Idk. Denbrock and Ash have shown what they do, and it’s not particularly good.
At the very least, a change is needed at WR coach.
Chris "Belt To" Ash - Defensive Coordinator
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Idk. Denbrock and Ash have shown what they do, and it’s not particularly good.
At the very least, a change is needed at WR coach.
IA4irish
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Chris ash has shown to be a terrible big game defensive coordinator. The past two years are two of the most talented defenses in the past 35 years. He’s gotten absolutely outcoached the past 2 years vs the 3 biggest opponents they’ve faced. The lack of havoc plays in those have been terrible. Just letting the opposing quarterback take his time and go against cushions on the outside. Extremely disappointing
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Ash 100% has to go, unless he completely changes everything about what he does and somehow we have a good game against Miami.
Denbrock's offense with a running QB has historically been very good. The pass game with CJ is way too vanilla for stationary guy and also lacks any sort of screen game, play action / misdirection, etc.
irishff1014
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He has a lot of work to do himself.
IA4irish
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His defenses make some good adjustments - you’re correct. However, his inability to adjust anything in first half of big games is perplexing. Look at Miami, Texas a&m, and now byu. Each game we were losing at half and got absolutely shredded on defense. We have had to claw our way back each time
DomeFieldAdvantage
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100%. Al Golden said how you can't wait until halftime to make adjustments. You need to do it after each drive. Chris Ash doesn't do that.
I wonder if part of it is that Golden had relatively simple plans. If the defense is consistently giving up yards and points, it means the plan isn't working so you need to change the plan.
With Ash and his more complex defenses, its easy enough to blame a bad drive or two on busted coverages, guys getting beat, or the offense just having the right play called. You spend time on the sideline trying to fix these small things and prepare for the next chess match, but don't realize when the underlying plan isn't working.
It's like he doesn't have a good feel for the game. Like in the UNC game where we turn the ball over on downs and they're backed up to their 3 yard line. Freeman probably goes for that fourth down thinking we'd be aggressive, but then Ash has the defense come out super conservatively.
MacIrish75
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Well, it’s a good thing we’ve recruited *checks roster* Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard to eventually succeed CJ.
If Denbrock is this poor with a traditional drop back QB, then why the heck are these the guys were filling a roster with? That’s another aspect of all this which makes no sense to me.
irishff1014
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It’s the trick plays for me. We have seen this time and time again that the less talented team has to do this to make up for it. The reverse and the throw back to the QB everyone knew what was coming beside the players that’s unacceptable.
FWIrish4
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We’ve had pissing matches on the board over this all year, but this is a fatal flaw. Carr didn’t play well, but also asking him to straight drop back 49 times without any of the bolded above is a losing game plan.
Per PFF, 3 PAs on 51 drop backs for 6% of passes. Somehow even worse than our season average of 15%. At least make the defense *think* about something else happening.
Incredibly ironic Denbrock was publicly complaining about people noticing the 15% PA rate and his rebuttal was they don’t know what play action is.
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Domer Dude
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Help me out, as I haven't followed all the threads. Did we play zone defense in the first half with some of the best corners in CFB on the ND roster?
FWIrish4
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Are we missing Bullough more than we thought? Maybe he had some responsibility with the defense getting turned around last year with game planning, specifically the pressures.
Something changed at the end of Purdue last year, where the pressure and stunts got dialed back up to what were used to with Golden. For some reason it feels like we’re back to pre-Purdue 2025 level of just rushing 4 and hoping for pressure.
Something changed at the end of Purdue last year, where the pressure and stunts got dialed back up to what were used to with Golden. For some reason it feels like we’re back to pre-Purdue 2025 level of just rushing 4 and hoping for pressure.
irishff1014
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Our LB’s did not play well last night. But no one did really.
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To your point:
Hindsight is always 50/50 but it seems like there was a bunch of better options than what we ended up doing. Especially after Traore went out you probably needed to be more aggressive.
Jimmy3Putt
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They should've played to their strengths and accepted the fact that BYU was going to make some big plays.
Instead they let BYU kill them slowly at altitude.
Instead they let BYU kill them slowly at altitude.
Ndaccountant
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I would love to see the comps on the defensive calls vs Wisconsin. It looked like a carbon copy where ND was scared of the QB run and said beat me with your pass. Except, this was not game one and the tape existed. Granted, 2H was better until going for the kill on 3rd and goal from the 6 when literally you can play to the fg for a fg to win.
Who’s your top list of guys to replace Ash? If it was me i’d probally go.
1. See if Golden wants to come back.
2. Go get Bryant Haines from IU.
3. Andy Avalos TCU defensive coordinator has head coaching experience.
4. Jim Knowles? He was good at Ohio State.
5. Rob Aurich Nebraska DC having a good year, from Michigan young and upcoming coach and they have 22 sacks this year
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Aurich is a good name for sure. Haines would be elite but don't see him leaving Indiana for anything other than a HC job.
Irish du Nord
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I mean he had answers (clearly did in the second half) but they were so disorganized and hesitant in the first half that we dug ourselves too big a hole to overcome
I mean sure the second half was better but in the end when they had the opportunity to get one more stop they let them walk right down the field and score.
Bane
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Very reminiscent to Miami last year. Played poorly in the first half, adjusted in the second and then fell on their faces on the money drive.
NumbersGuy0520
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This is my concern too.
The playoff run in 2024 was nice but that was still with Golden. Ash has been bad against the quality competition he’s faced.
Giving up 350 yards to Miami/BYU and 500 to A&M, especially with the athletes we have, is 100% not going to cut it.
NumbersGuy0520
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I would rather us go out swinging in the big games, but too far often, we are so damn conservative, and it bites us every time.
Not letting CJ Carr loose at the start of last season. All the screens and short yardage passes. Playing several yards off the ball defensively, not sending enough pressure.
For whatever reason, we are often too afraid to step up and take risks in the big time environments. Either we don’t think we’re good enough to pull it off, or we think we’re good enough to the point of being able to otherwise hunker down and not risk the game.
402puck
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So yeah… they didn’t blitz, didn’t press and jam receivers off timing routes, and also didn’t cover the middle of the field. Absolutely no idea what the plan was
