Chris "Belt To" Ash - Defensive Coordinator

irishff1014

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greyhammer90 said:
There are times it's warranted but when I hear a crowd yelling about a defense not being aggressive enough, not blitzing enough, or giving too much cushion to WRs, 99 times out of 100 what the fan is actually saying is "I'm upset that we're not stopping the other team's offense immediately" but trying to sound intelligent while doing it.

I think "stop playing zone" is going to be a new refrain of the masses for this team because Golden played man, and Golden defense=Good, so zone = Bad. Even Golden played a significant percentage of his defense in zone coverage, we just did less than most by a difference of 10% or so. That's statiscally significant but it's not like we were only playing man under Golden.
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I think they just played slow and I guess you call it boring. Not sure how else to describe it.

It just looked liked no creativity to just move people around and show strange or different looks.
 
Irish du Nord

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The Backer said:
Unpopular take -- ND held Miami to 4.7 yards/play. This was a full yard better than any other team did in 2024 (best was 5.8 from FSU). Their only worse output in 2023 was against NC State who picked up Tyler Van Dyke 3 times.
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Yeah but they also had the heisman winning QB
 
Dale

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Dale said:
The other thing about the Toney TD is Gray was out for that snap. Zackery’s first career snap. If you watch the replay the first thought is what the fuck dude on Talich. He’s literally guarding nobody and so deep, which is bad regardless. But would bet he was told to eye helping Zackery first. He opens his hips that way. Beck scrambles left though so he was never gonna throw that way. Talich slow to flip and depth was still bad.

I don’t like giving up TDs knowing 3 backups were on the field. But it also means an alarm bell or referendum on Ash isn’t needed.

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Dale

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Amateur charting incoming
 
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Dale

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In the 1H, my eyes see 9/22 zone. 5/8 zone on the final drive.

2H was 4/9 snaps in zone. 3/5 on the first drive.

Total: 13/31 is 42% Zone

- The bigger plays, TDs were against man.
- The “too easy” 5 - 8 yard plays were against zone.
- we aren’t good at playing zone, most notably both outside corners.
 
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Free Manera

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1. Man on rewatch Beck was not nearly as impressive as I thought. He did a great job getting the ball out, and his quick reads were on point. But his ball placement wasn't great even in clean pockets and throwing on the move was pretty bad. The first two TDs were both bad balls that 1. a receiver made a play on and 2. a DB didn't.

2. The Miami receivers on the other hand were awesome. Toney was uncoverable on the whip route and timing stuff, even by Moore.

3. On the soft coverage issue - look at 1:44 and 1:51. I think this kind of stuff is what a lot of people see live and think soft coverage, because it looks like it is. It looks like the CB is just giving a huge cushion if you just see the results. But in reality it's probably a blown assignment.

For instance the 1:51 play, the CB drops to cover the slot, resulting in basically triple coverage with the nickel and safety. He did not stay with the WR in front of him. However it looks like the nickel was actually supposed to slide over and take the flat based on the CB's reaction when he realizes where the nickel ended up.

The more you watch the more stuff like this seemed to pop up. Some of it was just good reads by Beck and good playcalls. But there were definitely a lot of "whose guy is that" moments.
 
Some Irish Bloke

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Dale said:
- The bigger plays, TDs were against man.
- The “too easy” 5 - 8 yard plays were against zone.
- we aren’t good at playing zone, most notably both outside corners.
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glad to know I wasn't crazy.
 
Dale

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Free Manera said:
1. Man on rewatch Beck was not nearly as impressive as I thought. He did a great job getting the ball out, and his quick reads were on point. But his ball placement wasn't great even in clean pockets and throwing on the move was pretty bad. The first two TDs were both bad balls that 1. a receiver made a play on and 2. a DB didn't.

2. The Miami receivers on the other hand were awesome. Toney was uncoverable on the whip route and timing stuff, even by Moore.

3. On the soft coverage issue - look at 1:44 and 1:51. I think this kind of stuff is what a lot of people see live and think soft coverage, because it looks like it is. It looks like the CB is just giving a huge cushion if you just see the results. But in reality it's probably a blown assignment.

