Chris Ash Notebook | Summer Updates
Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash sat down with three members of the media to provide some summer insights into his offense.
On if he installed a base defense he could call in any situation this spring like he did during his time at Ohio State:
“That's a long time ago. That was about 11 years ago, if my memory serves me right. So things have changed quite a bit since then. Every situation is different. The situation I walked into at Ohio State versus the one here are completely different. It's not even fair to compare the two and the plan of action that we took there compared to here is just different.”
On if it’s a challenge to teach match-man or pattern-match to a defense that was a heavy man-coverage team a year ago:
”I kind of get where you're going with the question. I'll tell you this. I get asked this all the time, people trying to find out what we're doing on defense. We're running the Notre Dame defense. That's what I tell you.
“What is the Notre Dame defense? We're not necessarily doing anything different than what's been done here in the past. We're trying to develop all areas of the defense with things that have been done here with a blend of some maybe new thoughts and ideas. But we're running the Notre Dame defense. What does that mean? We're going to play fast. We're going to play aggressive. We're going to be fundamentally sound, situationally aware. We're going to do what we need to do to win games based on the players that we have and who we play from week to week.
“Does that mean we're playing man? Does it mean we're playing man-match zone? We're playing vision and break zone? It could be any of those things based on what we have to do and who we have healthy on our roster to go play each Saturday is the best way I can answer that question. I don't know if that necessarily answers the question. But I know what your point is and I'm trying to, if you can't tell, hit your point without truly hitting the point.”
On Drayk Bowen establishing himself as a leader:
”He's just trying to be a pro and do his job. He leads by example. He's one of those guys who is constantly studying the game. He takes great notes. He comes prepared every single day. He's one of the guys who's not afraid to speak up when someone needs to speak up. When he goes out there on the practice field, he's gonna try to play with great effort, fundamentals, try to execute his job every single rep.
“We've got guys that do that. People naturally are gonna look up to him. He's a guy that's played a lot of football around here. I think he's a smart, tough, accountable player and people look up to those guys.”
On if Bowen has started to become a vocal leader:
”Well, he's just trying to still get comfortable in that role because that's really not been what he has done but that's what we need him to do. He's still figuring that part of it out. But definitely being a leader by example and he's finding his opportunities to be more vocal when he needs to be.”
On how quickly he figured out Leonard Moore was a dude:
”It took me about three or four plays into the film that I watched when I first got here. It didn't take long. Then it didn't take long out at practice. He's been our boundary corner and there's not a lot of completions over in that area and usually when it's a quiet day for someone like that at corner, he's probably pretty good.”
On what makes Moore a good boundary cornerback:
”It's everything. I mean, he's got, if you were to draw up or write up the characteristics that you want in a corner, he's got them all. He's long. He's athletic. He's quick. He's fast. He's tough. He practices extremely hard. He's consistently doing the right things. He's instinctive. When he takes a chance, it's usually to make a play and that's usually what he does. He's got a short memory. He doesn't give up many plays, but when he does, he moves on to the next play.
“If you were to write up the prototypical corner that you would like to have playing for you, he's probably gonna be a good one to start with.”
On Moore having success as a freshman:
”I haven't seen too many like him. He's rare. Like the size, the combination of size and ability that he has is rare. There are a lot of guys who have some ability, but they're typically not as big as him. I mean, he's a big corner. And what he can do athletically with his size is pretty impressive.”
On how Notre Dame will find a starting safety opposite Adon Shuler:
”You throw a lot at them, see what they can handle. Someone's gotta go play and we need to have depth. We gotta have several guys ready, but we've gotta do a great job of understanding their mental capacity. With safety, you're a central communicator. You gotta make a lot of checks. You gotta make a lot of adjustments. You gotta do it quick. You gotta be a great communicator.
“If you overload them, usually a lot of those things start to diminish and we need to make sure that we can get them to do all those things and understand what the threshold is that they can handle and what they can't. That's really the challenge for us as much as it is the challenge for them. How much can they handle? We'll keep pushing the envelope, but we also need to know when, hey, when this player's out here, this is what he can do and we need to do it. So it's more on us as much as anything.”
