Notre Dame Has Strengths On Defense It Can Rely On, Others It Must Establish

Notre Dame had an interesting season on defense in 2022, and there is no doubt the unit must get better in 2023. The Irish defense was certainly more productive than the offense for much of the season, but it didn't play up to the standard we've seen in previous seasons.

The Irish now move into year two of the Al Golden era, and for the first time since the 2019-20 seasons the Irish will have the same coordinator for a second straight season. Golden will be tasked with getting the unit to play at a much better, and far more consistently effective unit this season, and that foundation will be laid this spring.

In order to get there, Notre Dame must build on its strengths, and enhance areas that aren't strengths yet, but can be if developed properly. Here's a look at those different areas:

1. Cornerback Depth Chart is Big Time - There is no doubt of the top strength on the Notre Dame defense, and that is the cornerback position. Benjamin Morrison is coming off a Freshman All-American campaign, and during the second half of the season he and Cam Hart were an outstanding tandem. In the final five games where they played together, Notre Dame's defense allowed just 158.8 passing yards per game, 5.5 yards per attempt and held opponents to a passer rating of 98.75. Moving into 2023, this duo has a chance to be one of - if not the very best cornerback tandem in the country.

I'm not sure where Hart is with his rehab from a shoulder injury related to playing time this spring, but he'll certainly be good to go by the fall. If Hart is out it could be a blessing in disguise. We know what he can be and the summer/fall periods will be enough to get him back on track. What Hart being out does is open up more reps for the younger, developing players at cornerback. That means players like Jaden Mickey, Chance Tucker and Ryan Barnes will get more opportunities this spring.

Notre Dame also welcomes in Top 100 cornerback Christian Gray, who has the tools to thrive as a field or boundary cornerback. In past season a player like Gray would be pushing for a lot of minutes, if not a starting job. Notre Dame is so deep at the position now that he'll have to pass at least three players just to get into the rotation. Notre Dame is so loaded at cornerback that I will continue to advocate for moving veteran cornerback Clarence Lewis to safety.

2. Coaching Continuity - People will take this differently, but I view it as being a positive that Notre Dame has continuity from a coaching standpoint on defense. The reason I'm saying this is that despite my frustrations with some of the staff in 2022, getting coaches like Al Golden and Al Washington back in 2023 does provide some continuity that should allow for improvement.

Even if Golden doesn't make some very important changes on defense (which I'll discuss in a future article), the reality is the Irish players are going to have a much better feel for what he wants, how he coaches and how he teaches. There will likely be a natural improvement from players as they get to know the coaches more, and as the coaches hopefully learn more about the strengths of the players.

Of course, this requires the coaches to actually focus on building the system around those strengths if the Irish are going to achieve their full level of success.

3. Experience - Notre Dame returns a lot of experience on defense, and it added two veterans from the transfer portal. The Irish return their top four players in snaps from last season (Morrison, Hart, JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau) and return a total of return 13 players that played at least 200 snaps last season and three more players that played at least 180 snaps in their career.

Newcomers Thomas Harper and Javontae Jean-Baptiste both have over 900 career snaps. That means Notre Dame has 10 players returning with at least 800 career snaps and four more with at least 400 career snaps.

There are questions about who will be impact players, who will step into playmaking roles, etc., but there is no doubt Notre Dame returns a lot of experience to the defense, so there should be no excuses for the defense making an improvement next season.

4. Defensive Line Potential - The Notre Dame defensive line is a lot like the Irish wide receivers in that they will be in both the strengths and concerns area as we head into the spring. The concern will have to do with proven production, who steps up as a big time playmaker and other factors like that, but the positive is there is a lot of talent returning to the line.

Notre Dame must find a way to replace Isaiah Foskey at Vyper, and that won't be easy. Foskey ended his Notre Dame career as the program's all-time leader in sacks, but there's no doubt the Irish return plenty of talent at the position. Irish fans have been waiting years to see talented edge rusher Jordan Botelho become a difference maker, and rising sophomore Josh Burnham is arguably the best pound-for-pound athlete on the defense. There's also Junior Tuihalamaka and Aiden Gobaira. The talent is there.

The same is true inside, where Notre Dame is a bit young behind Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills, but Notre Dame doesn't lack talent. The same is true at defensive end. We don't know if the defensive line will be good in 2023, and the players and their position coach need to step up, but this is not a team lacking in talent.

5. Young Athletes - Here's a question we have on defense, will Al Golden and Al Washington be able to get the young athletes on the roster ready to play. Here's the strength, Notre Dame has A LOT of very talented young athletes on all three levels of the defense.

Notre Dame's sophomore and freshman class is incredibly athletic, and now the job of the coaching staff is to do what it takes to develop those players and get them onto the field. I'll say again, if the Irish defense doesn't get better in 2023 it won't be because they lack the talent to be better.

Linebacker is a perfect example. Notre Dame's veterans need to get better, but the Irish have extremely talented young athletes this spring like Jaylen Sneed, Nolan Ziegler, Jaiden Ausberry and Drayk Bowen that a strong coaching staff can certainly develop and get on the field some way. So either the veterans get a lot better - which makes the defense better - or the coaches work hard to get the more talented younger players on the field.

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