Notre Dame Football: New Year's Resolutions for the Irish
Notre Dame football finishes one season and begins a new year Friday when it squares off with Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
A win sends the Irish to an 11-2 campaign and produces the biggest win of the season against a team with just one three-point loss. A loss drops Notre Dame to 10-3.
Regardless of the outcome of the Fiesta Bowl, let’s look at Notre Dame’s New Year’s resolutions for the upcoming calendar year. Where can the Irish focus on self-improvement?
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Solidify the Defense
Remove emotion and analyze the numbers, and Notre Dame’s defense hasn’t been that bad, although some lacking performances stand out.
After all, the Irish allowed 22.4 points per game, the 32nd-best scoring defense in the country. Not great. But certainly above average. In fact, Notre Dame finished five spots ahead of Stanford.
But there’s no denying there’s plenty of room for growth. Long drives by the opponent and shoddy secondary play headlined the defensive issues in the regular season.
So how would Irish defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, finishing up his second season, evaluate the defensive performance in 2015?
“Inconsistent, I guess, is probably the best word,” VanGorder told reporters Tuesday in Arizona. “We’ve played a lot of good football. We’ve had some plays that you just shake your head, both player and coach, when it’s all said and done.”
Injuries ravaged the Irish defense in 2014 and, to a lesser extent, again in 2015. But Notre Dame boasted boatloads of defensive experience in 2015, from upperclassmen on the defensive line (senior Sheldon Day, junior Isaac Rochell and senior Romeo Okwara) to the linebacking corps (junior Jaylon Smith, fifth-year senior Joe Schmidt and junior James Onwualu) and, yes, even the secondary (seniors KeiVarae Russell and Elijah Shumate and juniors Cole Luke and Max Redfield, plus fifth-year senior Matthias Farley).
“These are young players. You’re constantly pushing on the idea of developing,” VanGorder said. “They all develop at a different rate, a different process for all of them. A lot of those things come down to also focus. That’s, again, part of the development, part of the process, for somebody to focus through some 65 to 85 plays, for some it’s a challenge. … To be quite frank about it, it hasn’t been always where any of us want it to be.”
Can the defense take a step forward in 2016?
Improve the Red Zone Offense
In three of head coach Brian Kelly’s first four seasons in South Bend, the Irish struggled to finish trips into the red zone with touchdowns. During the 2012 undefeated regular season, in fact, Notre Dame ranked 112th in the nation in red-zone touchdown rate at 48.3 percent.
Last season, the Irish appeared to make strides forward, finishing 45th nationally with a 64.5 percent touchdown rate. But in 2015, Notre Dame dropped to 90th in the country at 56 percent.
In theory, the red-zone offense could improve in 2016, as the Irish will have more key cogs with prior starting experience than they did this season, especially at quarterback, running back and tight end.
And just how valuable is an improved red-zone offense? The four College Football Playoff teams—Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma—averaged a 63.1 red-zone touchdown rate, which would be 49th in the nation. If the Irish had converted trips into touchdowns at even that slightly improved consistency, they’d have added between three and four touchdowns.
Those help when your two losses are by a combined four points.
Stay Healthy
Like the unending horde of resolute gym-goers populating treadmills and elliptical machines on Jan. 2 with plans for a healthy year, Notre Dame would love to be healthier in 2016.
Injuries thwarted defensive consistency in 2014, as the Irish stumbled to the finish line. Notre Dame’s well-documented injury report started early in 2015, with losses from August (Jarron Jones and Shaun Crawford first) to late December (Devin Butler) and plenty more in between.
Sure, you can argue injuries are a part of the game and hurt every team. But how many teams lost their starting quarterback, running back, tight end, nose tackle and nickelback before mid-September?
All quotes were obtained firsthand and all stats courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted.
Mike Monaco is the lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco on Twitter.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
