How Notre Dame defense made big in-game adjustments early in 2023 season
The drive where the Notre Dame defense looked most vulnerable in Week 1 was the first one.
Navy ripped off runs of 6, 14 and 11 yards to cross midfield, and the Midshipmen would have reached the red zone if not for a strange drop between two wide-open receivers. Week 2 was similar: Tennessee State advanced to the Notre Dame 20-yard line before settling for a field goal, but the Tigers probably should have scored a touchdown. TSU redshirt senior quarterback Deveon Bryant threw low and behind an open man at the goal line.
“It was on me, I got a [pass interference penalty],” graduate cornerback Thomas Harper said about the opening drive in the Tennessee State game.
Harper is able to look back on it and laugh now, but he knows he needs to be more disciplined.
In both instances, though, Notre Dame adjusted and shut down their opponent the rest of the game.
“I would love to start with a three-and-out or start with a turnover or start with something positive,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “But again, games are tough. Guys run scripts. They work on the scripts for a really long time. A lot of the scripts are uncharted concepts. So, you’ve got to get them off of the script and then settle in.”
That’s why, while they know they can’t miss assignments or make mental errors in the early-going against stronger teams, the Irish aren’t losing sleep over either of those possessions.
“It’s always tricky in the beginning,” Golden said. “I don’t get too stressed out about that.”
Navy and Tennessee State, with their matchups against Notre Dame being their season-openers, threw play designs at the Irish that they hadn’t seen on tape. Golden made the adjustments to figure out the opposing offenses and get them off-script, even if it wasn’t always a pretty scene on the sideline.
“Oh God, I was a s*** show,” Golden said, regarding the Navy game. “It was crazy for a really, really long time. New formations. New little trinkets. Shifting from unbalanced back to normal. Jet motion. [Navy] did a great job.”
Golden likes to show his defense different looks or looks that change at the line of scrimmage while they’re running against the scout-team offense during practice. The players, led by graduate linebackers JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau and Jack Kiser, have to figure out what they’re about to face and how to defend it on the fly.
Working that in practice, Harper said, better prepares them for the game.
“Whenever we get out there, we know how to communicate through it,” Harper said. “I think communication is a big part of that, everybody being on the same page and not freaking out, not panicking, just being calm, collected and on the same page.”
The players all watch film, so they generally know what they’re going to see the scout offense do in practice, just not when they’re going to see it. Occasionally, though, Golden will throw something completely random at them.
The point of that isn’t to guess the new tactics an opposing offense will use, because that’s the point — they don’t know. What it does is it teaches the defense how to react to a similar situation in the game.
“It may not be exactly what the offense that we’re going to see does, but just being able to understand, if we see something different, just being able to communicate and be on the same page,” Harper said.
This type of circumstance is a big reason Notre Dame feels fortunate to have the experience it does at linebacker.
“Yeah, it’s kind of like having a Luke Keuchly or something,” Harper said. “All of them, JD, Kais, Marist. They’re calling out things, alert this, alert that, before they happen. So, I mean, it helps everybody.”
Harper, as an experienced defender usually playing toward the middle of the field, helps as well. He often relays signals to the cornerback and safety on his side, or alerts them if he sees something himself.
North Carolina State opened its season against UConn last week, so Notre Dame has tape on new offensive coordinator Robert Anae‘s system in Raleigh, N.C. But given that most teams circle the Fighting Irish on their schedule, Golden’s group will likely have to stop concepts that it hasn’t seen from the Wolfpack before in Week 2.
Once again, the Irish will be prepared to adjust.
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