Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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34 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW In 2014, opposing offenses scored touch- downs 70.0 percent of the time in the red zone (35 of 50) for a 116th ranking. It wasn't significantly better in 2015 at 65.9 percent (27 of 41), most notably Stanford scoring five touchdowns in its five red-zone chances. "Those three things to me would be re- ally critical moving forward," VanGorder said. "We're still evolving defensively," head coach Brian Kelly admitted late last season. Deeper, But Also Younger So how is the 2016 defense supposed to be better with the loss of its top lineman (Sheldon Day), Butkus Award winning linebacker (Jay- lon Smith), top sack man (Romeo Okwara, with eight), top safety (Elijah Shumate), top playmaker at corner (KeiVarae Russell) and the Mike linebacker who was the Team MVP two years ago (Joe Schmidt)? Last year VanGorder had a veteran defense that featured senior and junior starters at every position other than nose guard, which rotated freshman Jerry Tillery and sophomore Daniel Cage. This year the Irish have more "developmen- tal" players along the two deep, notably Tillery shifting to Day's three-technique tackle spot, sophomores Asmar Bilal and Te'von Coney vying for Smith's position at Will linebacker, and early enrollee freshman Devin Studstill having taken reps primarily with the first team at free safety while competing with Redfield. The junior class especially is going to be pivotal to Notre Dame's success with the ad- dition of Andrew Trumbetti and Jay Hayes at weakside end, Morgan at Mike linebacker, Tranquill (coming off two knee surgeries) at strong safety and junior Nick Watkins at cornerback. Like VanGorder, they are in their third year together, meaning they should have a pretty good grasp of the operation. "Looking at my first spring here a couple of years ago, our personnel is much different this time, much deeper," VanGorder said of what could compensate for the loss of so many marquee players from 2015. "We may be a little bit more developmental, but you can't forget that even in that first year we were tak- ing Jaylon Smith and moving him from Sam to Will, and he was very uncomfortable there in the beginning. "In my mind, we're much further ahead than we were two years ago relative to our depth, relative to snaps and experience with some guys, and obviously the experience in the system should help." Under previous defensive coordinator Bob Diaco (2010-13), now the third-year head coach at UConn, there was some criticism that he was too into "profiling" recruits and cast too narrow a net to meet specific physical requirements. Consequently, Notre Dame signed only two true linemen in 2012 (Sheldon Day and Jarron Jones) and one in 2013 (Isaac Rochell), while having few contingencies. It landed only one linebacker in 2011 (Jarrett Grace) and one in 2012 (Romeo Okwara, who moved to end), and in Diaco's final recruiting cycle before leaving for UConn there was only one safety (Tranquill) and one corner inked (Watkins). Under VanGorder, Notre Dame has signed a better balance of players at each position the past three recruiting campaigns: 14 linemen, seven linebackers, seven cornerbacks and six safeties. The problem is nine of the linemen are freshmen and sophomores, and so are five of the linebackers, six of the cornerbacks and four of the safeties. "Last year at this time we had three schol- arship corners in our spring ball," VanGorder noted. "That's much better. We've got safeties now, a three-deep safety group. We've got a lot of defensive linemen. "Again, there's a lot of developmental play- ers there that have got to get a lot better for us to compete for championships and such, but they're there and we think they've got the tal- ent and the ability through experience, through coaching, through their commitment to it all to become good, solid players for us. "It's much better, but it's young." Learning Curve The youth is why questions emerge as to whether VanGorder's NFL-style scheme that 25- to 35-year-old graybeards of the game can digest over eight-hour workdays, film study, experience, etc., can mesh with college student-athletes who are limited to 20 hours Junior safety Drue Tranquill's knee injury in game three last year hurt the Irish defense, and his experience and versatility will be important for the unit this season. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND