Notre Dame Secondary Benefitting From More (Julian) Love
Statistically, no individual on the 2018 Notre Dame team will have a more difficult time putting forth an encore performance or eclipsing a standard than junior cornerback Julian Love.
As a sophomore last season, the Sports Illustrated second-team All-American:
• Finished second nationally in passes defended with 23 (20 passes broken up and three interceptions), behind only Iowa’s Josh Jackson’s 26 (18 passes broken up and eight interceptions). No Irish player previously had been listed with as many as 20.
• Placed second in the country with his 20 passes broken up, behind the 21 by Wisconsin’s Nick Nelson. Love’s mark shattered the previous school record of 13 set by Clarence Ellis in 1969.
• Tied the Notre Dame school record for interception returns for touchdowns in a season with game-changing 59- and 69-yard scores versus Michigan State and North Carolina State, which would finish No. 15 and No. 23 nationally, respectively. Love also missed a third score by just five yards against Wake Forest.
• His 153 interception return yards were second in school annals during one season, behind Nick Rassas’ 197 in 1965.
Each season, Love sets new goals for himself — but he admits rewriting the Irish record books wasn’t part of his 2017 check list.
“I didn’t know they kept track of that,” the typically upbeat Love said with a smile when asked about easily eclipsing the passes broken up mark at Notre Dame. “That was just having fun playing ball. I think when you set goals for yourself, other things — and good things — happen.
“It was little things like keep your nose on the football. I hope that I showed that even on the back side I’m running to the ball, trying to be in the play, be a better tackler, be a sure tackler.”
Beyond the top four linebackers in 2017, Love was also the top tackler on the team (68), with 14 (a team-high 10 solo) coming against Navy’s triple-option attack while lining up as a safety. His outstanding open-field tackling skills prompted the question on whether he could have allayed Notre Dame’s inconsistency at safety.
“If we could clone him, I'd like to do that,” head coach Brian Kelly said of Love after the 24-17 win versus Navy. “Could he be our best safety? Yes. He’s definitely our best corner. The problem is we can play him at only one of those two positions.”
Even that was difficult. Love began the season at field corner, but by the halfway point of the season he was shifted to the boundary to better utilize his playmaking skills against the quick-hitting passing games — which aided his numbers in passes broken up.
“Boundary is more physical, it’s more quick throws, more action, I think, and field you just cover more area,” Love explained. “It’s just being conceptually sound in that area.”
This spring, one of the most competitive areas for a starting role is anyone opposite where Love lines up.
Senior nickel back Shaun Crawford is getting a chance to earn a starting spot at corner — with freshman Houston Griffith now vying for the nickel role — while fifth-year senior Nick Watkins (eight passes broken up last year, second on the team) and juniors Troy Pride Jr. (who moved ahead of Watkins late last season) plus Donte Vaughn (who started four games as a freshman and tied for the team lead in passes broken up that year with six) compete for it as well.
“The emphasis for our corners is to really tighten up on some of the quick game, and we’ve instituted a couple of new techniques that they’re working on right now,” Kelly explained. “What we’ve done this spring is focus more on right and left, instead of field and boundary, so we can give these guys much more of an opportunity to earn positions. If you just stick with boundary and field, you don’t get the same opportunity to be in that top two.
“We’ve done more right and left. That requires you to be good at rolled up coverage into the boundary and driving on to the ball to the field, and I think that’s been good for us the first three days.”
To Love, whether it’s left or right, or boundary or field, it’s still about football and making plays.
“It benefits me, so I don’t mind any difference in it,” Love said. “You have to know all positions. … In the course of a game you could be caught on a different side of the field. We do play field and boundary because that’s how we set up, but it’s more so left to right.”
Setting individual goals this year is a bit of a tricky proposition for Love. Opponents generally steer away from the best cover man on the team, so matching last year’s passes broken up numbers will be virtually impossible. Thus, stats alone might not measure if his 2018 season will be improved or successful for him.
“That can come up,” Love admitted of the opposition throwing away from his side. “I see it as no matter where the ball is, I want to be in the play. If it’s a run play breaking through the middle, I want to make the tackle. … It’ll show what kind of player I am to where I may not have the stats — and that’s okay.
“I just want to make an impact. That’s all I really care about. Stats will be their own thing, but I just want to make an impact, and I want to make a bigger impact this year.”
That will be defined by becoming more of a leader, potentially even a captain, while helping the entire defense continue to improve as it did in 2017 when it finished 20th in the Fremeau Efficiency Index. Love is one of 10 returning starters from that defense, so avoiding complacency is also on the agenda.
“The better and the older you get at any level of ball, distractions get more intensified,” Love said. “So it’s just eliminating that and focusing on leading the guys and being proactive in terms of my play.”
He does believe his interception total of three last year can be improved.
“I’m around the ball, I feel, a lot, and I’m trying to turn BDs — ball disruptions or pass deflections — into picks,” he said. “This spring especially, I’m going to try to be very aggressive. On 50-50 balls, not just trying to break up the play but try to catch it and really make a difference.
“I think if you do that in the spring and take chances, that just goes right into the camp and the season. My goal last year was, ‘Alright, try to look for the ball more, try to get your hand on it at all times.’ This year, I’m trying to catch the ball and have my interception numbers go up rather than just a lot of BDs when I feel like I can catch the ball.”
He is dispensing his own wisdom and leadership to the rest of the corps on defense. Love is not as fast as Pride or maybe Crawford, not as rangy as Vaughn or Watkins, and perhaps not as physically gifted all-around as a Griffith, but what separates him is football IQ, mental toughness and self-assuredness.
“I was telling younger guys last week that college football is not all about physical traits,” Love said. “I really think it’s just about the mental game and your confidence levels. Everybody thinks there’s a huge change in freshman and sophomore year in terms of how stronger or faster you are. We’re getting that here, but it’s also your confidence levels and how you’re thinking about the game, and your ability to take chances.
“Guys make huge jumps purely off of confidence just playing the game. I know I can do it, so now I just have to implement it in my game.”
Based on the improvements in 2017, he’s already ahead of the curve.
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