Chris "Belt To" Ash - Defensive Coordinator

jerseyborn1971 · Sunday at 10:23 PM

Game plan looks to be do not let that QB run. Make him beat you with his arm.

RudyVerse · Sunday at 10:44 PM

Ash has been great. Tackling is better than I e ever seen in game 1. Yeah, Jayden got burnt. It happens to young backups.

FOTY977 · Sunday at 10:48 PM

RudyVerse said:
Ash has been great. Tackling is better than I e ever seen in game 1. Yeah, Jayden got burnt. It happens to young backups.

D did well to steady the ship while Denbrock and co got their heads out of their collective asses

MeanGreenBeans · Monday at 12:45 AM

Ash is a Gangster with a capital G. It all comes down to Miami on 11/7

Dale · Monday at 12:49 AM

jerseyborn1971 said:
Game plan looks to be do not let that QB run. Make him beat you with his arm.

Very team impacted but bottom 2 run performance by Joseph of his career. Other being vs JMU last season.

Bane · Monday at 12:56 AM

Ash has really become a gem on the staff and we once again find ourselves in the position of maybe having an argument for the best coordinator duo in the country. LSU would definitely be in that conversation.

ulukinatme · Monday at 3:37 AM

RudyVerse said:
lol Ash is not the problem. It’s Denbrock running the navy offense

They were both a little ass-y in the 1st half. Team came out a little flat too methinks. 1st half we got September Freeman, 2nd half was more like October Freeman. Both sides of the ball looked better.

irishff1014 · Monday at 7:35 AM

ulukinatme said:
They were both a little ass-y in the 1st half. Team came out a little flat too methinks. 1st half we got September Freeman, 2nd half was more like October Freeman. Both sides of the ball looked better.

You are right. He “Freeman” has to figure out away to get this team rolling fast out of the gate. But the half adjustments were money and worked exactly how it’s supposed too.

Irish#1 · Monday at 8:55 AM

ulukinatme said:
They were both a little ass-y in the 1st half. Team came out a little flat too methinks. 1st half we got September Freeman, 2nd half was more like October Freeman. Both sides of the ball looked better.

Yeah, thought they were a little too worried about “leaving no doubt” to start.

Jimmy3Putt · Monday at 10:14 AM

Putting Denbrook in the booth might speed up the adjustments. Instead of waiting until the half, he can do it between drives with the eagle view. Lord knows there's enough commercials in an Irish broadcast. He can have full staff meeting up there.

StPaul_Irish · Monday at 12:11 PM

Jimmy3Putt said:
Putting Denbrook in the booth might speed up the adjustments. Instead of waiting until the half, he can do it between drives with the eagle view. Lord knows there's enough commercials in an Irish broadcast. He can have full staff meeting up there.

Ive always liked having the OC/DC upstairs. Especially now that they have the mics.

ulukinatme · Monday at 7:07 PM

StPaul_Irish said:
Ive always liked having the OC/DC upstairs. Especially now that they have the mics.

I agree, I like them in the booth!

Dale · Monday at 7:33 PM

Watched some replays back, I think the defensive effort was even more impressive than I thought live. A lot more of those plays by Wisconsin were tagged as RPOs than I thought and guys like Ausberry, the DEs and the safeties had to account for their assignment. Extremely sound performance outside a few of the notable missteps by Gray, Sanders. No QB run game then pass rush impressed once it became a drop back game is exactly what you want from the DL. Not a showcase of pure talent but very locked in for the most part.

IrishLax · Monday at 8:14 PM

^I think ND had more busts / mistakes then it appeared like live, but they tackled incredibly well and the front did a really nice job both stuffing the run and creating some havoc in the second half. I said preseason that I thought we were probably the best defense in the country (or at minimum Tier 1 with a couple others) and I think last night did a lot to validate that... especially the way Brewu and Gray played inside. There are no personnel question marks on this team, just need to execute consistently.

