Notre Dame DC Chris Ash Notebook | Feb. 26
Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash spoke on Wednesday afternoon.
On defensive approach:
”Just overall philosophically as we approach this situation here, I look at it as if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. That was really the conversation that Coach Freeman and I had about this situation. There has been really good football played here on defense. There have been standards and accountability. They’ve been well-coached. We’re just looking at ways we can try to enhance it and make it better.
“Conceptionally, we’re going to keep doing a lot of the same things that have been done here. Terminology may change a little bit. Some fundamentals may change a little bit. At the end of the day, the way Notre Dame has played defense is the way Notre Dame is going to play defense in the future.”
On his philosophy on terminology and how much he wants the players to adapt to him or him adapting to the players:
”I’m here to become one of them. They’re not here to adjust to me. I’m here to adjust to them - the staff, the players, the scheme, the whole overall culture of the organization. That’s what I’m coming to be part of. This is Notre Dame’s defense. This is not my defense. This is Notre Dame’s and I’m coming here to try to help continue the success they’ve had on defense and find ways to make it better. That’s it.”
On what he learned in the NFL that can translate to Notre Dame:
”It’s all about the players. It’s players first. Players over plays and concepts over calls. That’s really the way we’re approaching it right now and try to make sure what we do and what we ask the players to do is in the best interest of the player and it allows them to be successful. We really want to do a great job of teaching concepts to help them understand the big picture of what we’re trying to do. You can really create a positionless defense when you do it that way.
“Some of the things people talk about in college, they still apply in the NFL. It’s about relationships. It’s about communication. It’s about trust. If you have those things, whether you’re in the NFL or college, you have a chance to be successful.”
On if the college game has changed a lot since 2020 when he was at Texas and if he will need to make changes to his defense:
”This isn’t about my defense. This is about the Notre Dame defense. We’re going to continue to do things that Notre Dame has done on defense. The game is different than the NFL and what I’ve been doing for the last few years.
“I haven’t been out of it for too long. The hashes make the game different in the space that’s created because of the hashes. Everything you do, you have to make sure you can eliminate that space and play the RPOs and releases that offenses have.
“Again, it’s not my defense that we’re going to be running. It’s our defense. That’s the way I look at it. I’m coming to be part of this organization and this defense and this staff.”
On what made it the right time to come back to the college game:
”I really enjoyed what I was doing. I was actually in personnel this last year in Jacksonville and I enjoyed that. It was a great learning opportunity. I wasn’t looking for another job. Coach Freeman called and we started to have some initial conversations. I looked at the whole thing - it’s Notre Dame, the type of people who come to Notre Dame, the recent success and the opportunity to sustain success in the future. All those things together made this a no-brainer for me.
“It was going to take a lot to leave where we were at, but this is one of those jobs that you just can’t pass up on.”
On being one of the first coaches to go to rugby style tackling:
”It’s just the way tackles were being made already in the game. We just went through years ago in a self-evaluation of how we coached tackling. We looked at our drills and looked at what was actually happening in games with players. Players were tackling a particular way. It was also around player safety and trying to remove the head out of the game and the contact to minimize the amount of contact the player has. That’s really how it all originated.
“It’s really just the way the players play the game anyway. We just tried to retool what we did, how we coached it, and how we drilled it to mimic what was on the game film.”
On the differences in recruiting since 2020:
”Boy, we don’t have all day. It’s completely different. I’m running and I’m scrambling. I’m really just picking up bits and pieces about NIL, the Transfer Portal and all of those things and how it’s different or changed. There’s a lot of good things around it as well. I’m learning every single day in every meeting with the recruiting staff. I’m trying to ask questions, gather information and see how everyone operates and what is truly different about it today than it was four years ago when I was doing it.”
On coaching responsibilities for himself and others:
”I’m going to walk around and be able to observe all coaches and all positions. Coach Mickens doesn’t need my help. He’s a great coach, a great person, and he’s done a tremendous job coaching the secondary. I’ve known Mike for a long time, and he does a great job with the players.”
On personnel groupings/etc. (Ex: Notre Dame playing five linebackers last year):
”It’s not my stamp. It’s what the players have earned the right to do. If the players have earned the right to play, it’s our job to find a way to get them to play, whether it’s a rotation, personnel package or whatever it may be. We want the good players to stay here in our program.
