If Notre Dame is a second-half team in 2015, as some suggest, Brian VanGorder’s defense has a lot to do with that perception. In seven games, only Georgia Tech has scored fifteen or more second-half points on the Irish, and even those were late game points against Notre Dame’s substitutes. No opponent has scored more than once in the third quarter.
In today’s post, I want to look at the second half performance of Notre Dame’s defense during the Brian Kelly era. With five and a half seasons to analyze, there’s plenty of data. What’s more, there’s a lot to play with, now, comparing the Kelly defenses to the Weis, Willingham, Davie, and Holtz squads in later posts.
If you look at what his defenses have accomplished in the third and fourth quarters, Brian VanGorder can be viewed as a second-half mastermind when his charges are healthy. Thus far, the 2015 defense has blanked three opponents (Virginia, Georgia Tech, Massachusetts) in the third quarter and three (Texas, Navy, USC) in the fourth. Last year, it took five games (Michigan, Rice, Purdue, Syracuse, Stanford) for an opponent to score in the third quarter, three teams were stoned in the fourth (Michigan, Purdue, LSU), two were shut out in both quarters (Purdue, Michigan) and, well, there was the Michigan game. That USC did not score on the Irish in 2014 is no moment as the game was out of hand at that point and the Trojans were being kind.
Credit: AP Photo
2013 dawned uneasily for the Irish defense, having lost so much to graduation and the draft. Still, their third quarter performance was impressive: six games (Temple, Arizona State, USC, Air Force, Navy) saw no scoring, four (Temple, USC, Air Force, BYU) saw nothing in the fourth quarter, and in three (Temple, USC, Air Force), the defense was perfect across both quarters.
Then-DC Bob Diaco’s powers were at their peak in 2012, the year Notre Dame competed for the National Championship against Alabama. Nine teams (Purdue, MSU, Miami, BYU, Oklahoma, BC, Wake Forest, USC) were blanked in the third quarter. Seven (Navy, MSU, Stanford, BYU, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Miami) did not score in the fourth. Three teams (Miami, MSU, BYU) were held scoreless in the second half entirely, and the Irish won both overtime games, including three OT Pitt, who they limited to two field goals.
2011 was the best third quarter performance by a Notre Dame defense in the Brian Kelly era. Ten teams (USF, Michigan, MSU, Purdue, Air Force, Navy, Wake, Maryland, Boston College, Stanford) were held scoreless in the third quarter that season. However, only two (Pitt, Wake) were denied in the fourth quarter. Four teams (Michigan, Air Force, Maryland, Florida State) put up two scores on the Irish D in the fourth quarter in 2011. One of those performances, Michigan’s Denard Robinson, was one for the ages and one, Air Force, was of no moment as the Irish offense had put up fifty-nine points and handed the keys to the second- and third-team.
In Brian Kelly’s first season at Notre Dame, 2010, his defense notched seven (Purdue, Michigan, Boston College, Western Michigan, Utah, Army, Miami) third quarter shutouts, four (Boston College, Navy, Utah, Army) fourth quarter blanks, and three (Boston College, Utah, Army) second half clean sheets.
Total scoring in the second half during the Brian Kelly years is another metric that supports the notion that there’s something special going on in 2015. In seven games, the Irish have surrendered 58 second half points, an average of 8.29 per game. In 2014, the gave up 169 over thirteen games, an unlucky thirteen points per game. In 2013, Notre Dame’s opponents scored 126 points in the second half in thirteen games, an average of 9.69 points per game. In 2012, that number was an eye-catching 5.08 points per game, as Notre Dame gave up a mere sixty-six second half points over the season. In 2011, the Irish gave up 135 second half points, 10.38 ppg, and 132 in 2010, 10.15.
I hope these numbers have you thinking about our defense this season. Later this week, I’m going to look at second half points per game allowed by Kelly’s defenses against Wies’s and Willingham’s. Let’s see where the numbers take us.
Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.
Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.
- Finding Flaws in a Diamond: Clemson’s Rushing Offense - December 17, 2018
- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
