“I think we have a chance to be really good” - Todd Lyght

Todd Lyght’s second-year leading the cornerbacks is all about development, and he is ready to put last year behind him. One of the many struggles of the VanGorder defense was the complexity of the scheme and Lyght was quick to comment on the differences between last year's scheme and the new scheme under Mike Elko.

“Well I think that you know for us, there are not so many adjustments even when the offense motions and changes and resets itself,” Lyght said. “For our guys, we are still running a lot of complex stuff in the back end, but I think the adjustments are a little bit easier for guys to understand and comprehend and then be able to execute, which is key for us. We all know at the back end, the defensive line makes a mistake, a lot of people don’t notice it. Linebackers make a mistake; maybe it’s a first down. But in the back end, if we make a mistake, it’s an explosive play or a touchdown. That's why it's critical for us to be successful in what we do in our execution.”

Part of the problems last year did stem from the scheme and some from execution, but many of the problems stemmed from simply having young players playing significant snaps. Lyght also commented on the injured players’ (Shaun Crawford and Nick Watkins) progress.

“Shaun looks really good, we had to bring him along slowly obviously, coming off the Achilles injury, so we wanted to maintain his workload early in camp and being able to progress to get more reps,” added Lyght. “It is good that he's feeling good, he’s reacting really well and you know we haven't had any setbacks, really excited about his progression. Nick [Watkins] has been looking good too, I think that during the course of camp you know it became a little bit taxing for him with his reps being up there, but he handled it really really well I think he's going to bounce back healthwise as far as you know just feeling a little bit better as camp progressed. I look for big things, and I think that he’ll have a good season.”
Of course, Notre Dame needs these two players to play well to have a successful year on defense, but according to Lyght the best player at the cornerback position is someone else.

“I think that Julian Love has been the stand out at the cornerback position, moving him outside, playing a little bit inside at the safety position and giving him a couple looks in the boundary as well,” said Lyght. “With the progression of Shaun we able to move Julian into the boundary a little bit more and I think that when [cornerback] Donte [Vaughn] got hurt, Nick’s reps got a little bit overloaded, and he became a little bit tired but we got Donte back and getting the rotation under control has been good for us.”

Lyght spent a lot of time talking about Julian Love during my time with him, he continued to gush about Love and the skills that he brings to the team.

“Julian has a really good football intelligence; he understands the scheme. he goes back-and-forth between the cornerback room and the safety room and doing a little bit of crossover work,” stated Lyght. “He's the type of player that can have success both inside and outside with his cover ability, his ability to get Ball carriers on the ground. He's a physical corner I'm excited about his future.”

One of the big factors that the cornerbacks share this year, especially relative to last year, is their versatility. Lyght was clearly excited to have multiple players that can play multiple cornerback positions.

“The more players that we can have that have position flexibility, the more creative we can be defensively,” Lyght said. “Shaun [Crawford] does a really good job at the field corner and at the nickel position. Julian can play field, nickel, or stud or even into the boundary which gives us a lot of position versatility.  Nick Watkins can play boundary corner or field corner. We want to keep Troy Pride out at the field corner, and we want to keep Donte Vaughn into the boundary to keep their packages pretty simple but I think that with our group and with our athleticism, we can move pieces around and depending on who we play week to week, we can really really hone down on how we want to attack offenses with our personnel.

While this position versatility is important, the biggest question mark on the cornerbacks right now is their lack of experience. Not a single cornerback has an entire season of starting playing time under his belt. Lyght talked about the inexperience in the cornerback room and how that fuels them to play better.

“When you really look at our group, especially in the back end, the most experienced player in terms of games is Julian Love, and I think he has maybe seven or eight starts but we are going to progress, and we're gonna keep working hard and we're gonna keep learning the defense,” stated Lyght. “I think that we have a really good chance to be really good because we're gonna be able to play top down defense which will give us a chance to be successful. We won’t be pressed so much like we were early in the season last year, and I think that with our zone pressures, we are going to give offenses trouble.”