Clark Lea Keeping Notre Dame Players In The Loop: Part III
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, third-year Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea has cherished his family time with wife and three children.
Separation from his Fighting Irish football family has been a different story.
“Like a lot of professions, coaches are creatures of habit,” Lea said earlier this week. “We like rhythm and we like sequence and we like anticipating. This [pandemic] has just put all those plans in the air. The uncertainty is hard for everybody.”
Ensuring that his players feel supported and keeping them engaged through various technical means of communication are part of his ritual until a sense of normalcy resumes, whenever that might be.
“First thing is make sure guys are feeling supported, they have a contact back here and still building a sense of camaraderie,” Lea said. “Keep them engaged in the football aspect.
“Whenever we get back together we’ll be in good shape. You want to make sure they feel tethered to something. They know I’m here and I’m thinking about them.”
With March 5 the lone practice that took place this spring — today (April 18) would have been the Blue-Gold Game — coaching staffs have had to compensate with as much communication and engagement with their personnel as possible.
“Our greatest asset we have now is time,” Lea noted. “There is nothing that is impending, not a practice, not a scrimmage, not a game. What it allows you to do is dive deep into the minutia, the fine points of defense.
“Guys understand that they really have ownership over it, so we’re trying to take this time to do that as we move closer to summer and fall camp. We’ll be way more installation oriented.
“Right now we’re just trying to maximize the finer points, finer details of the defense. We won’t get the reps back that we lost for the young players, but we’ll have plenty of time to work them back in.”
Fortifying the mind-set to grow, compete and develop is, with apologies to Vince Lombardi, "not a sometime thing" but an all-the-time trait that must be daily habit.
“If anything, this is a great opportunity for us to continue to develop through the season and to understand and who we are in game one and who we are at the end of the year are going to be two different things as long as we stay in the developmental mindset,” Lea said.
Working With Mike Mickens
The lone new staff member on defense this season is 32-year-old cornerbacks coach Mickens, a two-time All-American (2007 and 2008) cornerback at Cincinnati under head coach Brian Kelly.
Where Mickens particularly has developed a stellar reputation is in the development of younger corners.
Under Dino Babers at Bowling Green State in 2014, Mickens instructed a pair of freshman corners, Nick Johnson and Clint Stephens, who nabbed five and four interceptions respectively, while helping the Falcons to the Mid-American Conference East title — and a repeat in 2015 with a 10-3 record that helped Babers land the Syracuse job.
Last year for the 11-3 Cincinnati Bearcats, who finished No. 21 in the Associated Press poll, Mickens mentored Ahmad Gardner, who joined Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton on the FWAA Freshman All-American team. Furthermore, Gardner was a first-team All-American Athletic selection and a third-team Pro Football Focus All-American.
PFF graded out Gardner as the nation’s sixth best corner, regardless of class, highlighted by a 90.0 coverage grade.
At Notre Dame in 2020, six of the eight cornerbacks Mickens will be instructing will have four years of eligibility remaining, with sixth-year senior Shaun Crawford and junior TaRiq Bracy the exceptions.
Last year the Irish redshirted their three freshman corners: Cam Hart — who made the switch from receiver during the season — KJ Wallace and Isaiah Rutherford.
This year the trio that signed is comprised of Clarence Lewis, Ramon Henderson and Caleb Offord.
No single position group at Notre Dame enters the upcoming campaign with more question marks than cornerback, which makes Mickens track record of development among youth uplifting.
“The one thing that stood about Mike in the interview process was how authentic he is,” Lea said. “He’s got such a strong background both as a player — a guy who has overcome adversity, a guy who has made a career for himself, and he’s a chip-on-the-shoulder guy.
“… That’s the mentality of our defense. We’re not looking to be the flashiest, but play hard, tough — that’s his mindset.”
Lea is eager to see Mickens’ personality to “bleed into the unit” that is young and impressionable.
“Create a room that really models his personality and mind-set,” said Lea of what he wants to see from Mickens, in addition to offer big-picture input in a collaborative coaching effort with third-year safeties coach and pass defense coordinator Terry Joseph, defensive line coach Mike Elston and Lea.
“He’s an incredible technical coach. Had a really, really neat presentation on how he covers the specifics. He’s a corners coach, so he has an expertise on details of that position.”
Notre Dame allowed the third-fewest passing yards per game in the nation last year (168.5 per contest) and finished fifth overall in pass efficiency defense.
Back-Seven Rotation
Under Elston, the defensive line has established an excellent rotation the past couple of seasons.
Eight different linemen saw at least 228 snaps last season, and two others nearly 120 to keep legs fresh. That type of circulation is expected to continue in 2020.
Because of the demands in the trenches, especially versus tempo teams, such rotations at linebacker and in the secondary are less realistic.
The three starting linebackers last year had 621 to 684 snaps, but no one else more than 104.
Beyond the four starters in the secondary, safety Hamilton had 421 snaps (about 34 per game) and Crawford 388 despite missing several games with an injury.
“On the back end at the second and third level, we would like to have the same amount of ownership from top to bottom of the depth chart [like on the line], but when it comes time to play guys on the field, in the moment, it’s about how do we best win the game and who gives us the best chance to do that,” Lea said.
He expects linebacker to have more figures contributing this year because there are more upperclassmen with the unit growing into their roles and making natural progression.
“Our challenge as coaches is to develop the third Buck linebacker to become as competent as the first and second, and maybe there’s a smaller margin that separates the two,” Lea said. "And now all of a sudden you’re way more willing to play the guy who has the hot hand or certainly to create a rhythm of rotation, which we haven’t been able to do yet.”
Because the secondary is laden with youth and inexperience, Lea would like the sophomores and freshmen to get as many reps in practice as possible, meaning that sixth-year senior Crawford, who has battled many injuries, could get more rest in such situations.
That’s not to say Crawford will be exempt from partaking in drills.
“He’s got to get in there, mix it up and compete, do one-on-one and sharpen himself, because Saturdays are about a mind-set as much as the physical component,” Lea stated. “If you’re not prepared the right way, you’re setting yourself up for a challenge.”
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