For instance the 1:51 play, the CB drops to cover the slot, resulting in basically triple coverage with the nickel and safety. He did not stay with the WR in front of him. However it looks like the nickel was actually supposed to slide over and take the flat based on the CB's reaction when he realizes where the nickel ended up.

The more you watch the more stuff like this seemed to pop up. Some of it was just good reads by Beck and good playcalls. But there were definitely a lot of "whose guy is that" moments.
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My guess would be the theory was zone would be better at guarding the slot (Toney), and Dawson’s offenses prioritize the slot. The zone coverages did that, but it went overboard with half the defense having eyes on him a few times and just overall poor play. That is where they feasted on stuff with Marion and the RBs. Toney feasted in man.

I think where I would credit Beck is with his recognition.
 
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Dale said:
My guess would be the theory was zone would be better at guarding the slot (Toney), and Dawson’s offenses prioritize the slot. The zone coverages did that, but it went overboard with half the defense having eyes on him a few times and just overall poor play. That is where they feasted on stuff with Marion and the RBs. Toney feasted in man.

I think where I would credit Beck is with his recognition.
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That's probably right.

But what do you prefer, an attacking D playing to our strengths or a passive one trying to take away one player but leaving everything else susceptible. We pretty much let them march right down the field the drive to end first half and start second half due to being in zone.

The knock-on beck is he would backfoot throw a ball into traffic when under duress. He did that twice, they scored two tds. I really thought hobbs even though late, was going to knock that ball down on his dive (not sure how he missed), and obviously miami made an insane catch on the second one but that is a pick all day and the exact throw ND WANTED and NEEDED beck to try. We didn't have a game plan to force him to make those throws enough, and our players were not in an aggressive mindset IMO.

Bottom line, Miami had a game plan to attack our weaknesses and utilize their strengths. NDs game plan was to be passive and reactive to what Miami did. Yet Miami did what everyone expected them to do. It's almost like freeman wanted to win a game like PSU instead of actually winning a game being the aggressor and have a chance to win going away.
 
Dale

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PutuporShutup said:
But what do you prefer, an attacking D playing to our strengths or a passive one trying to take away one player but leaving everything else susceptible.
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As @Free Manera alluded to, it’s not about zone being inherently passive or soft, it was that they were bad. The coverage was bad.
 
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Dale said:
As @Free Manera alluded to, it’s not about zone being inherently passive or soft, it was that they were bad. The coverage was bad.
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Correct. We played a zone like a prevent zone, instead of a match up zone that is really what it is. You are allowed and supposed to cover the person in your area with proper depth while keeping your eyes on the QB.

Freeman talks so much about "being who we are", "don't worry about what they're doing""attack","We're a man defense team that mixes it up occasionally" "we're a line driven team". etc etc. Yet both offensive and defensive game plans and execution were very passive, not to NDs strengths, and cautious. Just not at all what I was expecting to see. It's like the staff didn't trust the team.

Now we get a good A&M team with a QB that will scramble a lot. We can either be aggressive to wear him out and put him in really difficult situations, or we can be passive and try to prevent any big plays. I'm concerned i know what the answer is going to be, at least the first half.
 
Free Manera

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PutuporShutup said:
Correct. We played a zone like a prevent zone, instead of a match up zone that is really what it is. You are allowed and supposed to cover the person in your area with proper depth while keeping your eyes on the QB.

Freeman talks so much about "being who we are", "don't worry about what they're doing""attack","We're a man defense team that mixes it up occasionally" "we're a line driven team". etc etc. Yet both offensive and defensive game plans and execution were very passive, not to NDs strengths, and cautious. Just not at all what I was expecting to see. It's like the staff didn't trust the team.

Now we get a good A&M team with a QB that will scramble a lot. We can either be aggressive to wear him out and put him in really difficult situations, or we can be passive and try to prevent any big plays. I'm concerned i know what the answer is going to be, at least the first half.
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It really wasn't that, at least on the plays I picked out. It was just straight up blown coverage; someone should have had the flat but they didn't. It was probably supposed to be something like cover 2 cloud but both the corner and the nickel took the deep half when one of them, prob the nickel, needed to take the flat.
 
