Thanks to our Boy Chris for the Trailer
In Part II of the series looking at production, we look at the Defense. In Part I, focused on the offense, we saw that we’re returning about 3/4’s of our offensive production from ’10.
The combination of that production and the production on defense, outlined below, is what combines to put the Irish at #6 in Phil Steele’s preseason rankings.
Tackles
ND returns the core of its defensive productivity in Manti Teo (#1 in Total Tackles with 129 and #1 in Solo Tackles with 64), Harrison Smith (91 and 56 respectively), Gary Gray (66, 48) and KLM (62, 21). Brian Smith, Darrin Walls, and Ian Williams were all producers in this stat category, accounting for a good chunk of Irish Defensive production. All 3 were in the Top 12, with Smith the only one in the Top 10 at #8 on the team. Overall, the Irish D will return the guys that accounted for 83% of Solo Tackles, and 84% of Total Tackles. In short, the D is returning almost everybody.
NOTE: LNIII steps in this year as well. That is 1,000 tackles right there.
Tackles for Loss
So, what about the impact plays? The big plays that change the outcome of a drive? Last year ND had 68 TFL’s, which accounted for 259 yards lost by our opponents (good for 5.2 yards lost per TFL). While Williams and Smith again had decent showings in this category, ND will again return the bulk of this production – 85% of TFLs and 85% of Yards Lost due to TFLs.
Sacks
Last year’s defense wasn’t a sack machine due to the bend-don’t-break scheme and approach, but everyone loves a good sack (thats what she said). Darius Fleming led the team last year with 5.5, followed by Ethan Johnson with 5 and Prince Shembo with 3.5. Of the 26 total sacks (which resulted in 164 yards lost), ND returns the guys that accounted for 90% of them. Solid experience here again, though I’m sure we’re all hoping for a few more than 26 in ’11.
Interceptions
ND took the ball away out of the air 18 times last year. Harrison Smith was the undisputed leader on the team with 7 picks. Darrin Walls’ production will be missed as he accounted for 3. Robert Blanton was the only other Irish player with more than 1 pick (he had 2), and then there’s a long list of guys that had 1. Funniest/best is that we lose a pick with the loss of Ian Williams. I remember that play – still happy for him on that one. Love seeing a big guy come down with the ball.
Anyway, with the loss of Walls, this is one of the areas where ND has the lowest returning production at 72%. And with Smith unlikely to have another 7-pick year, it will be on our other DBs and LBs to pick up the pace a bit this year.
Overall
Overall, ND will return about 83% of its Defensive Production in 2011. Much like the offense, the D is stacked with experience all over the field. This should be a fun unit to watch this Fall.
Don't take me, yourself, or life so seriously. This is supposed to be fun.
Biscuit co-founded HerLoyalSons in partnership with his ND roommate (Dillon Hall baby!), MQ, in 2006 and has been ranting about ND Football and everything Notre Dame since. He strongly believes in the mission of ND and its football program. Biscuit expects logic and data in arguments and will absolutely crush you if you come to a debate missing one or the other. He despises everything Michigan, and his favorite pastime is mocking Purdue.
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- No Respect! - December 14, 2018
I’m expecting a lot of improvement from Zeke Motta this year. Similar to Harrison last year, after a season of getting his feet wet.
LNIII does not “step in.” LNIII simply allows his impact to be felt by others when he wishes it.
LNIII’s number of tackles is such a complicted figure, it can only be counted by LNIII.
LNIII laughs at 1,000 tackles.
I thought the same when I saw the 1,000 sack limit. Are you talking about in the USF game alone there?
Irish Chocolate does not actually tackle anyone, his aura is such a disruption it simply floors offensive players.
I heard that LNIII will make tackles during film study –just leaps right into the scene from the film room
I’m not sure that Harrison Smith is as “unlikely” to have a 7-pick year as you think. He is playing in his natural position, under the tutelage of some very good coaches back there. I think we started to see what he is capable of last year, and that he will continue to be a dominating presence in the secondary. He’s the captain of the entire team, and my hope is that he’ll play like it. Add in an improved pass rush and what should be a lead in most games due to improved offensive production, and his opportunities to grab some errant passes should be increased. If the cards fall in the right places, I could easily see him averaging a pick every other game.
It’s just a high bar. It’s not a shot at H. Smith – just that that kind of production in terms of TO’s is tough. Remember, he had 4 going into the bowl game last year…
Any idea what a good measure would be against good free safeties from other teams? Rather than comparing 2011 H. Smith to 2010 H. Smith, I think it would be interesting to see how many interceptions the top safeties tend to get every year across the league. This will be the first time he’ll have played the same position on the field for two years in a row, the importance of which can’t be underestimated in his development. I know the bowl INTs skewed his season numbers upward last year, but I’d be willing to bet that he will be more productive in the first few games of 2011 than he was in the first few games of 2010.
I answered my own question: the top int leader last year had 9, and the top safety had 8. Harrison Smith was actually had the 4th most INTs of anyone, followed by ten players with 6 INTs. So he was actually pretty high up there, so expecting much MORE production from him may be unreasonable, but I do think he can get back to the 6-7 range pretty easily given another year of development, an improved pass rush, and opposing teams playing from behind. I was really down on him as a player two years ago, but most of last year he gave me reason to hope that this year he will be dominant back there for us (you know, if you forget that dropped TD by the USC guy that would have won the game for them). 🙂
yeah, i figured he was up near the leaders. i would expect a regression from 7, just because it’s tough to have that kind of year ever, let alone twice in a row. but, one can hope…
The Sun Bowl was more the stupidity of Thug U’s moron QBs than anything Harrison did. There was one real good pick that I remember he went up and grabbed, but for all three of those picks, I knew it was going to be intercepted as soon as the ball was snapped. Miami’s QBs had laser vision and never even saw Harrison on the field.
Not that you guys got full-time lives or anything like that, but are there any other metrics for DBs that could be referenced? Pass deflections? Times targeted? I think Walls’ impact would show up more in those metrics
I couldn’t find a ‘passes defeneded’ or ‘broken up’ stat so unfortunately no. The other part hidden is how important it is for a guy to be so good that teams stay away from him. That would make stats look weaker too – fewer oppty’s to make a play. But nobody tracks that – at least not in a readily available format.
Not that I don’t appreciate the work that went into this, because I do, but can we just get to September already? Fall camp even? This month is going to be SOOOO LONG. Can we ask LNIII to alter the space-time continuum for us to make it go faster?
Do what I do to make it go by fast. Go to the freaking beach. A day lying on the sand is gone in the blink of an eye.
I’m trying–weekends are good, but weekdays are taken up with classtime arguing with South Asian military officers. That does NOT make the time go quickly.
Evenings spent drinking with South Asian military officers? I am guessing that trying to recover keeping up with those guys could make a whole week go by pretty quickly.
Every time I think I want to fast-forward to the season, I remember that football season marks the end of SUMMER, and I’m not yet ready for it to be winter in Wisconsin again. Therefore, I really appreciate these little bits of ND football during the summer, as I’ll take whatever I can get!
Truly the power of the man is awesome which recordeth a sack during film study.
Really Nate. The first game seems a long way off. But when the season starts it goes in the blink of an eye.
259 yards lost on 68 TFLs works out to 3.8 yards per TFL, not 5.2. For the average to be 5.2 there would have to have been 359 yards lost.
Typo?
definitely typo. sorry about that. will have to look at my spreadsheet…
3.8 is right. just looked at the wrong column. my bad.