Notre Dame Safeties Coach Terry Joseph Embracing New Challenge

The 2017 Notre Dame football team had no place to go but up following the 4-8 debacle in 2016.

The way first-year Notre Dame safeties coach Terry Joseph sees it, the same goes for 2018 and his position group. While the 2017 Fighting Irish collectively improved to record a 10-3 record and No. 11 final ranking the Associated Press, the safeties combined for merely five passes defensed (three by Nick Coleman and two by Jalen Elliott, the returning incumbents).

More telling, for the first time since college football went away from the one-platoon system (players playing both offense and defense) in 1964, the Irish safeties did not record an interception during the season.

“Everybody knows we have to catch at least one interception as a safety group,” said Joseph of one of the objectives in 2018, before jokingly adding, “hopefully I can get a bonus in my contract if we did.”

Once again, there is no place to go but up, and the opportunity for growth is vast.

The safety position was in a significant state of flux last season and tutored by former defensive coordinator Mike Elko, now at Texas A&M. Because Elko had to spend the bulk of his time on the big-picture schematics and teaching the entire defense, individual attention with the nascent safeties might have been sacrificed to a degree.

With the system in place under Clark Lea as the coordinator successor, Joseph can concentrate exclusively on his position group that also will include Devin Studstill, who started nine games as a freshman in 2016, Navy transfer Alohi Gilman — whom head coach Brian Kelly said would have started in 2017 had he been eligible by NCAA transfer rules — and current freshman Jordan Genmark Heath and Isaiah Robertson, both of whom started on special teams.

Genmark Heath made a big push at the end of last season, recording five tackles in the Citrus Bowl win over LSU while taking 29 snaps (second-most to Elliott among the safeties).

Robertson was an early enrollee in 2017 and could be a factor as well — although cornerbacks coach Todd Lyght recently hinted that Robertson could eventually excel at the rover position the way former safety Drue Tranquill did in 2017.

That’s not even including an incoming safety group — early enrollee Houston Griffith (who is expected to get a first look at boundary corner), Derrik Allen and Paul Moala — that was ranked No. 4 nationally by Rivals as a position group.

No wonder Joseph refers to coming to Notre Dame as “a career changing opportunity I could not turn down.”

A 1996 graduate of Northwestern State — located in Natchitoches, La., — where he was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American in baseball, Joseph’s coaching career began in the high school ranks of his home state, first at Archbishop Shaw (1999-2002) and then Destrehan High School 2003-05.

Not only did he cut his coaching teeth at a Catholic all-boys school, but he taught Business Law and economics, which aided his skills as an instructor.

“The big thing for me is that as a coach I want to be known as a great teacher,” Joseph said. “From coaching at the high school level — not only being a coach but also a teacher in the classroom — it’s really helped me develop how I install, how I teach concepts. I kind of use that experience in my career to my advantage.

“That was the first time in my life I had ever experienced a block of class setups. You had an hour and 30 minutes, so it wasn’t just sitting in class and somebody lectures to you for 50 minutes. It was more learning, lot more movements in the classrooms … It really gave me advantages as a teacher to say, ‘Hey, not everybody learns the same way. Don’t be afraid to try different things.’”

He drew the attention of the flagship program in the state, LSU, and was hired by head coach Les Miles as a defensive graduate assistant working under coordinator Bo Pelini.

From there Joseph was hired by Louisiana Tech head coach Derek Dooley as the recruiting coordinator and secondary coach, and Joseph’s efforts on the recruiting trail earned him recognition from Rivals.com as one of the top five recruiters in a non-BCS conference. Coming up the ranks there also benefitted him.

“You didn’t have all the extra support staff, so you took on a lot of different roles,” Joseph said. “That helped me in my career because I had to do things besides coach my position and recruit my area. That made me really appreciate the opportunities I got down the road.”

When Dooley was hired in 2010 to succeed Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, he brought Joseph with him with the same titles as defensive backs coach/recruiting coordinator.

Afterwards, Joseph was reunited with Pelini at Nebraska in 2012-13 as the secondary coach. Led by two-time first-team All-Big Ten pick Ciante Evans, the 2012 Cornhuskers led the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in pass defense and ranked No. 2 in pass efficiency defense. The following season it allowed the fewest completions (210) in the Big Ten.

Joseph next joined head coach Kevin Sumlin’s staff at Texas A&M as defensive backs coach before his most recent one-year stint at North Carolina. Among his pupils with the Aggies were former running back Brandon Williams, who became a third-round NFL pick, and 2016 All-SEC strong safety Justin Evans, a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award. The 2015 Texas A&M pass defense finished No. 4 nationally in passing yards allowed per game and No. 18 in pass efficiency defense.

In his first few months at Notre Dame, Joseph said he benefitted from the early signing period in December because with most of the recruiting finished, it allowed him to settle in with the defensive staff and study more intently and meet with the safeties returning for the start of spring drills on March 6.

“Watching the games from last year you saw a group that has a great deal of balance,” Joseph said. “A lot of guys played quality snaps, so going into the spring I think it will be great for me to getting evaluation of exactly where they are.”

Prior to his coaching and classroom days, Joseph played minor league baseball several years, which is where he learned to deal with the roller-coaster nature of athletics, just as Notre Dame football did the past two years, and the Irish safeties are now.

“First of all it made me grow up a ton,” he said of his stint in the minors. “The second thing is it’s one day at a time — because you can be a superstar one day and you can be on the waiver wire the next day. Driving from town to town, staying four days in each town, not making a lot of money, it really made me appreciate all the opportunities I got later in life.”

None better than the one now.

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