Hansen: Notre Dame defense rises to complement Sam Hartman's splendor

That preseason All-America cornerback Benjamin Morrison started 13th-ranked Notre Dame’s 2023 football season opener as a bystander before eventually making two tackles off the bench spoke to how specialized Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden’s game plan was on Saturday.

Not to mention wildly successful.

And that quarterback Sam Hartman seemed more determined to channel questions about his own statistical splendor in ND’s 42-3 domination of Navy to that end was more about how significant he sees the Irish defensive evolution as a necessary part of Notre Dame’s playoff ambitions than a stab at persistent humility.

“When they hold an offense like that to only three points, that makes our job really easy,” said Hartman who fashioned a 231.7 pass-efficiency rating against the Mids (0-1) at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, roughly 72 points higher than what he produced for the season on American soil in 2022 while wearing a Wake Forest uniform.

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That translates to 19-of-23 accuracy for 251 yards and four touchdowns, the latter tying the most by a QB in his Notre Dame debut, and enough to vault the sixth-year collegian and fourth-year captain from 17th place to a tie for 14th with former Florida Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel on the FBS career list for TD passes (114).

More sparkling than the numbers is what it portends to do to opposing defensive coordinators this season, opening up the Irish running game and largely putting opposing defensive coordinators in a perpetual run-pass dilemma instead of being able to lean into one or the other.

The Irish (1-0) trampled Navy, the nation’s No. 2 run defense last season, to the tune of 191 yards on 32 carries after laboring for 66 on 34 in the 35-32 escape in Baltimore against Navy last November.

“This moment wasn’t too big [for him],” a jubilant Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said of Hartman after the coach’s career win No. 10. “It's about him going out there and just executing. And what I really, really thought he did a great job of was putting our offense in a really good position to execute the play.”

In other words, adapting and adjusting at the line of scrimmage pre-snap and doing more of the same once the ball was in his hands. Which is exactly what Freeman was expecting when he landed Hartman last January out of the transfer portal, a move that essentially chased both players who started games at the QB position for the Irish in 2022 — junior Tyler Buchner (Alabama) and senior Drew Pyne (Arizona State).

But for Freeman to maximize Hartman’s one-year presence on the Irish roster, the rest of the Irish had to elevate as well. That included Golden, moving into his second season with Freeman and ND.

In the offseason, the former Miami and Temple head coach admitted his re-entry into college football after six seasons as an NFL assistant produced a cluttered playbook, schematic shock for even veteran players who were learning their third system in three years, and inconsistent stretches for a defense that largely played well.

But rarely could overwhelm an offense. As they did Saturday.

With new offensive coordinator Grant Chesnut having a diverse background of triple-option and more traditional offense from which to throw at Golden, the Irish defensive coaching staff stressed the ability to be able to adapt on the fly but introduced as many scenarios as it could to the Irish players in practice.

“Yeah, they came out in a formation we’d never practiced before,” said grad senior linebacker Marist Liufau, who contributed seven tackles and a forced fumble, “so I mean that was an adjustment to make throughout the game, but I feel like we adjusted and reacted to it well.”

Fellow linebacker Jack Kiser, playing some linebacker and some safety, racked up a team-leading eight tackles. Senior defensive tackle Rylie Mills and sophomore vyper end Josh Burnham recorded a sack apiece against a team that attempted only six passes and completed three.

Debuting Navy head coach Brian Newberry admitted the Mids wanted to test the Irish more with the pass, given Chesnut’s creativity, but the Irish made the game non-competitive so quickly and thoroughly, Newberry felt the team would be better off for the long term to just run its triple-option of the latter half of the game.

“We just couldn’t sustain drives,” he said.

Which is the essence of Navy’s formula to level the playing field. Hog the ball, shorten the game, limit possessions.

The Mids finished with 126 yards rushing, a little more than half of what they produced on a per game basis in 2022 (241.2), when they finished fourth nationally in rushing offense. And the 169 total yards yielded by the Irish constituted the third-fewest allowed since the start of the 2010 season.

“I’m really proud,” Freeman said, “because what you saw in the first half offensively from Navy — we looked at everything we could find. I'm talking, we looked at Kennesaw State (Chesnut’s former school). And they ran some things that we have never seen.

“And so, the ability to hear the coaches say, ‘OK, write it down. Draw it up. Let's adjust on the sideline.’ And then go out there and implement it. I mean, that's more impressive than anything.”

Golden seems poised to continue to impress, at least in theory.

Notre Dame’s next 11 game plans won’t look anything like Saturday’s. Morrison will certainly be a central figure on all of those. And ND’s starting personnel will look different. And they’ll throw all kinds of sub packages at their opponents.

And roll defenders in, in waves.

Some other first-game superlatives that tantalized the sell-out crowd of 49,000 — roughly 39,000 who made the trip from the United States — were the starting debuts of junior guards Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan.

Besides the Irish rushing for 6.0 yards per carry, the Irish didn’t give up a single sack against a defense that racked up five in one half last year against them with nine starters back from that unit.

“They controlled the line of scrimmage,” offered Newberry. “The running backs ran hard. We didn’t tackle well. That's a bad combination. And when they did throw it, they were deadly efficient.”

Freeman worked seven freshmen into the game, including wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, who caught all three passes thrown his way for 68 yards and two TDs. He played all five running backs, four of whom garnered at least four carries.

And his offense played turnover-free for only the third time in his 15 games as head coach.

“The one thing that’s a little bit disappointing was that we didn’t get any takeaways on defense,” Freeman said. “We were close, but that’s something we’ve really been harping on. But man, they did a really good job, especially after being exposed to certain aspects last year.”

They get to handle jet lag next, then FCS opponent Tennessee State at home before the bigger challenges start to come their way.

But on a business trip 3,600 miles and five time zones away from campus, the ultimate complement to Hartman’s arm and savvy may have started to take root.

“Our defense really helped us,” Hartman said in redirecting a question about the offense. “I mean, we were in a lot of very favorable positions. And to see Marist out there bouncing around, you feed off that energy as well. They really helped us as much as anything else.”

NOTRE DAME 42, NAVY 3 BOXSCORE