Notre Dame Veteran Cornerbacks Start Seeing The Lyght
There are not many, if any, Football Bowl Subdivision defensive backfields in 2018 with five cornerbacks who have started a minimum of three games in their careers.
Notre Dame is one that has that distinction, and as fourth-year cornerbacks coach Todd Lyght enters his own “senior year” on the Fighting Irish staff after putting his own imprint in the operation, that’s the mind-set and competition he wants to see every day on the practice field.
“We want everybody to be invested,” Lyght said. “We want everybody to go in[to] the week knowing that they’re going to have the opportunity to play. If they get 20 or 30 reps during the course of the game, they’re going to practice extremely hard leading up to the game knowing that they’re going to play.
“If you have a young player who knows that he’s not going to play, well, he’s not going to practice that hard. That’s just human nature, and then that stunts his development. … We want to push them and get them on the field so we can all have success.”
Although Lyght was referring more toward incoming freshmen who get redshirted possessing that attitude, it is equally applicable to the much more veteran unit he is working with this spring.
In fact, the number of scholarship cornerbacks was reduced to five this spring when freshman Houston Griffith, an early enrollee, was shifted the week prior to Easter break to safety, where he might have a better opportunity to vie for action.
“We think he can be a guy that can compete for a starting job at free safety,” Lyght said of Notre Dame’s top-ranked recruit by Rivals in the 2018 class. “He’s such a good athlete … any way we can get him on the field early, we feel like moving him to the free safety spot will do that.”
Griffith had been working at boundary corner, but that position is currently well manned with junior Julian Love — a second-team Sports Illustrated All-American last season as a sophomore — and fifth-year senior Nick Watkins, who started nine games in 2017 and whose eight pass breakups would have been a team high a year earlier.
Meanwhile, vying for snaps at field cornerback are senior Shaun Crawford, the top nickel last season who will also help there this year, junior speedster Troy Pride, and classmate Donte Vaughn, who started four games as a freshman but was hindered by back problems last year.
Because of his stellar 2017 play, Love was difficult to take off the field while racking up 835 snaps, the most of anybody at any position on defense. However, Watkins (514), Crawford (408) and Pride (354) were all regulars , which Lyght foresees again in 2018.
In a couple of the open practices this spring, Love even has been working with the No. 2 unit.
“What I want our guys to understand is even though only two guys can come out on the field if we’re in base, or three if we’re in nickel, I want them all to see themselves as starters,” Lyght said. “I like to rotate them both with the first and the second teams so they get the feel of being a starter. I want them all to think that their starters and I want them to approach the game like their starters.”
Part of it is because with up-tempo, spread offenses, defenses can be on the field for extended stretches and plays, and it can take a toll over a 12-game regular season. Another part of it is the current Irish cornerbacks possess the skill sets, experience and acumen worthy to merit playing time without leaving the coaching staff concerned about a significant drop-off.
This includes Love, who Lyght does not want to rest on his laurels that included school single season records in pass breakups (20), passes defensed (23), plus tying the interception returns for touchdowns (two) standard.
“His key to success and his key to his development in getting to the next level is going to be focus and attention to detail,” said Lyght, who starred at corner for the Irish from 1988-90 and is one of 16 players in school history to be named a two-time consensus All-American.
“…He’ll make a big play and then he’ll come back and go in a little bit of an auto-pilot mode where he will relax a little bit and not really push himself past his comfort level. Just continually stay on him about his focus, his intentions, his attention to detail and his pre-snap readiness.
“The way our defense is set up the boundary corner has to win a lot of one-on-ones, and he was able to do that for us.”
Nevertheless, Lyght said first-year defensive coordinator Clark Lea is elevating the competition at each positon by giving a “top 10 percent” award daily when it comes to making plays or in overall production.
When Watkins made that list, he started at boundary (although he can also play field). Crawford and Pride also have earned a couple such awards, per Lyght.
Crawford will continue to be utilized some at nickel, where 2017 starting safety Nick Coleman is also making a strong push, but he also could be the starter at field corner, depending on matchups.
“On the perimeter Shaun is really, really good at reading route combinations and understanding offensive schemes and where they want to go with the ball,” Lyght noted. “Also, his ability to communicate when offenses adjust and they motion and we have to transition from one defense to another, or we have to transition from one technique to another. He’s one of our smartest defenders on the field.
“With his height (5-9 1/8), the 50-50 balls are the only big issue.”
Lyght said Crawford is the one player whose enthusiasm and passion he has to tone down a bit in order to keep his concentration on the field and also not wear down physically after undergoing ACL surgery as a freshman and Achilles surgery as a sophomore.
“It’s my job to make sure we temper his reps just to make sure he can get through the entire season completely healthy,” Lyght said. “Going through last year and being completely healthy, he has that confidence back where he wants to go, go, go all the time. But now he understands that when I take him out of a drill or when I pull him back and start tempering his reps, it’s for his benefit.”
According to Lyght, Crawford and Pride have been the most consistent corners through eight practices this spring.
“Troy’s biggest hang-up has been his consistency moving in and out of defenses and knowing what type of technique he needs to play when we do change and when we do adjust,” Lyght stated. “He’s the fastest DB we’ve got, his football intelligence is getting better each and every day, he wants to be great, he’s very coachable. Also, emotionally he’s matured a lot going into this spring.”
Meanwhile, the rangy 6-2 ¾ Vaughn’s spring has been billed “outstanding” by Lyght because the back issues are now in the rear-view mirror.
“Last spring was very tough for him where he was having a lot of shooting pains down his leg,” Lyght explained. “He’s not hampered by that now.
“I think that he’s more comfortable in the field even though he’s such a good press corner. The game is a little bit slower and he’s able to process and see things a little bit better out into the field than boundary. Things go pretty fast and you have to be able to diagnose and analyze pretty quickly, and I think that makes it a little tough on Donte. But if you move him out to the field, it’s more comfortable for him out there.”
For all the corners, there are three points of emphasis during spring drills.
“Our ability to tackle on the perimeter with authority,” began Lyght of his priorities. “Our understanding of route combinations and where our help is and how to play to it. And then always just trying to finish in a dominant position in all the drills — even when the guy you’re covering is not getting the ball.
“As young players they tend to relax a little bit in their development, why they play if their guy is not getting the ball. I’m trying to have them work through that and have them understand that if you always finish in a dominant position, even if your guy doesn’t get the ball, the game will slow down for you and you will make so many more plays on Saturday. I love our group’s effort.”
Strong competition will do that.
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