IrishLax · Monday at 8:15 PM

ulukinatme said:
I agree, I like them in the booth!

Can you imagine what it was like having to coach Drew Pyne? Probably took years off of his life.

ulukinatme · Monday at 10:15 PM

IrishLax said:
Can you imagine what it was like having to coach Drew Pyne? Probably took years off of his life.

It's lowkey impressive we won as many games as we did there, and then Drew couldn't catch on at his other two stops at lesser schools. He needed Mayer to bail him out I guess.

Jeffwantpoppers · Monday at 10:27 PM

IrishLax said:
^I think ND had more busts / mistakes then it appeared like live, but they tackled incredibly well and the front did a really nice job both stuffing the run and creating some havoc in the second half. I said preseason that I thought we were probably the best defense in the country (or at minimum Tier 1 with a couple others) and I think last night did a lot to validate that... especially the way Brewu and Gray played inside. There are no personnel question marks on this team, just need to execute consistently.

It looks like the pressure hurried him into this throw. I don’t know which DB blew that coverage though.

IrishBoognish · Monday at 10:30 PM

I think Ash is very good at his job.

He was gun shy after last year's mishandling of the first couple games. He wanted to make sure he was completely sure before he let the dogs loose

I think the same applies to DC, OC. and HC btw

I feel like the gameplan was "Get to half. assess, and kill them while not showing too much"

BleedBlueGold · 2026-09-08T09:08:23-0400

Jeffwantpoppers said:
It looks like the pressure hurried him into this throw. I don’t know which DB blew that coverage though.

Agreed. Seems some of Wiscy's game plan was to get the ball out quickly. Jamie and Greg talked about it on the post game show, how the DL actually played well, but the ball was out very quick on most of Wisconsin's passing plays (which seemed intentional).

BleedBlueGold · 2026-09-08T09:25:01-0400

Can someone with better football IQ than me help me answer this?

I’ve always felt ND’s defense is at its best when it’s the aggressor. When the DL gets into the backfield, it seems to create a domino effect on the play, which is part of why our DBs are able to make so many plays on the ball. Our havoc rate seems to skyrocket when we play that way. We saw this last season when there was a clear shift in philosophy from the first 2.5 games to the rest of the season.

Against a QB like Joseph, though, the DL was obviously playing more of a vanilla, contain/lane-integrity scheme to prevent him from gashing us. The result seemed to be a cleaner pocket for him, allowing him to hit short passes and occasionally take a shot on a double move. I understand the need to be conservative, but how do DCs decide where to draw that line? When do you attack a QB versus prioritizing contain and limit the big plays? It’s obvious ND will game-plan differently against a team like Navy, but I struggle watching games where it feels like there’s no urgency to pressure the QB and force him into mistakes. I felt like the second half of Wisconsin, the DL got into the backfield more often which resulted in the Pick 6 and sacks.

Just curious how coaches make that decision and what you all think.

Dale · 2026-09-08T10:12:02-0400

I think Wisconsin stayed on schedule relatively well in the 1H meant the run threat was always there. If they had a few more of those 3 yard runs be 0 yard runs they might have pinned their ears back a bit more, like the 4Q.

Also got the ball out quick. PFF had Joseph at 2.3 seconds till throw on average which would rank 3rd in the country last year. Why the double moves worked when they did as well because he was firing that thing extremely fast usually.

Long and short - thought the DL was really good, Wisconsin just did some nice things schematically early.

jerseyborn1971 · 2026-09-08T10:24:44-0400

Maybe the saw on film that Joseph was never going to beat us with his arm. The ONLY tool he really had was his legs. We took that away and look what happened? As soon as we got up by 3 scores, the defense opened it up and went after him because his running was not going to be a threat because they would never get them back in the game at that point and Joseph knew it. And look what happened. They scored 1 touchdown on a busted coverage in the first half.