“Good players want to do what? They want to play. It’s our job to find ways to allow them to play. We’re going to play our best players, but we also want them to understand rotations are important, personnel packages are important and giving them the opportunity to go out and impact the game. That’s really what we want to do.”
On the spirit of his defense:
”Through my time as a coach, there are certain things that are important. It’s more about play style than it is anything else. I don’t care if we’re 4-3, 3-4 or 5-2. I don’t really care about any of that stuff. It’s about the play style. We want to play fast. We want to play violent. We want to be physical. We want to win at the point of attack. That’s all that it’s about. We want to play with energy and enthusiasm. We’re going to coach, teach and practice that way. Hopefully, we’ll play that way, too.”
On the challenges of bringing the defensive line along:
”I haven’t been here long enough to be able to answer that question. I really have only been able to watch the guys workout a couple of times. I’ve watched film. I think we have an outstanding defensive line. How deep is it right now? I don’t know. The biggest challenge is to keep the good players healthy. Interiorally, we want to make sure we have enough guys to rotate. Right now, based on what I’ve watched on film and my evaluations, we have a chance to have an outstanding defensive line. We just have to keep them healthy and get some guys healthy. It’s going to take me some more time before I can give you an honest answer to that question.”
On what he’s seen from DL Gabe Rubio:
”I don't know if I’ve looked at it closely, but I have watched his reps from last year. I met with every single player when I first got here. Before I met with them, I watched clips on all of them. I wasn’t able to watch all of them because some players played a lot of snaps.
“He’s a good player. He’s a big body. He’s violent. He does a great job with his hands. There’s some things we’ll continue to try to develop within his game, but we’re happy to have him.”
On if anyone has jumped out to him during workouts or watching film:
”Pretty much everyone I watched. These are some good players. I know this, everywhere i’ve been and had good players, I’ve been a really good coach. When I was asked why Notre Dame? It starts with the players. There are good players in this program. They’ve done a good job of recruiting and developing.
“We lost some good players off of last year’s defense, but there are a lot of good ones back and a lot of guys who played significant snaps. I’m fired up about working with all of them. There’s a lot of traits that they have - skillsets, the mentality and the way they approach their work that really excites and fires me up about being here.”
On how closely he’s monitored the college game while he was in the NFL:
”When you’re somewhere else, you’re always going to keep an eye on things that are being done at a different level. No different than when I was in college, I’d watch NFL film. When I was in the NFL, I watched college film. A lot of the college game is starting to filter up, especially offensively, to the NFL because of the quarterbacks and the space game.
“I watched as much as I could with the college film. You study people who are doing good things, whether you have done them or agree with them. You study people who have had success.”
On if his experience as a head coach has impacted the way he coaches and if Marcus Freeman valued that:
”You’d have to ask Marcus that. We never really discussed that a whole lot. I do think my experience as a head coach has made me a better assistant coach. I understand what the head coach wants and how to help the head coach with the problems with my players or my side of the ball and keeping those issues off the head coach’s desk. I do think those past experiences have helped me become a better assistant coach.”
On working with Joe Rudolph previously and if he picked his brain on Notre Dame:
”Rudy and I worked together at Wisconsin. I’ve always had a ton of respect for the way he goes about his business and the type of person he is. I knew he was here. I knew that he really enjoyed it here - enjoyed the people, the area and the players and the way Coach Freeman runs the organization. I did not personally have any conversations with him during this process.
“I was really excited Coach Freeman called me and had trust, belief, and faith that I could come here and lead the defense. When I came here to campus and the people that I met with, I could tell there was alignment from Father Bob Dowd all the way down. Everything was first class. Everybody was great and professional. This is the type of place I want to be part of. I didn’t need to talk to anyone else, and I made that decision on my own. It really was because of the people and the alignment that I saw here.
“Everybody wants this place to be great, not only academically but athletically. It was an easy choice for me.”
On if he will coach on the field or in the box on game day:
“I’ve been both up and down. It’s going to take some time to evaluate the staff and see where the pieces fit together. We’re really loaded up on the back end on defense with DB coaches. We’ll put it all together as we go. I haven’t really had a lot of thoughts about that yet. I’ve done both and we’ll see where it goes after spring and maybe training camp.”
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