Dale

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I don’t think Moore in particular got out of position because he had a prevent mindset, he was trying to jump other routes and vacated his responsibilities. He wanted to cover routes that were not his to do so.
 
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Great thoughts everyone.

My assessment is that ND was concerned Beck might hit some big plays, especially early on. They did not want to put pressure on CJ and the offense to have to match that. Therefore we saw a conservative defense whose job was to force Miami to sustain long drives.

I suspect they also hoped the talent of the secondary or maybe a bad read on the man/zone mix could create an INT at some point.

Honestly if one play goes differently they would have succeeded in this plan at least for the first half. You could argue the first half was still per plan and just had some bad luck.

The TD drive to start the second half was a failure. At that point ND really needed to be more aggressive on defense.
 
Veritate Duce Progredi

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I think Ash created a passive game plan. Our LBs never looked like the aggressors, rarely firing downhill/stopping runners for zero/minimal gain. The game plan did present opportunities for turnovers and the team failed to capitalize. The circus catch TD was exactly the throw you wanted to see until Shuler froze and the Miami WR made the best catch of his life.

I hated what I saw from the defense. We looked overmatched against Miami. This team has far too much talent to look like that. The most discouraging thing was when we needed the defense to get the stop, it failed. Miami's failed drives often looked like a product of poor execution on their part and only occasionally a product of the defense overwhelming them or dictating.

If Ash doesn't put a better product on the field next Saturday, Freeman will remember this hire as the great "what if". Too much talent to be squandered on a guy who is getting "reacquainted" with calling plays live. I'm rarely this negative on coaches or players but I hated watching Bowen stand flat footed waiting for the RB to get to him. Go find the Bowen highlight where he fills counter against TAMU last year. Find me a single rep where he looked that aggressive against Miami.

I was extremely unimpressed on Ash's first data point. I hope his chart shows positive growth for the rest of the season.
 
FWIrish4

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Did anyone catch the II pod and O’Malley’s defensive statistics he threw out? I thought it was very interesting that Ash actually started out very aggressive and had success, but for some reason moved away from it after the 1st quarter.

I want to chalk it up as a new D coordinator getting to know the players and back calling plays for almost a decade. The realist in me is worried because he deviated from what made the defense great last year and what was actually working to start the game.

Per O’Malley on the pod:
- 30 dropbacks for Beck and ND ran press coverage for 14 of them.
- Beck was just 7/14 on those dropbacks
- Beck was 13/16 on non press/zone coverage (basically pitch and catch)
- 1Q Miami ran 20 plays with 11 of them passes
- 7 of those 11 dropbacks ND brought pressure with 6 or more (unsure if he’s counting greendogs by the linebacker or other)
- how successful was Miami’s O in the 1Q?

I’m hopeful that adjustments are made for game 2 back to ND’s more aggressive style that we’re used to. But, I’m also concerned because they stopped doing what was successful in-game and also didn’t play to their clear strengths showing statistical success against the pass.
 
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Hautian Domer

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Dale said:


Amateur charting incoming
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Look at the pressure the defensive line is generating. Pathetic. Take specific note at the 2:39 mark. Inexcusable. Unacceptable.

Look at the blitzes from our LBs too. They run directly into contact and not open space. Their blitzes aren’t getting home or have any purpose. Worse than I thought
 
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irishandy

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With Freeman being a defensive guy I feel that he would step in if needed and make adjustments.

I felt like our defense improved later in the game and had our defense played that way early on, ND comes out with a win.

We are 1 game in the books, a loss by 3, I am not in freak out mode yet.
 
Terry Jillery

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All I know is I rewatched Indiana, Georgia, PSU, and OSU games this week and that defense Sunday night was some other team with some other coach.
 
Veritate Duce Progredi

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This guy could make chicken shit out of ahi tuna and a t-bone.

This will single-handedly go down as Freeman's biggest hiring gaffe. This TAMU team is not that impressive but they've been WIDE open on so many plays. How many times did we give up 70+ yd scoring plays last year?
 
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