Notre Dame Football: Do the Irish Have an SEC-Type Defense?

Bleacher Report recently ran an article entitled "Notre Dame Football: The Irish Defense Will Dominate College Football." The article was well written, with solid facts and a humorous style that was well deserving of a Pulizer Prize, maybe even better, like free pizza for life.

I should know, I wrote it, and it took me almost two hours to do it.

Since then, however, there has been much debate over whether the Irish defense will be just good, or whether it will truly dominate college football similar to the defenses commonly purchased in the SEC.

(Evidently, contrary to those people trying to sell sports apparel online, this is what the comment section underneath the article is actually for.)

There is only one way to end this debate short of gunplay or congressional hearings wasting millions in taxpayer dollars—write another article with even more convincing arguments why Notre Dame’s defense truly will dominate college football once again.

This is that article.

The Gold Standard for College Defenses

To define what dominating college football offenses means we have to loosely define what we mean by domination, otherwise, to the under-informed, the pillow fighting the Mid-American Conference does could be considered defense.

There are lots of very good defenses across the country running many different schemes, from TCU’s 4-2-5 to Ohio State’s 4-3.

There are also many ways to evaluate them statistically, but there is only one way to determine the best: sit back, open a cold one, and watch a defense flat out destroy a good offense.

Some defenses just walk out on the field, draw a line in the dirt, and dare you to put one finger across that line. When some offense is stupid enough to try it, they lose a hand.

Last year, a Co-Big Ten Champion found that out the hard way.

In the Capitol One Bowl, Coach Mark Dantonio said MSU would find out if they were for real when his 11-1 Big Ten Co-Champs faced off with a 9-3 squad that finished fourth in the SEC West.

Reality hurt. The final was 49-7, Michigan State University had negative 48 yards rushing, and the game wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicated.

In the aftermath of three hours of “Roll Tide Roll,”, many Sparty fans are doing well with their therapy, although few will ever be able to tailgate without assistance. The prognosis for those that watched all four quarters remains grim.

To this day, Dantonio breaks out in cold sweats when he sees a roll of toilet paper.

Even as a Notre Dame fan, there were times during the game I just had to look away and take comfort that it wasn’t my team taking the vicious beating only a mouthy schoolboy and an angry nun will ever truly appreciate.

The contest looked less like a football game and more like a UFC bout between Brock Lesnar and one of the Olsen twins, and although it was one of the most brutal beatings ever seen on a national broadcast, MSU was just one of many teams that were mugged in 2010.

Say what you want, the Alabama Crimson Tide has dominated some of the best college offenses in the country ever since head coach Nick Saban got there in 2007. Last year they were fourth in the country in total defense at 286 yards per game, and fourth in scoring defense at 14.1 per game.

In 2009 Alabama led the nation in scoring defense at 11.0 points per game. Not coincidentally, they also won some bullsh*t called the AFCA National Championship Trophy that year, whatever that is.

 Saban doesn’t have his team take the field—he releases the hounds.

So What Does That Have To Do With Notre Dame?

So Dan, you ask, Alabama’s defense crushes rocks with their bare hands, so what?

Here’s what.

In 2010, Bama held MSU to seven points, minus-48 yards rushing, and 171 total yards.

Last year Notre Dame’s defense got slapped with 34 points by Sparty, giving up 203 yards rushing and 477 total.

As mentioned above, the Tide’s scoring defense was fourth in the country at 14.1 points per game. The Irish scoring defense came in at a much less impressive 30^th at 20.5 points per game.

So why am I comparing ND to Alabama?

Hop in my time machine.

  

Alabama’s Defense in 2007

When Nick Saban got to Alabama in 2007, Mike Shula was just booted for finishing with a 6-7 record. All six wins were later vacated by the NCAA for multiple improprieties.

Consequently, Shula still holds the dubious record of being the worst cheater in SEC history.

Saban arrived with a more-than-established college coaching resume, going 9-2 at Toledo, 34-24-1 at MSU, and 48-16 at LSU, winning a national championship for the 2003 season whilst enjoying the shrimp etouffee.

At every stop his defense punished opposing offenses.

So when Saban got to Tuscaloosa, he did what comes naturally to a college coaching whore. He pulled out his junk.

He threw out Shula’s 3-3-5 defense, stuck in his signature 3-4 defense, and promptly screwed the pooch, finishing 7-6 and 27^th in the country in scoring defense, giving up 22.0 points and over 345 yards per game.

