Notre Dame's 2025 defense struggled early. Can they transform into a dominant red zone unit by 2026?
A fast start is extremely important in football and important in every phase of the game. For teams, starting fast out of the gate puts you in a prime position for the College Football Playoffs, something Notre Dame has failed to do the last two seasons. A fast start on offense puts the opposing team's gameplan behind the sticks and makes the opposing offense more one dimensional. A fast start on defense, especially at the start of the season, is critically important to success. That's where we'll start this conversation with Notre Dame's red zone defense in 2025.
We've talked a lot about the poor performance this defense put on display in their first three games. Was it because of the change in coordinators from Al Golden to Chris Ash? Possibly. Was it due to the overall change in philosophy? Potentially. Was it due to an overall lack of execution and unrelated to the scheme? Highly doubtful. Regardless of the reason, the first three games for the Irish on defense are extremely forgetful, but necessary to look back on to build a foundation for improvement heading into 2026.
Overall, the red zone defense this past season was subpar. They finished the regular season ranked 69th in the country in red zone scoring percentage allowed but finished 7th in the country in total touchdowns allowed in the red zone (14). Big picture, that's not too bad, but context always matters. After the first three games, the Notre Dame defense became extremely stout and didn't allow many teams to enter the red zone. They finished the regular season ranked 6th in overall red zone attempts allowed (25). Unfortunately, due to the number of touchdowns they allowed, they finished 43rd in the country in touchdown percentage allowed in the red zone (56.0).
Here's why a fast start is so important on the defensive side of the ball: eight of the 14 touchdowns they allowed in the red zone came in the first four games of the season. The defense gave up two against Miami in the opener, four against Texas A&M in the home opener, one against Purdue and one against Arkansas. For the remainder of the season, the defense as whole only allowed six more red zone touchdowns. Here's what's even crazier: the first team defense only gave up three of those six red zone touchdowns in the final eight games. Syracuse and Stanford didn't put touchdowns on the board until the 4th quarter when the reserve players were in.
The first team defense only gave up two red zone touchdowns in their matchups against NC State (0), USC (1), Boston College (0), Navy (1) and Pitt (0). Coming out of the gates hot next season on defense is going to be crucial, in every stage of the game. In the final eight matchups of the regular season, this defense made opposing offenses earn every single yard. Teams like NC State, Syracuse, Boston College and Pitt struggled to even make it to the red zone, let alone put up points once they got there. If this defense comes out firing on all cylinders next season, it will be one of the best in the country.
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