In the rest/recruiting/recalibration bye week recipe that’s led to a 3-0 record so far for Marcus Freeman coming out of an open date, Notre Dame’s No. 49 standing nationally in run defense clearly got his attention.
And with good reason.
Since the Irish last won a national championship in football in 1988, no team has won a title with a run defense national ranking that low. In fact, the last three titlists have all been in the top five in rush defense, and only one team — Ohio State in 2014 in the first year of the College Football Player — won the national championship with a run defense outside of the top 25 (34th).
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“We really attacked a lot of those issues during the bye week,” Freeman, ND’s third-year head coach, said. “I always tell our coaches and our players we have to have a process to eliminate and fix issues. No. 1, we've got to own it. Then we have to put together a plan to attack it and really attack it to fix it in practice.”
So what does that look like?
Better play from ND’s interior line standouts Rylie Mills and Howard Cross III? The eventual return of key D-lineman Gabe Rubio? A tighter linebacker rotation? Schematic tweaks in which there might be a tradeoff that affects ND’s stellar pass-efficiency defense rating (1st last season, 6th this season)?
Stanford (2-3) comes to town for a Saturday matchup with the 11th-ranked Irish (4-1) at Notre Dame Stadium (3:30 p.m. EDT; NBC/Peacock) with the nation’s 71st-ranked rush offense and its top two rushers — quarterback Ashton Daniels and freshman running back Micah Ford coming off injuries.
Cardinal coach Troy Taylor said Tuesday he expects Daniels to be available, with Ford listed as questionable but trending toward probable.
“I think we have a mindset,” Freeman said on his weekly Thursday Zoom with the media about ND’s bye week adjustments with regard to run defense. “We want to be elite in the passing game. Passing yards can truly be detrimental, as you talk about big plays and explosive [plays], but there are still ways to be better at our run defense.
“Are schematics part of it? Yes. It's fitting guys up, being perfect in our fits. It's doing different looks to different runs. And so, there's no one solution to it. We’ve got to tackle. We’ve got to knock guys back on contact.
“So, all those different factors that I gave you are things that we're working on in practice to try to ensure that we do improve in the run game. There's so much confidence I have in our defensive staff, [defensive coordinator Al] Golden, in the players on our defense.”
The Irish do excel in several of the other key defensive categories, including total defense (19th), third-down defense (10th) and scoring defense (ninth).
Notre Dame faces the No. 3 (Navy) rush offense later this month and No. 1 (Army) in November. The Irish have already faced two in the top 10 (No. 9 Texas A&M and N0. 10 Northern Illinois), but No. 122 Miami (Ohio) ran for 110 yards and too often knocked the Irish defensive front off the ball. And a middle of the pack rushing team, Louisville (61st), outrushed ND 131-117 in Notre Dame’s 31-24 win over the Cardinals on Sept. 28, just ahead of the bye.
“It's our pride, like we want to be the best,” Freeman said. “We’re greedy people. We don't want to give up run or pass yards. But at the end of the day, we have to have an understanding as a coaching staff of: OK, these are the things we must stop. These are the things that we can’t allow to happen. And here's the things that we have to get better at in terms of improving in all phases.”
Hurricane response
Notre Dame has five players on the roster from Florida, two — linebacker Tre Reader and defensive lineman Sean Sevillano Jr. — who played their high school football in the Tampa Bay area, which was in the direct path of Hurricane Milton this week.
The devastation from the storm continues to accrue, and Freeman has been mindful to be a resource for his players and their families.
“We've been in contact with Tre and Sean and a couple other guys that have family members down there,” Freeman said. “I think this situation is like anything with leadership. You have to be what your players need you to be at that time.
“And in this situation, a certain player needs you to sit with them in your office and talk about some things and get some things off their chest or cry or whatever it is. Like, that's what leadership is, and that's what we'll continue to do with every member of this football program.
“And so we've been in communication with our players that are affected by the hurricane, and we pray for all those that have been affected by it.”
Tyler Buchner update
As Notre Dame’s 2024 football season hits the halfway point, former Irish starting quarterback Tyler Buchner remains on the roster as a walk-on wide receiver, with zero snaps in games and little chance of moving up the depth chart this season.
And yet, he’s still making contributions behind the scenes, which is what Buchner pledged to do when he asked after spring ball concluded to rejoin the roster. Buchner was ND’s opening-night starting QB in 2022, Freeman’s first as head coach, but went down with a shoulder injury in game 2 of that season.
He then returned to practice in December, won the Gator Bowl MVP, dueled transfer Sam Hartman in the spring of 2023 and then transferred to Alabama that summer. Buchner did make one start for the Crimson Tide, but struggled in that game and sank on the depth chart thereafter.
He transferred back to ND in 2024 for spring semester, joined the national champion men’s lacrosse team and picked up his Notre Dame degree by the end of his junior year academically.
He’ll have one year of football eligibility after this one if he chooses to pursue that.
And for now?
“I think he's done a great job at signaling for us,” Freeman said, referring to the group of players on the sideline that augment the in-helmet communications. “You know that that's so important, like everybody's role is so important to get done for us to have success. And he helps with signals.
“He's still playing wideout, but a lot of times when you're one of the guys that are signaling during scout team, you have to signal. And so, he's been a vital piece of this program, and has done a great job in his defined roles in terms of helping us have success.”
Ready for the Letter-of-Intent change
The NCAA Division I Council on Wednesday eliminated the National Letter of Intent program for high school student-athletes, a move that will be in play when the 2025 football recruiting class is supposed to make its verbal commitments official during the Dec. 4-6 signing period.
Freeman said Notre Dame is ready for the change, which will still include binding agreements that are just structured differently.
“We've thought about this in the past, and there's still some things to get worked out,” Freeman said. “But every school in the country will play by the same rules. So, they'll sign some type of agreement with the institution, which is a lot of times what you're doing with transfers now.
“And so, it won't affect our recruiting class, or how we recruit. It’s just a different logistics in terms of the recruit signing a different agreement instead of an NLI [National Letter of Intent].”
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