The Alabama fans were not happy with his defensive gurudom, to the point many took to wearing their houndstooth hats slathered in garlic and wolfsbane in a failed effort to raise Bear Bryant from the dead.

By way of comparison, after Charlie Weis got booted for his 6-6 record in 2009, Brian Kelly’s first year team finished 8-5 with defensive coordinator’s Bob Diaco’s 3-4 defense checking in favorably at 20.5 PPG allowed.

Alabama’s Defense in 2008

So, what happened in year two of the Sabanbama Experiment?

With a year of recruiting his kids and some experience by his SEC athletes in his 3-4 schemes, Saban’s second year team finished 12-2, third in the nation in total defense at 263.8 yards per game and seventh in scoring defense at 14.3 points per game.

The 2008 team spent the last few weeks of the season rated No. 1 in the polls until No. 2 Florida beat them in the SEC title game.

That pissed them off so much they won a national title the next year with the No. 1 defense in the country.

What Saban had announced with authority was that his 3-4 defense, with the right athletes and the right coaching, can and does dominate college football’s best teams.

The Right Athletes

SEC Athletes Are Bigger and Faster

Again you say, Dan, what are you drinking? Sure, we run a 3-4, but to be an SEC defense the Irish have to have the right athletes!

We all know ND doesn’t have the size and speed of those SEC athletes, heck, our guys are mostly second and third year guys from good but not great recruiting classes.

In answer to this quandry, here are two rosters, one is Alabama’s third ranked ass-kicking defense from 2010, the other is Notre Dame’s projected starters for 2011, with the height, weight, and 40 times (times provided by www.nfldraftscout.com).

 TEAM No. 1 NOTRE DAME

NG -- Sean Cwynar-Jr 6-4, 280 4.96
DE -- Ethan Johnson-Sr 6-4, 300 4.96
DE -- Kapron Lewis-Moore-Jr 6-4, 295 4.75
OLB -- Darius Fleming-Sr 6-2, 250 4.65

OLB -- Prince Shembo-So 6-2, 250 4.67
ILB -- Manti Te'o-Jr 6-2, 255 4.59
ILB -- Carlo Calabrese-So 6-1, 245 4.6
CB -- Gary Gray-Sr 5-11, 195 4.49
CB -- Robert Blanton-Sr 6-1, 196 4.53
SS -- Harrison Smith-Sr 6-2, 214 4.55
FS -- Zeke Motta-Jr 6-2, 215 4.6

  

TEAM No. 2 ALABAMA

NG -- Josh Chapman 6-1 310 5.02
DE -- Marcell Dareus 6-4 306 4.86
DE -- Luther Davis 6-3 279 5.05
OLB -- Chavis Williams 6-4 223 4.7

 ILB -- Courtney Upshaw 6-2 265 4.76
ILB -- Dont'a Hightower 6-4 260 4.74
OLB -- Jerrell Harris 6-3 242 4.73
CB -- Dre Kirkpatrick 6-3 192 4.49
CB -- DeQuan Menzie 6-0 198 4.65
SS -- Mark Barron 6-2 218 4.65
FS -- Robert Lester 6-2 210 4.56

To make it easier for you that are mathematically challenged, which probably includes most of the SEC fanbase and myself, other than nose guard (presuming the large house named Nix isn’t the starter for the Irish), our lineman are almost as big and a little faster, our linebackers are bigger and faster on the outside and just slightly smaller but much faster on the inside.

With the exception of about an inch in height per corner, the secondaries are both practically the identical size and speed.

On paper, despite rumors to the contrary, ND doesn’t have to wait until this year’s freshman class matures into a college defense to have SEC- quality athletes.

 They’ve got plenty of ass-kickers on campus right now.

So Does Notre Dame Have an SEC Defense?

So Dan, you say, we’re as big as the best in the SEC, and as fast as the best in the SEC, well gosh darn it, you’re right! We must be as good as the SEC!

 Well, no, there are two minor issues to resolve before that happens.

Laps and Squats

Historically, there are two things that Notre Dame’s defenses consistently lack when it comes to competing with the SEC.

While the myth is perpetuated that the SEC has better athletes, I am here to explain that it is not entirely a myth.

Lower entrance requirements and a less than demanding curriculum means a much larger pool of  talented athletes, plus with JUCO transfers and chronic oversigning, an SEC team historically had many more of them.

While our starting guys are generally just as big and just as fast, historically, from Bob Davies to Charlie Weis, our athletes often lacked something else you saw in every great SEC defense.

