Former Ohio State DB Tyvis Powell Q/A on Notre Dame DC Chris Ash
Defensive coordinator Chris Ash will make the jump back to the college game after spending the last four seasons in the NFL. Ash will be tasked with taking over the Notre Dame defense, which was one of the nation’s best over the last two seasons under Al Golden.
Ash will bring a plethora of experience to South Bend, including a National Championship that he won during the 2014 season with Ohio State.
Tyvis Powell started all 15 games Ash in 2014 and won Defensive MVP in the title game in Ohio State’s title win over Oregon. Powell totaled 147 tackles and eight interceptions in his two seasons playing for Ash.
Powell leveraged that into an NFL career where he played for the Broncos, Browns, Colts, Cowboys, Jets, Texans and 49ers.
We caught up with Powell to understand what exactly Ash will bring to the Notre Dame program.
ISD: What do you remember about Chris Ash?
Powell: We used to bump heads a lot. Chris Ash was an a-hole, but the problem was I was an a-hole, so we would always clash over stuff. He was one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. Coach Ash is one of those coaches who helped me understand the game.
I remember it was one of my first practices in spring ball and he was like, ‘Tyvis look at that running back.’ I’m like, ‘Who the hell looks at the running back? I’m looking at the wide receivers.’ He said, ‘Look, the running back in gun-far. That means it’s going to be a pass and you need to pay attention to the running back.’ I never thought about that. I never knew the running back dictated what happens.
He was one of the first coaches who had me paying attention to details like that and I ended up making a play on the ball on that play. From there, I knew he was smart and understands the game. He helped me realize things I didn’t even know was part of the game.
Coach Ash made me a smarter football player. I have no reason to believe he won’t do that same thing for those guys at Notre Dame. I believe he’s going to make an immediate impact.
He’s going to keep it real. If someone messes up, he’s not the nicest guy, but he’s real. They’ll enjoy him. I think he’s a home run hire.
ISD: You mentioned Coach Ash making you a smarter football player. How does he teach everyone to see the whole picture?
Powell: Before we had Chris Ash, we had Everett Withers and he was my safety coach. It was complicated. You had a lot of thinking you had to do over the course of play. When Coach Ash got here, he simplified the defense, allowing us to play fast. There wasn’t a lot of thinking at all.
He told us to look at this and if you see this, then this guy will tell you all you need to know about the play. He simplified things to make people play faster. That’s a thing you really come to appreciate. You weren’t thinking about if I had this or that. It’s not like that. This guy is blocking down; boom, I’m going. You trigger so much faster with Coach Ash. That was one of the biggest differences he made with our defense. He made it so simple and allowed us to read and react quickly.
As far as the safeties go, this is where that a-hole comes into play. I would go out in practice and he was always on this tight end thing. The tight end would block down and it would mean I would trigger for the run. What would happen, I would run right past him and it would be play-action. He’d block down and go out, so he’d be wide open.
I kept telling Coach, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He would be like, ‘The problem is you’re knifing past him and you need to go straight down the line to run into him.’ I said I would do it exactly like that so when stuff goes wrong, I can look right at him and say his stuff doesn’t work. He was 100 percent right.
That’s how he would get through all the time. He thought he knew it all and I thought I knew it all. Obviously, he might have been a little smarter. If the players at Notre Dame listen to him and do it exactly like he’s saying, they’ll have a ton of success.
ISD: What is his teaching style in the meeting rooms?
Powell: He can get fiery. He will get after you. He’ll play it cool, but he will get after you, which is a nice balance. He’s not one of those guys players will try to take advantage of. He understands the difference between being your friend and being your coach. He’s going to coach you first, and once you start having success, we can become friendly. That’s the best way to do it.
ISD: You mentioned him keeping it simple on defense. It’s been a minute since he’s been in the college and the RPO has taken over the game. Is that something he’s going to have to adjust to with his scheme?
Powell: When I played, we went up against RPOs. We did a great job with that. The No. 1 thing I loved about him the most is that he would look at what a team’s best thing was - whatever it was, whether it was running the ball, a wide receiver or a quarterback - he finds a way to take them out of the game. He forces you to win a different way.
Back when we won it all in 2014, we went up against Melvin Gordon (26 carries, 76 yards), a Heisman finalist, we took him completely out of the game. I won’t say we completely shut Amari Cooper down, but he wasn’t the factor he was supposed to be. Obviously, Marcus Mariota had a big game, but we did a great job with that.
It was all simple game planning, so we didn’t think about things. We were reacting. He does a great job of taking the best player out. That’s how we had so much success with him.
ISD: When it comes to installing the defense, Al Golden would put everything in during the spring and then take pieces from it throughout the year. Is that Ash’s style?
Powell: He’s going to come in with a base defense and it plays to everything. If we got into a situation with tempo and we couldn’t get a call in, we knew we could run it. If we got confused with a formation we didn’t know, then we would run it and it would work. That’s what would keep us sane. No matter what, we knew we could run this defense for anything.
He made sure we drilled that same defense over and over and over every day. He would throw different formations at us so everyone understood their assignments and how to adjust off of it. After we had that down like the back of our hand, then he would start sprinkling other stuff in, which was good to build on and throw some curveballs at offenses.
ISD: Building on that, is Ash a man or zone guy? Or does he like to mix it up?
Powell: We ran a bunch of Cover 4. On third down, he would get tricky. We would run Cover 2 on third down. We sprinkled some Cover 3 in on first and second down with some blitzes off of that. For the most part, we were a pattern match Cover 4.
ISD: In terms of what you know about Coach Ash and Notre Dame, what do you think of the overall fit between both sides and him coming to work for Marcus Freeman?
Powell: I think he and Marcus will see the same thing. I believe they are on the same wavelength as what they want out of a defense. What made us successful was we had a pass rush. I know Notre Dame dealt with some injuries in the National Title game, but if he can get that pass rush going, it will make everything on that defense go, especially in the secondary.
Guys will make more plays on the ball because there won’t be so much thinking going on. Those guys will know what they’re doing, and they can play tighter coverage, and they’ll be able to get those sacks. The pass rush is going to be the most important part.
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