Al Golden Talks Notre Dame Corners, Turnovers, Fourth Quarter Struggles, Marcus Freeman

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - It’s been 17 years since Al Golden was a defensive coordinator, and his first Notre Dame defense has so far been hit or miss. A strong showing against No. 2 Ohio State was followed last week by a disappointing performance in a loss to Marshall.

During his media availability this week the Irish defensive play caller addressed a number of issues.

On The Lack Of Turnovers

Last year’s Irish finished No. 15 in the nation in turnover margin at plus-9. This year’s team is minus-3, in part because the defense has yet to force a turnover. It's a stat that’s not lost on Golden.

"Frustrating,” Golden said of his team's inability to force turnovers thus far. "They come in bunches, so as a coach that’s something we’ve always said. Just stay at it, just keep working at it. Maybe change a couple things that you’ve done. Refresh it. Repackage it. Whatever you have to do.

"No doubt it’s frustrating," Golden continued. "The kids are little frustrated with it because they worked on it really hard too. I don’t think anybody would imagine we wouldn’t have one yet, and we need to do that. We need to help our offense and our special teams out by getting them. That’s on us.”

Irish offensive position groups focused on ball security drills during fall camp and the defense worked a lot, probably as much as in recent memory for a Notre Dame team, during camp, but it hasn’t shown itself on Saturdays, yet.

"That’s right, but again, if it’s not happening, you have to do something differently,” Golden explained. "That’s our job as coaches that’s my job as the defensive coordinator. That’s what we’re tasked here to to do. In a very short 72 hours we have to get better at that. For us it’s just about going back to the fundamentals of it, the basics of it. Does everybody understand what we’re looking for (and) what we want to do? And hopefully we’ll have some fortune.”

Fourth Quarter Struggles

The Irish have been outscored 21-14 in the fourth quarter through two games, but that is misleading when you consider the offense scored a late touchdown against Marshall with the game all but over. They have also seen both opponents go on 90-plus yard decisive touchdown drives to seal both games.

"We’re trying to work on finishing better,” Golden stated. "Executing in the fourth quarter. Tackling better to be quite honest. Those are the three things: just finish, whether that includes playing through the echo of the whistle, whatever you have to do to get the ball. And then tackling, executing. Not giving them big plays in the fourth.”

Physicality In Preseason, Defensive Rotation

Golden was asked about whether or not the team was physical enough in the preseason.

"Oh absolutely,” Golden said. "There’s no excuse. We just didn’t tackle well enough to win the game in the fourth. We tackled plenty. We practiced it tons. There’s no excuses. We didn’t tackle well enough, period.

The Irish defense has a deep rotation. It’s meant to keep players fresh, but it’s also bitten Notre Dame at some key moments.

"I think we’re going to stay with it,” Golden said when asked about paring down the rotation of players. "Whatever we have to do to be fresh in the fourth and finish. That’s paramount right now. Everybody’s reps are earned in practice, so we’ll go back in tonight and evaluate it. For us, it’s full-steam ahead on Cal.”

Cornerback Play

The secondary was one of the team’s biggest concerns entering the season, and Golden was asked about that unit's performance through two games.

"I'm not pleased with anything because the bottom line is, you know, we’re 0-2,” Golden stated. From that standpoint, you know, we all need to improve and we all have things that our position that we've delineated for them that they need to improve and that's in-house. So I'm not going to share that, but no, I mean, 'pleased,' I’m not pleased with anything right now. And it has nothing to do with the corners, or any other position that you can mention. It's we just got to keep fighting and getting better.“

On TaRiq Bracy

The veteran corner has been arguably Notre Dame’s best defender through two games.

"I'm happy the way he's playing overall,” Golden said. "He's got a good look. He prepares like crazy. He's in Coach (Mike Mickens) office all the time. He's a competitor. He's had big challenges, both week one and then week two, just with the perimeter game that they had. So, he's responded in both.”

Defensive Line Expectations

The defensive line, led by Isaiah Foskey and Jayson Ademilola, was supposed to be the strength of the defense, but outside of Howard Cross’s 14 tackles (second most on the team), it has played below most of the preseason expectations.

"For me, we’ve just got to keep going,” Golden noted. "Maybe we left a couple of sacks out there the last two weeks. We're getting some pressures, we’ve got to get a little bit more. Obviously, if there’s an opportunity for sack, there’s an opportunity for a strip sack. So, I'm not down on any position at all. We’ve just got to keep moving forward and getting better. That's really what it's all about.”

On His Advice To Marcus Freeman

When head coach Marcus Freeman announced Golden as his defensive coordinator shortly after the Super Bowl, the first time head coach acknowledged Golden’s head coaching background as one of his attributes. He said Golden could be someone Freeman could turn to for advice.

So, has that happened yet?

"No,” Golden stated. "He's got a good pulse, he knows what this team needs. Like I said, a million times, he's the head coach. And if he needs to run something by me or whoever it could be — Coach (Harry) Hiestand or whoever, Coach (Matt) Balis — we're there for him, but he's got a really good pulse on his team, and he's very consistent.

"I think the team respects that and appreciates that and they want to play for him,” Golden continued. “We're all disappointed with the results. It's got to be better. For us on defense, if we get a couple of takeaways, that game is different at the end of the day. Both games can be different. So we have to do what we have to do on defense. And I think the other two entities would say the same thing.”

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