Superior strength and conditioning.

Ever since the Lou Holtz era, Notre Dame’s strength and conditioning, while at times good, has never been quite at the level of the better SEC teams. In some years I have to believe my thirty minutes on a treadmill and a quick sauna every three days would have been considered a brutal regimen.

Not to denigrate the efforts of our student athletes and weight coaches, but we all know there were years that if you squinted at the TV hard enough, our entire offensive line looked like a tray of cheeseburgers.

Part of this comes from the fact that Notre Dame athletes often have to attend class, but a great deal of it has been a lack of emphasis.

Other than a Justin Tuck here or there, the Notre Dame bigs were never that sculpted and often had a tendency to stop for a fourth meal when pursuing a play. The player that needed to “beef up” to play a position typically showed up the next fall looking three months pregnant.

 

Vacation Is Over

If what I saw at the spring game and on the height and weight charts is any indication, those days are gone.

Anyone that has seen Paul Longo’s results after only a year, both in size and on the field, can see that this issue has been rectified and is fast becoming a strength of our program, no pun intended.

Our athletes are not only big and fast, but our strength and endurance is quickly overtaking some of the best defenses in the country.

The fourth quarter is no longer a debacle of watching Notre Dame lineman engage in the weekly ritual of bending over in exhaustion between snaps, trying not to barf on national television as prohibited under the terms of the NBC contract.

No one is getting pancaked for three quarters before finally just getting out of the way for the last twelve minutes and pointing at the guy next to him in an effort to distract the coaches from the real problem.

Last year our strength and fitness was much closer to what you’ll see in an SEC team.

In 2011, we are damn close. By 2012, I have no doubt we’ll be there.

  

There Is No Substitute for Experience

The second thing Notre Dame’s defenses lack that the Alabama defense doesn’t is experience. Not player experience, as every team turns over players every few years and have to teach new ones as they arrive.

In reality, the fact that ND’s student athletes often come with a brain attached actually gives ND an edge over most schools. Such accessorizing enables the coaches to shorten the learning curve considerably, requiring less experience for the same results.

But I’m not talking about seasoning players to get familiar with the 3-4. What Notre Dame lacks that Alabama has is coaching experience.

The Legend of Sabandonia

Nick Saban is a defensive specialist that learned his chops under George Perles, the same huge waistline that ran the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steeler’s “Steel Curtain” back in the 70’s.

Saban is so good that one lock of his hair and two parts the eye of a toad like Glenn Beck will produce a reasonably disciplined outside linebacker.

Saban pioneered the pattern reading defenses that gives a QB a specific pre-snap read so that their safety could bait him into an open look, jump the route, and show the coach his new football.

Saban is the very reason offensive gurus like Brian Kelly spent years designing his vertical routes that all start straight downfield so Saban can’t tell his safeties what to steal and when.

There is no substitute for that kind of experience, and Alabama has it, ND does not. It’s a sad but true fact.

Nick Saban knows how to prepare a defense each year, how to game plan against an offense, and is one of the best defensive in-game coaches in the country. He can do it all while napping.

He’s been there, done that. He’s forgotten more defensive football than most coaches will ever learn.

Nick Saban has been around longer than dirt and knows how to kick it in your offense’s face, even when they converted dirt to rubberized pellets.

I have it on good authority that God calls Saban twice a week to get defensive advice. On speed dial.

ND cannot compete with that, at least not yet.

Bob Diaco’s Resume

What does Notre Dame have?

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco has been coaching football for over 15 years, but in major college football coaching terms, he’s practically an infant.

He played linebacker at Iowa under Hayden Fry, and worked as a graduate assistant for two years.

Diaco’s first full-time position was at Western Illinois where he was the running backs and special teams coordinator in 1999 and 2000.

He was a linebacker and secondary coach at Eastern Michigan in 2001-2003, and a co-defensive coordinator at Central Michigan in 2004.

After a stint as linebacker and special teams coach at Virginia from 2006-2008, he was defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly at Cincinnatti in 2009 and at Notre Dame in 2010.

No pro football stints, no apprenticeship under some legendary defensive architect, no father that played for the Raiders when they killed people. Legally.

Diaco has three years of experience as a defensive coordinator for three different college teams. That resume wouldn’t get him a job interview with any team in the SEC.

By comparison, Diaco was  eleven years old when Nick Saban was in his third year as MSU’s defensive coordinator back in 1985.

