Notre Dame's Nyles Morgan Talks Defensive Scheme And More
Nyles Morgan was asked a simple question.
What makes Brian VanGorder’s defensive scheme — particularly for young players — so difficult to master?
“He came from the NFL, so we’re running an NFL system,” said Morgan, a junior middle linebacker for the Irish. “It’s hard when you’re 18 and you go to Notre Dame and you’ve got three exams coming up every week. It’s finding time to sit down, understand your position and once you learn yours, learn everyone else’s.”
Morgan has answered the question before. It’s a common criticism of VanGorder, who is under fire again this season for Notre Dame’s subpar defensive performances.
But Morgan — who leads the team with 27 tackles, including 19 solo stops, five stuffs and just one missed tackle — said that’s not an excuse for why it can’t work.
“It worked last year,” Morgan said of the defense in Notre Dame’s 10-3 finish in 2015. “We lost two games by a total of four points. I can’t see why it can’t work.”
Indeed, Notre Dame did finish the regular season with narrow losses to Clemson (24-22) and Stanford (38-36). But the Irish allowed 175.9 yards per game rushing and opponents scored touchdowns on 76.9 percent of red zone opportunities, which ranked 107th among 128 FBS teams.
This season, the defense is ranked 102nd in the country in total defense (439.3 yards per game allowed), 99th in rushing defense (198.67 ypg), 84th in passing defense (240.7) and 94th in scoring defense (32 ppg).
Despite the stats, Morgan sees VanGorder’s defensive scheme as one with advantages.
“One thing I like the most is it allows us, one, to get ready for the next level,” said Morgan, a 6-foot-1, 245-pounder with NFL tools. “But for now, it allows a lot of guys to make plays, like we set up guys to make a lot of plays. We just have to make the plays.”
VanGorder, like all Notre Dame assistant coaches, does not do media interviews during the season.
This week, Kelly singled-out Morgan and Sam linebacker James Onwualu for their strong play through three games.
“James and Nyles have done a really good job for us,” Kelly said.
One of the bigger issues facing the defense now is preparing the handful of freshmen.
Defensive ends Daelin Hayes and Julian Okwara have gotten increased snaps the past two weeks, and against Michigan State, rotated in on third-and-long situations in the team’s speed package.
Hayes played 15 snaps against the Spartans (10 on third down). Okwara played nine snaps, all on third down.
“I give them like midseason,” Morgan said of when he thinks Hayes and Okwara will hit their stride. “Those guys got a lot of juice. I see it in practice. Being a freshman is hard, trust me, it’s hard. Once it clicks, it clicks. Things go from there.”
Hayes had a tipped ball in coverage that resulted in an interception by freshman safety Devin Studstill. Both have caught the eye of Morgan, who himself played a key role as a freshman in 2014.
“Daelin’s really starting to pick it up, Julian’s catching on,” Morgan said. “I remember watching Julian make plays as I’m trying to do my thing … he’s batting down balls, he’s covering guys left and right. It’s going to be really nice.”
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