On what he saw from Tae Johnson in the spring:
”I didn't know much about him, to be honest with you. Then we get out there and this safety starts showing up and flashing and making a lot of plays. He's got good size. He can run. He's getting his hands on balls and you can see him breaking out of the middle. Like, ‘Man, who the hell is this?’ And that's when I really started to figure out who he was. He just, all spring, just flashed and made plays. Now he's not perfect. He gave up some as well, like people do, but he definitely showed some big play potential here this spring.”
On what he’s learned about where he can enhance the Notre Dame defense:
”It starts, just check your ego at the door. When you've been in it as long as I have, you realize it's not about you, it's about us. That's just the approach that I took with this job. This has nothing to do with me. I've been lucky to be dropped into a great situation with really good people. It's my job to blend myself into what's been done here, ingrain myself in the culture and just find ways in my role to enhance it and figure out how we can continue to play at a high level and find ways to get better at certain things.
“But that's where it all starts. It's about leadership and providing a high level of leadership. And that starts with just checking the ego at the door and understanding this has nothing to do with me. This has everything to do with helping the other guys on staff and the other players that have been here continue to improve and be the best that they can be.”
On what he saw on film from Notre Dame’s defensive ends:
”I just look at the group, the defensive end group in general, I think there's several playmakers there. Those guys, they've got length, they're explosive, they're physical, they can rush the passer, they can play the run, they can drop in coverage if they need to. There's a lot of things that those guys can do. But as I look at just the end position, there are several guys that can do that. The guys that we had in spring, those two guys (Botelho/Traore) come back, I think it's a pretty strong group.”
On self-scouting during the offseason:
”You go through a practice, and after every practice, you really do try to do a great job of evaluating that practice and then when they're all over you go through and reevaluate what you did, all the calls. You look at the drills, the fundamentals of development, the scheme development, what we're asking players to do. Can they do it? We threw a lot at them in the spring, and now we gotta reevaluate the players that we have. Can they do what we're asking them to do? Are we doing what we need to do to continue to try to help them improve and enhance?
“That's an ongoing process. I spent a lot of time by myself post-spring of going through that, taking notes. When the staff, we all got back together after recruiting, we'd been going back through and talking about the list of things that I saw, picking their brains and getting their opinions on what they saw with their particular groups. Then we kind of formulated a game plan to attack some of those things here this summer and not wait till training camp.”
On how much of self-scouting is figuring out strengths and areas where they can improve:
”It's all the above, it's all, there's no exact formula. It's what you feel you can do best, you continue to enhance it. The areas that you need to improve on, you find a way to formulate a plan to get that done. You don't just keep doing the things that you do well or just focus on the things that you're not doing well. You gotta continue to grow both of them because if you take time off of the things that you do well, guess what's gonna happen to those things? Probably not gonna continue to do them at the level that you want. So, yeah, we're trying to work both of those areas together.”
On if the decision to go with left and right defensive ends came from his NFL experience and seeing a guy like Maxx Crosby get matched up against a right tackle:
”You guys got all kinds of info here. You guys were digging into garbage cans for stuff here, huh? There are a lot of factors that play into that. First of all, you look at the players. Is there a difference in their ability? Are you asking guys to do something different? When we really looked at last season and what we're looking to do, no, there's not. There are a lot of similar abilities there.
“Then you look at how you can get lined up quickly against teams that go really fast. Going left and right is the easiest thing to do. They don't have to worry about where's the field, where's the boundary, where's the open side, the closed side. So that's another part of it.
“And then you look at the match-ups. Is there a reason to put a particular player to this side or that side or this position to exploit a possible mismatch? So we looked at all of those things as we were trying to make a decision.
“That's just like when you talk about enhancements, that's one of the things that, to me, looked like an opportunity to enhance the play of a particular position by doing that. And so far, so good. They really have enjoyed it. There haven't been any real hiccups or struggles with it. All the feedback that I was given at the end of the spring from the players, they really enjoyed it and thought it was better.”
On linebackers coach Max Bullough:
”Max is a great young coach. Got a lot of enthusiasm and energy, really studies the game, has good knowledge of the game from his playing days. He played at Michigan State, they played a high level of defense. He's worked at Alabama, they know how to coach defense there. Then he's been here for several years now. So he's had some high-level exposure to the game. And again, when you match that with his desire to be great at studying the game and his ability to relate and get along with others, I think he's got a really bright future.”
On cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens:
”He's in general, kind of a quiet guy. That's the unique thing about coaching. I shouldn't say coaching, that's the great thing about Coach Freeman and the environment he's created. Everyone feels free to be themselves.
“Everyone has this vision at times that a coach has gotta be a rah-rah guy, get in your face type of guy. No, you don't. Like, be yourself. Players have a lot more respect for guys who are real and authentic and they are who they are. Mike will pick and choose his time to get on a player, get in a player's face, love them up, blow them up, whatever you wanna call it. He has that in him. He just picks and chooses his time and that's not what he does every snap.
“But what Mike does is he does a great job of relating with the players, getting to know the players, trying to get the best out of them and they respect him for that. He's a student of the game, he's played the game, he's coached at a high level, so he understands the X's and O's, the fundamentals, and it's more about the relationships that he's created with the guys. They trust him, they believe in him and when he says something, they're gonna listen. He knows how to get them to go out here on the practice field, and obviously, they've played at a high level in games for him as well.
“That's really what it comes down to more than anything. He is who he is, he's authentic and real, and he creates genuine relationships with these guys that they listen to and trust what he says.”
On what allowed Marcus Freeman to become a successful head coach:
”Well, a lot of it has to do with just what I've talked about with a position coach. The first thing you notice about Marcus is he is who he is. He's real, he's authentic, he's not trying to be somebody else. A lot of times, coaches get a job, they get a coordinator job, a head coaching job, and they've coached under this person, that person, or they've watched this person, they think they've gotta be somebody else, they gotta lead a different way, they've gotta change who they are. He hasn't, he is who he is. He leads a particular way. That's where it all starts.
“The second thing, I think, just looking at the overall organization, he's done a great job of hiring people that he can trust, that are gonna do their job at a high level. They believe in a lot of the same things that he believes in. When you are who you are, you lead in a way that makes people feel appreciated and really enjoy coming to work and being in your environment and you're able to surround yourself with other great people, he screwed up one hiring me, so I'm excluded from that group, but you got a chance for success and that's what I see, is just starts that he is who he is, and that's not gonna change.”
On what a successful sophomore year looks like for Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa:
”Oh, I don't know if I can say there are requirements that he has to meet to say it was a good season. There's a lot of competition in the linebacker room and there's a lot of guys that are gonna play. A good season is that he continues to improve. He's playing his best football at the end of the season. He's helping our defense win.
“That would be probably to me a definition of a good season and a successful one. How many tackles or interceptions or sacks or TFLs he gets, there's not a number that's gonna define a season. It's just, does he continue to get better? Can he help our football team win? Is he a great teammate? I think he's all of those, and I think that's probably gonna define a season.”
On preparing for Miami’s new portal players, including Carson Beck:
”Every year an offense or a defense can change based off of just what they feel they need to do schematically or the players that they have. In this type of situation, you gotta look at what Carson did at Georgia, what were his strengths, what were his weaknesses, what he did well? How does that fit into what Miami did last year and maybe try to identify some things that maybe could do different with him.
“But at the end of the day, in game one, it's about you more than it is about them. It'll be a game of adjustments for us. That's what a game one always is. Our play style and the way we wanna play has to show up and we'll adjust as we go through a game. We'll study Miami from last year. We'll study Carson's film from Georgia. But at the end of the day, for me, it's more important about how we show up, how we play, how we execute the fundamentals we use and how we bring those calls to life on defense.”
On how he will measure success for his defense this fall:
”There's signs of success that you look at each week in a game and through the course of the year that help you determine, you know, are there certain areas that you have to look at? But at the end of the day, our job is to do what? Play great defense that helps us win games.
“The numbers, obviously you want them to all be great, but I'm not worried about the numbers. I'm worried about, are we helping our football team win? There's a lot that goes into that, you know? We just got to monitor that as we go, every single practice, every single game, and keep working on the things that we need to get better at and make sure we're enhancing the things that we do well and that we show up and are consistent every week.
“We'll have some goals, we'll have things that we'll look at, but just, hey, if we're winning games and we're a part of that, then we're playing good defense.”
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