Notre Dame Football: Have the Irish Solved Their Defensive Woes?

The Fighting Irish finish the season with the 53rd-ranked defense in the nation, two spots ahead of Auburn. Small consolation, Auburn is playing for a national championship, and the Irish aren't.

There is a bigger consolation, though, as we peel back some of the numbers put down by the defense this season.

Notre Dame came into the Utah game with the 91st-ranked defense in the land, even worse than the 86th ranking that they finished the 2009 campaign with under Jon Tenuta. The final four games of the season, Notre Dame held opponents to an average of 97.1 rushing yards per game, a big part of the Irish finishing with the 51st-ranked defense against the run.

To look at it a little deeper, six of Notre Dame's opponents finished in the top 25 in rushing. Tulsa finished with the 15th-ranked rushing team in the nation, too. Although the loss to Tulsa was hard to stomach, the 203 rushing yards racked up by the Golden Hurricane was below their season average of 216.9.

The Irish held teams to 110 rushing yards or less eight times this season and under 250 passing yards eight times, as well. During the five-game stretch between Navy and USC, Irish opponents failed to reach 200 passing yards. Instead of abandoning ship or mailing it in when times seemed their worst, following the Tulsa game, the Irish defense seemed to rally around defensive coordinator Bob Diaco.

It would have been very easy to say that this defense is not going to work, let's scrap this. But the Notre dame defensive unit showed their intestinal fortitude by playing harder than ever and giving the critics not even an ounce of ammunition to use against them.

Coach Brian Kelly recently said that he is recruiting for defense, explaining, "I know how to generate offense, it's defense that I'm recruiting for." This was a blessing to hear, with Manti Te'o as the anchor of a defense that will return the bulk of its starters, the outside linebacker position is the only spot that will possibly be filled with someone without experience. Add Louis Nix into the mix, and the 2011 defense will be something to turn heads.

Something to take into account also is the fact that Irish strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo will have had a full offseason to mold these young men into the shape that will be required to dominate in Diaco's punishing 3-4 defense. This should pay huge dividends to players like Nix and Kendall Moore.

Looking ahead to the defensive verbal commits, names like Stephon Tuitt, Ben Councell, Tony Springmann and Anthony Rabasa are all possibly "game ready" as soon as they step on to campus. The defensive secondary is also going to be bolstered with the addition of five commits, led by Josh Atkinson and Jalen Brown. All five of these commits is in the 6-foot, 170-185-pound range and seem to have been hand-picked for a purpose.

Just like in baseball where it is said that hitting is contagious, the same can be said about good defensive play, and if the 2011 Notre Dame defense rides the wave set by the 2010 squad, the results could be mind-blowing.