Depth Makes Notre Dame Defense Different
In the last seven seasons, Notre Dame has won 10+ games six times. The backbone of all of those teams was the defense.
Their average finish in FEI in those years was 13th and the 2023 defense was their best ever finish in FEI. Al Golden’s defense finished fifth in the country. Those Brian VanGorder defenses, which finished outside the top-50, are a distant memory.
No one plays great defense without great players. The Irish have had plenty of them on those defenses since ‘17 and one of the reasons why expectations are so high for the 2024 season has to do with the great players they have returning. Xavier Watts, Howard Cross, and Benjamin Morrison have all been selected to preseason All-American teams. Rylie Mills is a top-15 returning defensive tackle according to PFF’s grading and Jack Kiser had the highest grade of any returning linebacker.
Add in three transfers who were multi-year starters from power conference programs plus several breakout candidates who have developed since last fall and the potential is there for this to be a special defense.
Despite the recent track record on defense, there were always recruiting misses that put Notre Dame in a precarious position at certain spots.
True freshman defensive tackles played in ‘17, ‘18, and ‘19 because they didn’t have any other options. Notre Dame had trouble finding the right fit at nickel in some seasons. Cornerback was a legitimate question mark with razor thin depth in 2020 and 2021. They also had to move defensive tackles to play out of position at defensive end in Marcus Freeman’s first two seasons in South Bend.
There were a ton of great players, but also holes that needed to be patched up.
That’s the thing that separates the 2024 defense from some of those others. The depth is different.
Whether it’s in the secondary, at linebacker, or up front with the defensive line, the options are plentiful for Notre Dame and the drop off between the first, second, and even third options at many positions is far less than it used to be.
They appear set to play five linebackers this season and it’s not because they can’t find two good ones. It’s because the five they have have earned opportunities to play. Golden has seen that kind of competition across the board and there are more players ready to contribute than there will be snaps available.
“Max (Bullough) has been vocal about it, but I would say Mick (Mike Mickens) and Al (Washington) feel the same way,” Golden said when asked about the depth at linebacker. “We’re trying to develop kind of a herd at each position or a pod that we can rotate through. Obviously, the heat in the opener is one of the elements of the game.
“For us, we’re trying to develop that at every position. If you had Mick up here right now, he’d tell you he’s trying to get 8-10 guys ready. I know Al’s somewhere around 10 or 11 that he’s trying to get ready to play. That’s our mentality. We’re trying to build for the long haul.”
That mentality trickles down to the players who are pushing each other every day. Freeman has seen things from each of Jack Kiser, Jaiden Ausberry, Jaylen Sneed, Drayk Bowen, and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa that is forcing the coaching staff to find snaps for all of them whether it is playing in the base defense or finding a role rushing the passer in sub-packages.
“It’s been wonderful. We've got five guys, and we have a lot of confidence,” Freeman stated about the linebacker situation. “I think that creates a little bit of unity. Hey, whoever's on the field, they’re representing the entire room. We'll find ways to get them all on the field.
“We demand you play with an effort that I don't know we can only play with two or three linebackers the entire game. The effort that we demand of the guys on defense and [that] our entire team plays with, it's really hard to just have one group out there. And we'll find ways to get all five of those guys on the field.”
Sneed and KVA in particular are two who could end up becoming primary pass rushers on 3rd downs for the Irish this season. It will be a battle for both to earn those opportunities, though, because the defensive line has almost too many good choices to choose from.
Howard Cross is one of the best interior pass rushers in the country. If they need Rylie Mills to play instead, he could step in and not miss a beat. His 24.7% win percentage against true pass sets is third in the country amongst returning defensive tackles.
Off the edge, Jordan Botelho has dropped 20 pounds and looks more like the guy who terrorized South Carolina in Notre Dame’s bowl matchup at the end of the 2022 season. RJ Oben has a 20% win rate against true pass sets over his last three seasons at Duke. There’s Josh Burnham coming on as well and Boubacar Traore has continued to prove he can be a major factor after a strong spring.
“It’s hard to name just four, but Boubacar has done a good job of really rushing after the passer,” Freeman said when asked about emerging pass rushers. “It's not just the defensive line. You can utilize linebackers, which you saw Jaylen Sneed do last year. I really like our pass-rush package in terms of who we're able to get on the field, but it's a deep [group]. We have some guys that can rush the passer, and I know coach [Al] Golden will have those guys on the field.”
Golden mentioned Christian Gray, Jaden Mickey, and Rod Heard as options behind Jordan Clark at nickel and Golden also made sure to emphasize that they can play bigger there as well if needed with someone like Ausberry. Adon Shuler is also someone who took some reps as the dime defender, the Aztec position in Notre Dame’s Spear package, who can also match up as a bigger player.
Notre Dame’s defense can play differently from week to week, series to series, and play to play because of the depth they’ve developed at all of these positions. The battles for playing time has also helped them mix and match personnel and showed that different groups can have success when they are on the field together.
”Just trying to find different roles for everybody,” Golden said. “That’s one of the things that we tell everybody. You’re auditioning every day for roles. We try to mix up the groupings to put some No. 1 linebackers with the twos, No. 2 linebackers with the ones. Same thing on the backend or our d-end with a tackle.
“We know it’s not always static in terms of who is in the game. I think that’s really important to build that, if you will, that vertical and horizontal depth.”
Defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio injured his foot on the first day of camp. In previous seasons, losing a key backup could have been viewed as a disaster at defensive tackle, but Notre Dame has built up the kind of depth on defense that they won’t miss a beat when something like this happens.
Depth will be needed in the heat against Texas A&M and throughout the season. With the way the staff has recruited and developed the roster on defense, they know they can adapt when they have to and still play great defense.
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