BlueandGold.com will release a countdown article highlighting a significant Notre Dame football statistic every day until the 2024 season opener at Texas A&M at 7:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 31 in College Station, Texas. Today, there are 21 days until the Irish and Aggies kick off at Kyle Field.
Like the most of college football, Notre Dame’s primary defensive personnel is nickel. For evidence as to why this is the case, just look at former Irish nickel back Thomas Harper ‘s alignment snap counts in 2023.
Harper lined up in the box — where linebackers are typically located — just 21 times last season, according to Pro Football Focus . He played the vast majority of his reps in the slot, where he lined up 353 times.
The Irish used Harper as much as they did, and in the ways that they did, to match personnel.
Football in 2024 is typically played in 11 personnel, or one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers. Notre Dame’s schedule last season was no exception, although it was on the slightly lower end. Irish opponents had three or four wide receivers on the field for 584 of their 845 snaps in 2023, or 69.1 percent.
That number will almost always be lower for Notre Dame than it is for a typical FBS team, because the Irish face Navy’s triple-option offense every year. No surprise, Harper played his lowest snap count (12) of the season by far against the Midshipmen.
When the Irish face three- or four-wide receiver sets, they would be putting themselves at a disadvantage if they stuck a seventh defender in the box. And although Notre Dame has experimented with playing sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry in a hybrid LB/DB role, leaving a linebacker in the game and making them match up with a slot receiver is setting that player up for failure.
Notre Dame bucked this trend for years by employing the Rover position, but when Al Golden took over as defensive coordinator in 2022, he installed an NFL-style system. Among other things, that meant phasing the Rover out (except against 12 personnel) and living in nickel.
That was very appealing to Jordan Clark , who will start at nickel back for the Irish in 2024. He saw what Harper did last season and thought, “I can do that, too.”
“[Harper’s] game and mine kind of mirror each other a little bit,” Clark said in January. “He’s a savvy football player; I have a great deal of respect for him and what he was able to do on the defense last year.
“It’s definitely a role I see myself being able to make plays in as well.”
With more teams moving away from ground-and-pound attacks and toward speed-and-space systems each year — including Notre Dame in 2024 — don’t expect the Irish to drop their nickel-based scheme anytime soon.
The post 21 days until Notre Dame football: Why the Irish defense lives in nickel appeared first on On3 .
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