Notre Dame Football Hot Takes: Defense

Notre Dame has put the camp portion of fall practice in the rear view mirror, and today the Irish were in game mode. The Irish offense and defense worked on game prep for Louisville, which means they are working against scout teams instead of the ones vs. ones we've seen throughout camp.

* Sophomore rover Paul Moala was back at practice after missing multiple previous practices with a thumb injury.

* Senior cornerback Donte Vaughn was back working today after sitting out with a quad injury. His reps were limited, but the positive is that he was back at practice. With Vaughn limited, fifth-year senior Shaun Crawford worked with the first-team defense.

* Sophomore cornerback Houston Griffith and sophomore safety DJ Brown also looked to finally be back to full speed after missing time and then being limited with lower body injuries.

* The defense was on the far field away from where the media was set, so there weren't as many opportunities to evaluate the defense. With that in mind, I'll also include some tidbits on special teams from today's practice.

LB DREW WHITE: Today we saw several examples of why Clark Lea has been heaping praise on junior linebacker Drew White all offseason. White showed good quickness and range at Mike linebacker, but he was very active and made a lot of plays during today’s practice.

White worked with the first team defense during scout periods and when taking on the second team offense. He played with good angles, got downhill quickly, took on and beat blocks effectively and he was in the backfield multiple times against the scout team offense.

During the final team period, White had one of the more impressive run defending plays of the day. The offense ran an inside zone play, but White sniffed it out immediately, shot through the line and blew the play up in the backfield.