‑09) — none of whom had been a head coach in college — were terminated, or would have been, after five seasons. There is no guarantee that a previous head coach elsewhere will prosper in the shadow of the Golden Dome, but one with zero experience is destined for doom, or at least is per past patterns. What about excelling as a defensive co‑ ordinator at Notre Dame? Does that also require previous experience? That's applicable now that 2004 Vander‑ bilt University graduate Clark Lea holds the title as Notre Dame's 16th defensive coor‑ dinator in the last 34 years (approximately when he was born), or an average tenure of just more than two years per coordinator. Lea is the fifth Irish defensive coordina‑ tor under head coach Brian Kelly, who is entering season No. 9 at Notre Dame. That includes full‑time or interim, with both vet‑ erans and newbies: • Bob Diaco (2010‑13) was only 37 years old and had one year of coordinator experi‑ ence, at Cincinnati with Kelly when they were 12‑0. Doubts arose about Diaco's competence his first season with the Irish when there was an inability to adjust to Navy's triple‑option scheme during a 35‑17 loss — yet under his watch the Irish never finished lower than 27th in scoring defense. That hadn't oc‑ curred over such a span since 1974‑77. In 2012, Diaco was the recipient of the Frank Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant when the defense spearheaded the 12‑0 regular season while allowing a paltry 12.8 points per game, the fewest (when in‑ cluding bowl games) at Notre Dame in 32 years. • Brian VanGorder (2014‑16) was the op‑ posite of Diaco. At age 55, he had twice been a head coach at the smaller level in college football, likewise won the Broyles Award (at Georgia), coordinated college defenses for more than a decade, was an NFL defensive coordinator from 2008‑11 and prided him‑ self on possessing a voluminous library of strategy that could make the heads of oppos‑ ing offenses spin. He was a sharp contrast to Diaco's "vanilla" approach. Yet what good was it when the college game had changed so much while VanGorder was in the NFL, when pro‑style nomencla‑ ture, design and communication did not fit the college game, and where recruiting was viewed unenthusiastically? UNDER THE DOME NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY? Defensive coordinators at Notre Dame have thrived or failed regardless of background Clark Lea (above) is the fifth defensive coordinator to serve under head coach Brian Kelly during his first nine seasons in South Bend. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA

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