Notre Dame’s defense has stumbled out of the gate in 2025.
There’s no sugarcoating it. The Fighting Irish entered the year expecting to be one of the nation’s best, but are ranked No. 110 in adjusted EPA (Expected Points Added), which a stunning 108-spot drop from 2024.
Facing two explosive offenses explains part of the slide, but the decline is still alarming.
That concern is echoing through The Gug as Notre Dame has to get better to reach its goals, but also because Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green is starting them in the face.
The 6-foot-6, 214-pounder leads the nation in total yardage at 387.8 yards per game, which includes 305 passing yards, 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns in a 41-35 loss to No. 13 Ole Miss.
How do you slow down Green? It starts with defining how you’re going to play the read option and maintaining gaps up front.
“In the run game, his ability to read and pull it, like you have to be definitive in how you want to defend that,” stated Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. “You can't be gray. You have to be definitive on how you want to defend that. In the pass game, you can't let him escape vertically.
“That's where our issues were with the A&M quarterback. It's not the lateral escape. It's the vertical through the B-gap, then lateral, where he can extend plays, or he can run. That's where the issues are. We have to be technically sound in our rush lanes.”
Freeman also made it clear he doesn’t want to use a spy for Green. It takes a guy out of coverage, which is an area of great concern as the Irish have failed to cover at an acceptable level this season.
“I don't want to play spy,” Freeman explained. “I think we got into a little bit of too cautious vs. A&M where we're trying to play spy and we're not being aggressive. And then maybe versus Purdue, there's too many times we were behind the quarterback and he escapes in the B-gap. We can't let him get vertical in the past game and extend plays with his legs because that's going to be an issue.”
The Irish will also look to mix up coverages and presnap looks. It might sound easier said than done.
Notre Dame rolled out two true freshmen at cornerback and another at linebacker against Purdue. There’s a balance of trying to confuse Green while also avoiding confusion by Notre Dame’s inexperienced players.
“They're a top-five offense in the country for a reason,” said Freeman. “We've got to continue to show different things, play different things. When you play zone coverage, you can't just tell them exactly what you're playing presnap either. We've gotta continue to enhance that.
“It's hard to do with new players, with guys who haven't played a whole bunch - being able to say, ‘OK, this is what we want you to do in the coverage, but we also want you to show this pre-snap’. It just takes time. It's gonna take work to get them to understand it.”
All-American cornerback Leonard Moore is listed as questionable this week as he recovers from an ankle injury. If healthy, Freeman has thought about having him follow a specific player around the field.
It might make perfect sense on paper, but it also has negatives.
“He's as good as I've been around at that position,” Freeman said. “We've had discussions that if we need to match him up with the best wide receiver, and no matter where he's at, we will. You also have to do a good job of being able to do that and play some zone.
“We can't just tell the offense we're playing man. No defense is good enough to just say, ‘Hey, we're playing man and every play and stop them.’ We have considered that. We've talked about it. We need to get him available and ready to go before we can do that and that might be this week.”
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