Notre Dame Football: Midterm Grades – Defense

The Notre Dame football program hit a home run when they hired Mike Elko.

New Defensive Coordinator completely turned around the Notre Dame defense in short order. With a focus on fundamentals, the Irish are tackling well and forcing turnovers. Here are the grades for Irish defense in their first six contests of the season.

The much-maligned Defensive Line performed extremely well in the first six games of the year. With the direction of Elko and Defensive Line coach Mike Elston, this group pulled a complete 180-degree turn from 2016. In fact, an argument could be made that this is one of the best position groups on the team.

The group is averaging 2.17 sacks per game. This total is the second highest sack output by a Brian Kelly-coached team. The stout 2012 defense generated 2.54 sacks per contest.

Jerry Tillery performed up to his potential through the first half of the season. If Notre Dame’s young Defensive Linemen continue to blossom, this group could be dominant down the stretch against some great competition.

Senior Linebacker Drue Tranquill led Notre Dame with his playmaking ability in the first half. The 6’2″ 231 lbs. defender from Fort Wayne stuffed the stat sheet. He collected 34 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, a sack, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Further, Tranquill helps the play of the defense overall by setting the edge and forcing everything to the inside.

Nyles Morgan failed to completely live up to the preseason hype. At times during fall practice, Morgan looked like the most dominant player on the field. Some experts and fans believe that he may be battling some undisclosed injury.

The unit has struggled at time with hitting their run fits and bring ball carriers to the ground immediately. However, they have made big plays like Tranquill’s interception against Georgia, Martini’s interception against Miami (OH) and Tranquill’s strip against North Carolina.

The play of the Defensive Backs has produced a mixed bag. Shaun Crawford’s play has been nothing short of outstanding. In six games, Crawford tallied 14 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 3 passes broken up, 2 interceptions and a forced fumble.

Nick Watkins and Julian Love, the starting Cornerbacks, played well. They simply need to make more plays on the ball.

Former Alter Knight Nick Coleman might be the most improved player on the team. Last year, he lost all confidence in himself at the Cornerback spot. Now, playing with the ball in front of him more, he is able to make a lot of plays.

This position group will be challenged immediately by the Trojan Wide Receivers and future first-round draft pick Sam Darnold.

Elko completely improved the defense almost overnight. In 2016, the Irish allowed 27.8 points per game. That total ranked 61st in the country. This year, Notre Dame is yielding only 16.8 points per contest. A vast improvement that was built on fundamentals and tackling. The Irish now need to expand on the foundation to play truly dominating and game-changing defense.