Nyles Morgan (Credit: Chicago Tribune)
Notre Dame coaches “undersold” sophomore linebacker Nyles Morgan last year in an effort to conceal a significant weakness in Brian VanGorder’s defensive scheme.
Blue & Gold Illustrated’s Bryan Driskell criticized VanGorder, the Irish’s defensive coordinator, for being too faithful to scheme and sticking with Joe Schmidt – although he graded out as one of the worst linebackers last year.
“Why did you run a defense that required you to put such an inferior player on the field in order for your defense to work?” asked Driskell on a podcast he co-hosted with BGI senior editor Lou Somogyi. “Why can’t Notre Dame, in two years, find a way to get a player like Nyles Morgan on the field? And now all of a sudden we’re to believe that this spring, Nyles Morgan went from – he was so bad that he couldn’t beat out the third worst linebacker in the country. We’re supposed to believe that now all of a sudden, according to the coaches, he’s this tremendous player and go out and lead the defense. That’s the frustration.”
Somoygi said Coach Brian Kelly admitted in a recent one-on-one interview that the staff may have “undersold” Morgan and were “loyal to a fault” to Schmidt last year.
Credit: Irish Sports Daily
Driskell said, despite the loss of Butkus Award winner Jaylon Smith, Notre Dame’s linebacker group could be better this year than last.
“The defense was built around the Mike linebacker making plays,” said Driskell. Schmidt, he said, consistently failed in that regard – noting that he both failed to sack USC’s Cody Kessler despite being sent on a blitz repeatedly and registered zero tackles (and seven missed tackles) against Clemson last year. Smith was used as an “eraser,” in Kelly’s terminology, for the errors of the both the defensive line and Schmidt in 2015.
“Now you have a player at Mike linebacker who is a more athletic, more effective, more productive player,” the analyst said of Morgan. “The key is: Can Nyles Morgan be a consistent player, avoid some of the big negatives that hurt him? But I think you’re going to see more production from the linebacking corps simply because – just by the nature of who he has – there is that weapon now at Mike linebacker that the defense can be built around. Whereas last year, when they tried to build their defense around Joe Schmidt, it just didn’t work because he wasn’t a good enough player.”
Morgan, Driskell said, will be the player who will most impact the success or failure of the defense if VanGorder’s approach remains unchanged. Somogyi noted that national experts, such as Phil Steele, had low expectations for the linebacker group. Steele slotted them as 45th best out of 128 teams entering 2016.
“This is a guy who has the physical tools. This is a guy who has been credited by Brian VanGorder, Brian Kelly, Mike Elston as working his tail off,” said Driskell. “I’ve heard great things behind the scenes about how hard he’s working, his attitude, the leadership he’s shown – all those kind of things. So I believe that position is poised to have much better production this season. Now, will Nyles Morgan take that step and become a legitimate playmaker? That remains to be seen.”
The entire podcast is worth a listen. Check it out here.
Notre Dame graduate, class of '02 (the Davie years!). A former newspaper and TV reporter, andrewwinn is now professionally involved in something far less fun to discuss than college football. A dad, a husband and a wannabe data nerd.
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Joe was a great kid. Just not an elite college linbacker. He had the smarts just not the tools to get it done. I like the kid but knew he was hurting us. If it wasn’t for Jaylon making up the difference we would have lost double the games we did.
Great article. The number of missed tackles by Joe was staggering. BVG’s scheme will be our downfall once again as we give up the big plays that will cost us the playoffs.
Always that question…. Why are other schools able to get these talented kids on the field and ND can’t? Couldn’t his athleticism have made up for other shortcomings?
The problem with that line of thinking is that the analyst admitted that Morgan was inconsistent and had “big negatives’ that hurt him. The analyst is also not at every practice and meeting. Perhaps the coaches felt that they would have been worse off with the incosistency? I don’t know, very interesting to think about. I just don’t believe coaches play inferior players to ‘play them’. Has to be something more here.
I heard that Morgan had an injury during the season. Sucks to hear, because apparently, the light came out later that year. Before then, I can see why the coaches had to stick with Joe, despite his poor play. Morgan showed that he wasn’t mentally ready to take on the role at MIKE. It wasn’t just because he couldn’t captain the defense, but because he was making too many mental errors and whiffed on tackles.
All valid points. Fact of the matter is that BVG’s sideline antics more than make up for his poor decision making.
Rename this site:
HerDISloyalsons.com.
This is type of anti Notre Dame trash I expect form the ESPN and Bleacher report losers.
What are you trying to do here? Besides stir up issues for the team.
If you ever played real football or any sport you would know that their are intangibles. If you went by whats on paper you would not need to get on the field and play the games.
The record speaks for itself:
Undefeated except for an out right referee mystery penalty in SemiHole Land
With Schmidt
Lose 4 in a row and give up 31 to 55 points against
teams we should have blown out.
Without Schmidt
An 18 year old comes back from a Devastating injury that would cripple or kill you
and you reward him like this.
The issues lie with and NFL Defensive scheme that resembles the Charlie Worse like NFL offense scheme we used to have and requires 24/7 study to execute.
Not a player who gave his all to make sure everyone around him was lined up right.
I usually do not waste my time on things like this, but your disloyalty and disrespect is appalling.
Publish this if you want. I will not be coming back to this site.
If you read the article it was largely references comments made by Blue and Gold Illustrated in a podcast. It was more reporting what was said on a Notre Dame stronghold in BGI. Some of the comments echoed the expert some did not. I remarked that no coach plays an “inferior player” just to play them. This is essence supports the coaches decision. I wouldn’t be so quick to blast VanGorder. When was the last time Notre Dame played consistently good defense? Not during Weis or Willingham. Maybe a little during the Davie era and early in Holtz tenure. I thought Diaco had some good defenses particularly in the 12-1 season. I might argue when a defense struggles isn’t just scheme and usually isn’t just players but maybe a combination of both. I’m willing to see how it looks this year. In some games his defenses have been solid. However, they haven’t been consistently so.