Notre Dame Cornerbacks Striving For Huge Bounce-Back Season
Thirty years ago, then Notre Dame freshman Todd Lyght was part of a Notre Dame secondary that was trying to find itself before embarking on the school’s most recent national title a year later.
Originally aspiring to be senior Tim Brown’s successor at flanker, Lyght was shifted — to his dismay at first — to defense, where his first starts came at free safety before later moving to cornerback. One of the starting corners that year was unheralded sophomore Stan Smagala. Future free safety Pat Terrell was a struggling sophomore receiver, and another safety, D’Juan Francisco, came over from running back. One of the other safeties in 1987, Pat Eilers, would switch to offense.
So 30 years later, the third-year Notre Dame cornerbacks coach Lyght, a former two-time consensus All-American, Pro Bowl player and Super Bowl champion, is hardly rattled by the state of flux transpiring in Notre Dame’s youth-laden defensive backfield.
Returning cornerbacks with the most career starts were all freshmen last year: Julian Love (8), Donte Vaughn (4) and Troy Pride Jr. (3).
His other two candidates — both of whom were slated to start in 2016 — are rebounding from injuries that sidelined them. Senior Nick Watkins fractured his left arm last spring, and setbacks in the healing resulted in him taking a medical redshirt.
Meanwhile, corner/nickel Shaun Crawford already missed all his freshman year in 2015 with a torn ACL. Then, after starting the first two contests in 2016, Crawford tore his Achilles early in game 2 that has the medical staff cautiously bringing him back (best case scenario for the spring is to possibly see some 7-on-7 non-contact work in the closing week).
Here were five main storylines for Lyght and his corners through the first half of spring:
1. Corner Concentration
With new coordinator Mike Elko instructing the safeties as his position group, Lyght’s sole focus is on the cornerbacks, which has been beneficial. Last year when former defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder was fired Sept. 25, Lyght found himself spread too thin trying to instruct a new system after scrapping the previous one, and then still teaching seven true freshmen at safety and corner, four of whom would be starters or in the rotation.
“When you have the entire secondary it’s kind of tough to watch all the film … With our time restraints in college football, we didn’t get enough to watch one-on-one tape with the corners,” Lyght said. “That’s where I found that the lack of time really, really hurt, especially in the season.
“Now, being able to split up, we can watch way more film. Everything is so position specific, it makes it a lot easier when you watch a lot more film to help the guys get better.”
2. Different Boundaries
In VanGorder’s more NFL-structured defense, cornerbacks were listed as left or right. Now, they are boundary (shorter side of the field) or field (longer side).
The boundary corners (6-1, 203-pound Watkins and 6-2 ¾, 209-pound Vaughn) with less field to cover generally go against bigger, physical receivers.
“I like it because in the college game it is a boundary and field game,” Lyght said. “It’s not like the NFL where the hashes are in the middle of the field and it’s a left/right game. Last time we won the national championship, I played field corner, Stan played boundary corner.
“If you get the guys comfortable playing boundary, playing field, they get a better feel for the game, get a better feel of route combinations and be able to execute at a higher level.”
Not since Bobby Taylor in 1992-94, has Notre Dame had corners as tall and angular as Watkins and Vaughn, but Lyght also is confident in their maneuverability.
“Those guys have fluid hips, their reactive athleticism is really good in and out of breaks,” he said. “That length really helps you at the line of scrimmage. There are three parts of the route: there’s the line of scrimmage, there’s the top of the route and there’s the finish. With the length, it’s going to help you at the beginning at the line of scrimmage.”
Watkins has been a standout this spring, while Vaughn has been battling some back spasms that have not always enabled him to finish as well as he’d like.
“Nick feels really comfortable in that boundary where he’s able to press, use his length,” Lyght said. “He’s stepped forward in a leadership role, he’s being much more vocal, challenging his teammates to get better. His consistency has gotten a lot better too. … He’s going to be a dominant player for us, I think, in the future.”
On the field side, Love has the advantage over classmate Pride Jr., while Crawford is in a healing stage. Love might possess the least physical tools among the five scholarship corners, but his football IQ and strong fundamentals earned him eight starts last season and he finished ninth in tackles (45). He also has future captain written all over with him, which is why Lyght is encouraging him to become even more of a leader as only a sophomore.
“He does a good job pushing himself,” Lyght said. “He can tackle in space, he can cover — needs to be better in man-to-man and leadership role. He is young player who will play a lot. He has come a long way.”
Pride Jr. qualified for the ACC Indoor Championships as a track sprinter this winter, and his speed is needed to play catch-up this spring.
“With him running track it took away some of his development physically in the weight room,” Lyght said. “He needs to do a little bit of catching up there. For Donte, mental and physical toughness is going to be crucial. For Troy, strength and power.”
3. Word Of The Day
Any new defensive system will have its own learning curve. Fortunately, it is not expected to be nearly as acute as in recent years.
“We’re going with one-word terminology, so everything is really, really fast,” Lyght said. “Guys have to understand what is going on. We’re getting a lot of information, but it’s not information overload.
“Going to one-word defenses and understanding what the scheme is within the one word, I think the communication has been better for us on the back end, especially.”
4. Safety In Numbers
To bolster the safety positions with more options, former corners and juniors Nick Coleman and Ashton White have been shifted to safety, with Coleman pushing hard for a starting role.
In a pinch, they could help at corner, but they won’t be cross-training this spring.
“We’re going to keep them at safety and let them learn that position and let them get comfortable,” Lyght said. “Nick Coleman has done a good job of transitioning inside. There is still a way to go and a learning curve.”
5. Nickel Options
Although Elko’s preference is to avoid cross-training, the nickel spot will require looking at myriad options. Coleman might be the top option, but White, Love and Crawford — when he can fully come back — will all be in the mix.
“When you get to the nickel runs, you want to play in a three-safety system,” Lyght said. “When you get to nickel-pass, you want to be in a three-corner system. We have to have that position flexibility in order to be successful on third down.”
The growing pains in the secondary last year should reap some pay-off this season, per Lyght, especially after going through the new regime in strength and conditioning.
“You can see their bodies changing and I think we will have much more physical play on the back end,” Lyght said.
This year will be more about the cornerbacks not having a mind-set of “someone else might make the play.”
“We can play with a lot more confidence and make a play when it is time,” Lyght said.
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