Notre Dame Defensive Backfield Combines Veteran/Youth Mix

The Notre Dame secondary best reflects the experience/youth dichotomy that third-year defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder will have in 2016.

On one hand, the unit possesses the most career starts of any on the Notre Dame team with 57 — highlighted by senior cornerback Cole Luke starting all 26 the past two years while senior free safety Max Redfield has 23. On the other, it also will be the most youth-dominated area of the team with seven true freshmen (four safeties and three freshman) — plus two red-shirt freshmen in nickel Shaun Crawford and cornerback Ashton White, and yet another top contender for the starting left cornerback slot in sophomore Nick Coleman.

The youth movement begins with Crawford, who within the first two weeks of August camp last year established himself as the starting nickel before an ACL tear on Aug. 19 (four days before his 19th birthday) sidelined him for the season. At the end of this spring, second-year defensive backs coach Todd Lyght lauded Crawford as the most improved player in the secondary — “no doubt,” Lyght said — while VanGorder’s praise went even higher.

“He changes everything at that nickel position,” VanGorder said. “He opens up the inventory some.”

On Friday the accolades continued, including Luke offering that playing a nickel as the base defense would make sense in order to keep the 5-8 1/2 , 185-pound Crawford in the lineup at all times. This would allow for more rotating coverage everywhere in the defensive backfield, including the safeties getting into more post/man coverage ability because of Crawford’s skills to play man on the second receiver as an inside figure.

“The good thing is Shaun can cover and he’s also a physical player,” Luke said on Friday, the day before Notre Dame’s opening practice at Culver this month. “Personally, I think we could play nickel every single down, regardless of the down and distance. He’s definitely adding another aspect to our defense now that he’s back — God bless — another competitive edge.”

Head coach Brian Kelly is not ruling out starting Crawford at the left corner position vacated by third-round NFL pick KeiVarae Russell, mainly because Luke also has practiced at nickel and could be a contingency option there. It depends some on how well junior Nick Watkins recovers from his broken humerus this spring — he’s cleared to practice but can’t participate in all the drills yet — or how Coleman or the freshmen develop. Watkins debuted as a starter in the Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State and represented himself relatively well.

“We're going to play Shaun Crawford as much as we can,” Kelly said. “...And if we've got to play him at corner and then move him in and then bring somebody else on the field, we think we have great depth at that position.

“I think Nick Coleman's really going to come into his own. We've seen some great growth from Nick. Nick's got great speed. He just needs some confidence and we're starting to see that confidence grow with him … He's a guy you're going to see a lot more of.

“The first thing you have to be able to do is play inside-out man against a skilled No. 2 receiver and we believe that we can do that with Shaun Crawford. So it all evolves around the ability to play a nickel in a man situation. Then you can play post safety and play some more man coverage.

“We didn't feel comfortable playing man inside-out [last year] … when Shaun went down. That gives you the opportunity to play more post safety because you can play some more cover one. We feel like we can with the corners outside; now we feel better about the first nickel and the second nickel that can play man coverage.”

The transition on defense the previous two years with VanGorder especially involved the safeties to fit into far more than just cover-2 schemes under former coordinator Bob Diaco (2010-13). VanGorder now has added the personnel to play his scheme that includes three freshmen corners — Julian Love, Troy Pride and Donte Vaughn — and four safeties in Devin Studstill, Spencer Perry, Jalen Elliott and D.J. Morgan.

It’s not a reach to say all could help on special teams this year. There are other members in the 23-man freshman class with higher star ratings or individual accolades, but collectively no group in the rookie class has a better chance to make instant impact in 2016 than in the secondary.

“Those guys are probably as a group more ready to play than anybody that we have on our football team,” said Kelly of the rookie corners and safeties. “…We have got some players there that are going to play this year as true freshmen and impact our football team positively. … We have so much more flexibility.”

As an early entrant, Studstill already was taking reps with the No. 1 unit at free safety during the spring, seriously vying to at least split playing time with Redfield, whose 144 career tackles are the most among any returning Fighting Irish player, but who has felt the rookie rampage in the defensive backfield maybe the most.

“He may be the guy that epitomizes the ordinary things [and] doing them extraordinarily well,” said Kelly of Redfield. “Just got to do the ordinary things — doesn't have to do anything spectacular.

“I think we all know he's an extremely gifted player. He's got great athleticism, but he just has to do the ordinary things well. If he does that, we're going to be in good shape with him.”

It manifests the balance of experience and youth that will be pervasive in this year’s secondary.

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