We've seen an impressive turnaround from this Notre Dame defense over the last couple of weeks. Arkansas was averaging 43.5 points per game heading into their matchup with the Irish and were held to 13 points. Boise State was averaging 38.5 points per game and were held to seven points. Last week, NC State entered their matchup in South Bend averaging 33.8 points per game and were held to seven points and 233 total yards of offense. Notre Dame hasn't allowed an opponent to score a single point in the second half in their last three outings.
This week, the Irish host the 20th-ranked USC Trojans who are ranked No. 3 in the country in points per game (45.5), No. 2 in the country in total yards per game (552.3) and No. 1 in the country in yards per play (8.3). The Irish have a tough task ahead of them this weekend, but defensive coordinator Chris Ash is confident in their ability to get the job done Saturday night. He was confident in a defensive turnaround since the start of the season.
"I saw it in the first few games," Ash explained. "I watch every game, I watch every play, I evaluate every single thing and most people want to just focus on what the result was. There was a lot of good football that was played in those games. It was inconsistent though, and when you give up explosive plays, you're not going to get the results that you want. The first thing we had to do was figure out how to cut out some of the explosive plays we gave up and a lot of that was just technique and some different approaches to practice to put people in those positions. But, you go through and you look at all three of our first three games with Miami, A&M and Purdue, there's a lot of good football that was played."
"I didn't let five plays that popped up overshadow all the good plays that did happen," Ash continued. "We just had to work on it. Against Purdue, we started three new players in the secondary. And, unfortunately, we were up 56-23 with two minutes to go and we gave up a touchdown on the last play of the game, but there was a lot of really good football played in between that touchdown and the opening kickoff. We just had to focus on the positives, keep building on them and try to eliminate some of the negative things that had happened."
Three of the six team captains live on the defensive side of the ball. Like any coach, Ash relied on his player's leadership capabilities to help right the ship after two bad games to open the season.
"The players have been fantastic," Ash exclaimed. "It starts with the leadership; really it starts with the character of all the individuals but then it gets back to the leadership of the older guys that have been through it. They really held everything together. Leaning on all of those guys has been really important. Leaning on the whole staff, leaning on the players and making sure that we're all continuing to focus on what we need to and that's to go get better. That's it."
Ash and the Notre Dame defense face, arguably, their toughest task of the season this weekend when they host the high-powered and efficient Lincoln Riley-led USC offense. The Fighting Irish defensive coordinator was asked about his confidence in his unit ahead of this matchup under the lights and his answer was short and to the point.
"We're confident in what we're doing and how we're going to do it."
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