  

I Know Nick Saban, and You Sir, Are No Nick Saban

Although one day Diaco will have the requisite experience and is destined to be a damn fine football coach, you don’t know what to do in combat unless you’ve been through the wars.

By football standards, Diaco is barely out of bootcamp, and that’s why he got pantsed by some better coaches in 2010.

Although it was ugly, there is no embarassment to have Andrew Luck and a fourth ranked Stanford team under Jim Harbaugh school you for 37 points and 404 yards.

On the other hand, having a 175 pound Michigan QB light you up for 502 yards running the zone read or play action off the zone read all day long doesn’t cut it, even if the guy is faster than a cheetah.

And it’s a whole ‘nother story to give up 35 points and 438 yards to Navy, 210 yards just to the FULLBACK.

Giving up 28 points and 399 yards to Tulsa was debatably even worse. My 89 year old mom and four of her sisters held the Golden Hurricanes to 250 yards and three field goals and that was without her good shoes.

Those types of games from a team with far superior talent is all on the coaching, and Diaco was just too inexperienced to properly prepare and make the in-game adjustments needed to stop the bleeding.

Yet, Kelly needs Diaco to run his defense as Kelly is no Nick Saban, doesn’t want to be, and never will be. We can all stop and thank the good Lord for that blessing.

Still, as an offensive guru, Brian Kelly doesn’t have the same kind of defensive depth to step in and help his defensive coordinator overcome his inexperience.

Saban is so good I doubt one out of fifty college football fans that read this article can tell me who Saban’s defensive coordinator is without looking it up.

Every Notre Dame fan knows who Bob Diaco is and what he does.

Kelly needs him. We need him.

  

There Is Hope

Don’t get me wrong, Bob Diaco is a bright young guy with the aggressive mentality that makes a defensive coordinator very effective.

In his first season at Notre Dame, Diaco switched defensive schemes from a blitzing 4-3 defense to a 3-4 no-crease defense. The improvement was drastic.

Notre Dame allowed 5.7 fewer points per game, 40.5 fewer yards per game, averaged one half sacks more per game and forced six more turnovers.

The 2010 defense was dramatically improved in almost every statistical category: scoring defense (from 63rd in '09 to 23rd in '10), pass efficiency (82nd to 25th), rushing defense (89th to 50th) and total defense (86th to 50th).

More importantly, the defense got stronger practically every game.

In the last three games of the regular season, ND’s three opponents, USC, Army, and Utah, averaged a combined 90.9 points per game.

Against Notre Dame they scored a combined total of 22 points, with only one touchdown by USC on a four-play drive from the two.

Diaco proved in the start of his first year at Notre Dame he didn’t have the experience to go toe to toe with some of the nation’s better offensive coaches.

He also adapted and molded his defense into a solid unit by year end.

Summary

So is Notre Dame’s defense going to dominate college football?

My answer is you're damn right.

When you look at what it takes to dominate college offenses, Notre Dame has all the right pieces to bring hell every week.

Notre Dame has the size and speed of an elite defense. Our athletes are in the kind of condition that would make a Navy Seal proud, and they’re getting better every month.

They run a scheme that is aggressive and hard to predict, and has been effective against multiple offenses. At times in 2010, as the players became more familiar with the scheme, ND dominated opposing offenses.

The Sun Bowl was a route-jump fest.

And experience? Well Bob Diaco is no Nick Saban, but he doesn’t have to be.

When Nick Saban was a fourth year coordinator he had his own innovative style and put together some very fine defensive units at MSU in the mid-80’s with a lot less talent than Diaco has.

To be honest, Bob Diaco reminds me of Saban before Saban left MSU and turned to a life of coaching prostitution and chronic oversigning.

Diaco learned a lot on the job last year, and by year end consistently shut down some very good offenses.

More importantly, Kelly supports him, giving his defense the players and continuity it needs to play fast, aggressive, physical football.

If this was Charlie Weis’s coordinator the Big C would have burned up the Yellow Pages to bring in the latest defensive guru to make things right.

Yes Diaco as still learning, but he is a quick study and his kids are clearly getting his message. He does some nice things with his defense and he’ll do more as his kids learn his system.

And yes, he is not Nick Saban, but he’s a good young football coach that is making his own mark on college football. He’s pretty good now and will only get better with time.

I think this defense is going to cost a lot of offensive coordinators their jobs before it's all said and done.

I’ll take that any day of the week, especially Saturday.