Notre Dame Defense Proves It's Capable of Carrying Irish in 2015
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The swagger exemplified by Notre Dame football with its sideline shoves and postgame confidence didn’t seem likely just one week ago, but the Fighting Irish defense delivered in a 30-22 win over No. 14 Georgia Tech on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.
A week after Virginia piled up 416 yards of total offense and sent Notre Dame back to South Bend with a victory, yes, but also a host of defensive questions, the Irish quieted Georgia Tech’s high-octane, triple-option offense.
“Our defensive plan was outstanding,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said afterward. “All in all, a tremendous performance by our football team.”
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No. 8 Notre Dame led, 30-7, until the game’s final minute, stifling a Yellow Jackets offense that averaged nearly 47 points per game in its previous 10 contests.
The Irish forced three-and-outs on Georgia Tech’s first two drives. The Yellow Jackets hadn’t had a three-and-out through their first two games and had the lowest three-and-out rate (7.91 percent) in the country in 2014. Georgia Tech had as many first downs (two) as burned timeouts (two) by the end of the first quarter.
The Yellow Jackets didn’t convert on third down until the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Kelly said Notre Dame tried to ramp up its aggressiveness against Yellow Jackets star quarterback Justin Thomas. The Irish shifted into different looks, avoiding the “vanilla” that Thomas could exploit. Before leaving with a right knee injury, sophomore safety Drue Tranquill tallied four tackles, including two for a loss. Middle linebacker Joe Schmidt flew around for 10 tackles, including a pair for a loss (one sack).
“It’s obviously a great team defensive win for us,” captain Matthias Farley said. “I think it gave a lot of guys more confidence when seeing the speed and all that stuff. Georgia Tech is a very talented team. It’s just good for everybody.”
As the injuries mount and the schedule doesn’t let up in the final nine games, Notre Dame benefits from a defense that proved it’s capable of carrying the load when necessary.
The Irish showed up and whipped Texas in the season opener, limiting the Longhorns to three points. But Texas has been anemic offensively and even shuffled the offensive staff following the return to Austin. A questionable performance against the Cavaliers led to doubt for the Irish against the vaunted Yellow Jackets, but defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder and his unit came through.
“It’s a big win for us,” Farley said. “There’s a lot of doubt if we could do it or if we couldn’t do it.”
The Irish, though, say their confidence didn’t waver.
“We look at each other and say, ‘We’re gonna play for you. We’re gonna play for you,’” junior defensive lineman Isaac Rochell said. “And then obviously they kinda tried us when they said we’re the underdogs. I think that’s really disrespectful. The culmination of all that gave us that attitude and locked in-ness that we needed.”
Facing the triple option is a unique task. Irish special assistant Bob Elliott spent time during the offseason researching how teams at various levels of football defend the option. And although Notre Dame only gets one more crack at the option over its final nine regular-season games (against Navy), players insist they can take intangibles from Saturday’s strong defensive performance with them the rest of the way.
“Just our grit. Just our ability to make big plays when they matter on third down,” sophomore linebacker Greer Martini said. “I think we were pretty good. I think as a defense we need to continue to do that.”
“I think the biggest thing we’re taking from this game is our attitude,” Rochell said. “We wanted to win and we knew we had to dominate up front, and we did that. We have to keep building on that attitude we’ve kind of established.”
Kelly didn’t hesitate and hardly heard the end of the question when asked to break down the matchup between Notre Dame’s defensive line and Georgia Tech’s offensive line.
“We won that. We won that,” Kelly said confidently.
One game is still a sample size, and it certainly doesn’t promise VanGorder a statue outside one of the new Campus Crossroads buildings.
But Notre Dame’s defense revealed its potential and its ability to carry the team when needed.
All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Mike Monaco is the lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.
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