BleedBlueGold · 2026-09-08T10:36:04-0400

Dale said:
I think Wisconsin stayed on schedule relatively well in the 1H meant the run threat was always there. If they had a few more of those 3 yard runs be 0 yard runs they might have pinned their ears back a bit more, like the 4Q.

Also got the ball out quick. PFF had Joseph at 2.3 seconds till throw on average which would rank 3rd in the country last year. Why the double moves worked when they did as well because he was firing that thing extremely fast usually.

Long and short - thought the DL was really good, Wisconsin just did some nice things schematically early.

The bolded also makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

Thanks for input.

Irish#1 · 2026-09-08T10:39:50-0400

BleedBlueGold said:
Can someone with better football IQ than me help me answer this?

I’ve always felt ND’s defense is at its best when it’s the aggressor. When the DL gets into the backfield, it seems to create a domino effect on the play, which is part of why our DBs are able to make so many plays on the ball. Our havoc rate seems to skyrocket when we play that way. We saw this last season when there was a clear shift in philosophy from the first 2.5 games to the rest of the season.

Against a QB like Joseph, though, the DL was obviously playing more of a vanilla, contain/lane-integrity scheme to prevent him from gashing us. The result seemed to be a cleaner pocket for him, allowing him to hit short passes and occasionally take a shot on a double move. I understand the need to be conservative, but how do DCs decide where to draw that line? When do you attack a QB versus prioritizing contain and limit the big plays? It’s obvious ND will game-plan differently against a team like Navy, but I struggle watching games where it feels like there’s no urgency to pressure the QB and force him into mistakes. I felt like the second half of Wisconsin, the DL got into the backfield more often which resulted in the Pick 6 and sacks.

Just curious how coaches make that decision and what you all think.

Once the lead started to grow, Wiscy's game plan was shot. QB running wasn't as big a concern so the D could just get after it.

Edit: Saw Jersey's post after I posted. He hit the nail on the head.

Dale · 2026-09-08T10:47:57-0400

24 of Joseph’s 33 attempts they had as being “kept clean” which he had an absurd 2.12 seconds till throw in those attempts.

When he was pressured he was 2/9 with an INT and 2 sacks.

BleedBlueGold · 2026-09-08T10:49:39-0400

Irish#1 said:
Once the lead started to grow, Wiscy's game plan was shot. QB running wasn't as big a concern so the D could just get after it.

Edit: Saw Jersey's post after I posted. He hit the nail on the head.

Right, but my question was more about the first half.

We saw Ash do the same conservative stuff last year in the first few games. I recall Jamie on ISD complaining about how the DL was so vanilla that they almost made it too easy on opposing QBs (who were mistake prone). That abundance of caution, only rushing 4, allowed for more coverage obviously, but I think Jamie was pointing out the lack of creativity with stunting, blitzing, etc. It was line up 4 guys and run straight, which got them no where. As I watched the first half against Wiscy, that's all I could think about was how conservative they looked up front. But later, I realized why, and it caused me to question, how a DC draws that line. I think from a game plan perspective, I agree with Dale, that job one was to contain the QB run, but with Wiscy staying on schedule, it never really opened the defense up to get after it. On top of that, the ball was out so quick that the defense couldn't get home. The second half was entirely different, for obvious reasons.

Jiggafini19Deux · 2026-09-08T10:56:38-0400

ND tackles very well. I thought they did a good job of not over pursuing/over rushing to contain a mobile QB whose film all came from Old Dominion last year but was nevertheless impressive. The TD allowed was unfortunate, but UW took advantage of the aggressive DB play. Special teams left the ND defense with some short fields too.

Second half was awesome. The pick six ultimately ended the game. There was no coming back from that.

Bowen, Moore and Shuler are those guys.

Dale · 2026-09-08T13:00:48-0400

IRISHbluehen · 2026-09-08T13:02:27-0400

Dale said:
Related:

Didn't get 9 sacks, defense bad

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