Overall, I am very happy with the way Notre Dame performed on Saturday against Rice, but there is one thing I am still quite anxious about as we head into Michigan week … our defense. Lets take a look at how the defense performed against Rice.
The Fighting Irish defense allowed 141 rushing yards, 226 receiving yards and 29 yards on a kickoff return.
Rice’s average yards completed per pass were 8.7 yards and their average yards per catch were 15.1.
Notre Dame’s defense had 34 solo tackles and 24 assists, two sacks (one by Romeo Okwara and one shared by Matthias Farley and Jarron Jones) and one interception (by Matthias Farley, his fourth career interception).
Our defense let Rice complete 16 first downs (7 rushing and 9 passing).
Three players had tackles for losses: Jaylon Smith, Romeo Okwara and Sheldon Day.
Sheldon Day also finished second on the team with six tackles.
Joe Schmidt made his first start and led the Irish with eight tackles. Coach Kelly ranked Schmidt as the team’s best performer, though Coach Kelly said this was only the beginning for Schmidt.
“He was pretty good yesterday. He probably was our best player defensively,” Kelly said. “He’s got some things that he’s got to get better at. But I thought as a true first‑time starter, he was the best player for us.”
Nicky Baratti recovered a fumble late in the fourth quarter for his first career fumble recovery.
Devin Butler forced the fumble on the play, which was the first forced fumble in his career.
Coach Kelly’s thoughts on whether or not the defense surprised him: “No, I thought as we progressed into camp and had settled into the past week or so, I like the physical play of our front four, Romeo, Trumbetti, Isaac Rochell has been extremely physical and difficult to move with our offensive line and of course we know Sheldon Day and Jarron Jones.”
“I just really thought that we were going to be able to hold up very well, and Joe Schmidt with Jaylon were outstanding. You’ve got those six guys; if they can hold up against the run, we’re going to be from pretty good shape, and I thought that was going to be the case and it ended up being it today.”
Coach Kelly on Austin Collinsworth: “We were in a two-minute drill on Thursday, and we threw a ball in the end zone and two guys went up for it and he came down awkwardly. He played the next play and it just tightened up on him. He’s got a grade two ligament.”
“MCL. So those are usually two to four weeks depending on how guys respond. So we don’t expect to have him this week. There’s a chance we could have him for week three, but again, he had a PRP treatment on the weekend, so we’ll see what happens. But you know, we’re hopeful three weeks, but it could be it could be Purdue; it could be bye week and then we get the bye week and so we’ll definitely get him back for the Syracuse game.”
Sheldon Day’s thoughts on the defense and adjusting to new players:
“It’s about focusing on game one. It shows that we can overcome adversity.”
“I kind of play under the same expectations too, but it’s definitely different trying to get after the quarterback for them. You can’t really attack because we were worried about the running backs. But they made a good effort. To see kids like that is definitely good.”
Joe Schmidt’s thoughts on the defense:
“Obviously, I love Austin. I love playing with him. But at the same time, I think Elijah Shumate came in and he had a lot of awesome calls, a lot of awesome plays, so I think he did really well. I’m not going to take anything away from Elijah Shumate today. ”
“It says a lot about our leadership team. I think as a team, we did a really good job of making sure we were all on point. There are always going to be distractions. People are going to be saying you should look at this, look at that, this guy’s not here, this guy got hurt. We’re always going to be faced with that kind of adversity, so I think that we did an awesome job. I think we did a great job kind of focusing everyone and not letting that distract us.”
“I feel that way in every game. I don’t want to say that because Austin wasn’t out there, it felt any different. Elijah and Austin are two different players, so I just wanted to make sure we were clear and concise. We spent a lot of extra time the past couple of days, me and Elijah, making sure we were on the same page. I think it paid off today.”
Cody Riggs’ thoughts on the defense:
“Austin‘s our leader. He was on the sideline coaching guys up and making sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do. Having him on the sideline was really helpful. He’s a leader, and although we miss him, he does a great job of making sure everybody knows what they’re supposed to be doing even though he’s hurt right now.”
“I think they (Elijah Shumate and Max Redfield) did a really good job. Elijah and Max played really well, which is what I expected. They had really great camps. They played exactly to their abilities.”
“Any corner wants to lockdown their side. Cole [Luke] did a great job. I was able to contain my side. We take pride in that.”
I think Saturday’s game against Rice showed the components of our defense that are working well, and also showed the kinks that need to be worked out between now and this Saturday when we face Michigan. Hopefully the academic issues are resolved sooner than later which will help remove some distractions from this defense as they are trying to gel and move forward. I am still a little nervous about Saturday’s game against Michigan but put all my faith into Coach Kelly and his staff that they can have the team ready to compete against (and beat) Michigan. In other words, yes, I’m drinking the Kool-aid.
Cheers & GO IRISH!
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Mark G
I attended the game, with seats right in front of the press box. This gave me a good view of the ND sidline, and I used the opportunity to watch our new defensive coordinator in action. One thing I liked about BVG was the way he used 100% of the time that the offense was on the field to coach up (in what looked like a very loud, animated manner) the defense. Having him on the sideline instead of the box gives him that opportunity. He did not spend a couple of minutes talking to them and advising and correcting them, and then leave them alone until they had to take the field again. He spent the entire team, with the assistant coaches, in the players’ ears, faces and grills. If effort will give us good results, then BVG will be successful.
I do not know if TV caught BVG after Baratti got burned on the 2nd Rice touchdown. He was livid. BVG proceeded to “instruct” Baratti (in what again looked like a loud and animated manner) as he walked to the sideline, and for about 3 minutes after that, following him all the way down the bench, and then for a few minutes after that. I think Baratti may have hearing loss in one or both ears after that. If decibels and intensity will give us good results, thenBVG will be successful.