Notre Dame’s loss to BYU last weekend wasn’t just disappointing and disheartening. It was also deeply frustrating because the Fighting Irish seemed to run a very odd game plan on both sides of the ball.
On defense, much was made of the fact that defensive coordinator Chris Ash didn’t seem aggressive enough. Cougars’ quarterback Bear Bachmeier has had some issues this season under pressure, but Ash didn’t dial up blitzes often enough. Adding to the defense's problems was how often they went into zone despite having some of the country's best cover corners.
It wasn't just Notre Dame fans who felt Ash’s defensive game plan wasn’t all that impressive. BYU running back Preston Rex said after the game that the Fighting Irish defense “was a little bit vanilla, a little bit conservative."
That’s concerning enough, especially since Ash’s defense has been pretty aggressive for most of his tenure in South Bend. It’s odd that, with defensive back Leonard Moore back from a concussion, Ash wasn’t confident leaving him and his defensive back mates on an island to bring more pressure on Bachmeier and force him to decide too quickly.
Notre Dame football defense called “vanilla” by BYU after Chris Ash avoids heavy pressure
Rex had plenty to say about what the BYU offense faced, and it all came across as Ash being a bit too scared of the Cougars’ big weapons, which made sure those weapons hurt the Notre Dame defense badly.
“It was a little different when game time came because they didn’t want to give up any of those QB runs that have killed other defenses,” Rex said. “Shout out to Bear.”
“Legend Glasker (the top BYU receiver) has just been taking the top off of defenses. It seemed like to me they were really preparing for those two things. That opened up for me to be in the game plan a little bit more this week.”
Rex took advantage of the defensive game plan, rushing for 66 yards on just 10 carries. That performance was especially important because BYU was without star running back LJ Martin.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame played conservatively and vanilla, but the Cougar offense kept the Irish guessing with its play-calling.
“Trick plays, quarterback throwback, different types of reverses, sweeps, just routes that they kind of threw in last week that we hadn’t seen before,” linebacker Drayk Bowen said. “They used our weaknesses against us.”
Notre Dame has this week to rest and regroup. Next week, they take on Navy, and should have no real problem stopping the Midshipmen early and often. After that though, Miami comes to town. Both Mike Denbrock and especially Chris Ash need to figure out what they did wrong and make sure they don’t do it again, or a very promising season goes up in flames.
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