SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Al Golden is still convinced that the oppressive Notre Dame defense he saw building in training camp practices through the month of August will show up on the field.
Eventually. Consistently. Decisively.
“The bottom line is it’s not good enough,” said the first-year Notre Dame defensive coordinator of a unit that has buckled in the fourth quarter in each of the two Irish losses to start the season.
“In terms of defense, that starts with me. I’ve gotta look at what we're doing and make sure we get it corrected. And that's what we’re fixing to do right now.”
Sitting a screen pass-length away from Golden, talking to other members of the media Tuesday night at the Irish Athletics Center, was one of the reasons the 53-year-old former college head coach and NFL assistant is so encouraged amid the frustration heading into Saturday’s Notre Dame Stadium matchup between the 0-2 Irish and Cal (2-0).
Grad senior Bo Bauer, one of the six Irish captains.
“We’ve got unbelievable kids,” Golden said. “And they just come to work.”
Apparently with fire in their eyes.
“It's the most sickening, horrible thing that I've probably ever had to experience in my life,” Bauer said of Notre Dame’s 26-21 loss last Saturday to 20.5-point underdog Marshall. “It's not because I feel like I lost the game. It's that I'm here for my brothers and they trusted me.
“I've been here for five years. We don't lose games like that. I don't know if I've ever lost two football games, back to back, in my entire life — especially not in this fashion.
“I'm really pissed off. This team is pissed off. We're really ready to go, just to unleash our potential. Something about this is not right, and we're figuring it out. But I love these guys and how we're handling it.
“Man, the level of preparation and sacrifice that these guys have put in, it just doesn't make sense right now.”
Golden says it’s his job to make it make sense. And he’s trying new techniques and drills in practice to make it so.
Still, the bottom line numbers are as follows: Notre Dame is No. 79 in total defense out of 131 FBS teams, No. 69 in scoring defense, No, 113 in rush defense, No. 101 in pass-efficiency defense, No 64 in sacks, No. 77 in tackles for loss, No. 101 in preventing third-down conversions and tied for dead last in takeaways, with zero.
“Frustrating,” Golden said of the takeaways, which Notre Dame puts a huge emphasis on in every practice. “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. The kids are a little frustrated with it, because they've 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.”
Defensive tackle Howard Cross, with a career-high 11 tackles, was Notre Dame’s highest-graded player in Pro Football Focus’ film review of the Marshall game. Linebackers JD Bertrand and Jack Kiser were next. Bauer ranked ninth out of the 25 players who took at least one defensive snap against the Thundering Herd.
“Coach Free (Marcus Freeman) is never going to pull the reins back on anything,” Bauer said of the team working through the headaches. “He's just going to find a different way that's smarter.
“I totally believe in what he preaches. I don't care what anybody says, just because we haven't had the outcomes that we want right now. It doesn't reflect what this program is about and how hard these guys have worked.
“I mean, I've been part of two teams that have gone to the playoffs. Last year, we were one game away. I've been there. This team is very special. It's just very frustrating. I'm just like hurt for these guys that we're not where we need to be right now.”
When pressed about the game-defining 95-yard drive by Ohio State in the fourth quarter of its 21-10 victory in the Sept. 3 opener and the 94-yard, fourth-quarter drive Marshall put together last Saturday to take the lead for good, Golden lacked specifics in his response.
“Not good enough. Not good enough,” he said. “Simple as that. We have to get it corrected.”
Cal, led by former Purdue quarterback Jack Plummer, ranks 77th nationally in total offense and 90th in scoring offense after wins over FCS school UC Davis (34-13) and future Irish opponent UNLV (20-14).
The Golden Bears’ biggest weakness so far has been protecting Plummer. Cal ranks 105th nationally in sacks allowed.
“Maybe we left a couple of sacks out there the last two weeks,” Golden said. “We're getting some pressures. We’ve got to get a little bit more.”
And he has to coax them from a team that is already out of playoff contention two weeks into the season but apparently still dreaming big.
“I didn't come back here to be on a 6-6 team my fifth year after everything we've accomplished,” Bauer said. “I'm here to give these guys a trajectory I think they deserve. There's so many guys that I've learned from — Alohi Gilman, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa — that I want to pass that on to the next generation.
“If I can't be here for the national championship. I want them to have that opportunity.”
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