Chris "Belt To" Ash - Defensive Coordinator

Old Man Mike

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I'm going to guess that Ash himself needed to shake off his newbie-ism and decide to quit being conservative and letting these guys use their abilities. "Go for the Win; not the close game." ... so, I'm guessing that the improvement in "mentality" that we see is part Ash growing into the ND pressure and part not facing the better teams.
 

Islandboi

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Ok. Hear ya boi out. This change in the Defenses performance. May. Just may. Have something to do with Freeman having more input after the 1st couple of games? Just speculation at this point. But it just seems to my uneducated eyes. That something has drastically changed. The guys seem to be more aggressive. Not anticipating.

Ill say this. If ND had a warm up game before playing Miami or A&M. There's a very good chance that this team is not only undefeated. But ranked #1 in the nation. Am I crazy for believing that?

Is Miami good? Ahhhh. Maybe. How about the Aggies? Same. Carr is the real deal. And hes only going to get better. You can see his knowledge of reading Defenses getting better not only game by game. But quarter by quarter. This kid can/could be special. Now I might be out over my skies some of you old heads might say. I haven't been following ND for near as long nor as far close of some of you.

So let's get started. Couple of questions for the seasoned ND fans.

Where would you rank Carr among ND QBs at this point? And why? Is he as good as Clausen? Quinn? Hell. Ill throw in Tommy Reesus too. Carr seems ultra competitive. But with all that. If that kid can focus. And not worry about when and if he makes mistakes. Ill say it. Some may not agree. But he will be very good. If not special. Kid got Moxy. And I think that he not only believes not only in himself. But the ability of those around him.

D issss looking better. Again like I said earlier. I don't think this is just Ash adjusting. I believe that either Mikens or Freeman now has input in the Defenses schemes.

Last thing. This ND offense is only gonna get better. If this D can hold up. I don't see any team being able to keep pace. Just my thoughts. Go easy fellas. Lol
 

DONTH8

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Ok. Hear ya boi out. This change in the Defenses performance. May. Just may. Have something to do with Freeman having more input after the 1st couple of games? Just speculation at this point. But it just seems to my uneducated eyes. That something has drastically changed. The guys seem to be more aggressive. Not anticipating.

Ill say this. If ND had a warm up game before playing Miami or A&M. There's a very good chance that this team is not only undefeated. But ranked #1 in the nation. Am I crazy for believing that?

Is Miami good? Ahhhh. Maybe. How about the Aggies? Same. Carr is the real deal. And hes only going to get better. You can see his knowledge of reading Defenses getting better not only game by game. But quarter by quarter. This kid can/could be special. Now I might be out over my skies some of you old heads might say. I haven't been following ND for near as long nor as far close of some of you.

So let's get started. Couple of questions for the seasoned ND fans.

Where would you rank Carr among ND QBs at this point? And why? Is he as good as Clausen? Quinn? Hell. Ill throw in Tommy Reesus too. Carr seems ultra competitive. But with all that. If that kid can focus. And not worry about when and if he makes mistakes. Ill say it. Some may not agree. But he will be very good. If not special. Kid got Moxy. And I think that he not only believes not only in himself. But the ability of those around him.

D issss looking better. Again like I said earlier. I don't think this is just Ash adjusting. I believe that either Mikens or Freeman now has input in the Defenses schemes.

Last thing. This ND offense is only gonna get better. If this D can hold up. I don't see any team being able to keep pace. Just my thoughts. Go easy fellas. Lol
I've read 2 of this guy's posts. And I just gotta say. Love the vibe. 🤙🏼
 

Jiggafini19Deux

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It's been over a month and five games. Ash now knows what he's got in terms of what's on the two deep. It's unfortunate that their first two games were against two very good teams.

I think the idea that Freeman is behind the scenes fixing this all by himself is very shortsighted and petty, too. He was still head coach six weeks ago, too. Have to give Ash, Washington, Burrough and Mickens some credit. The unit has improved significantly the last 2.5 games.
 

IrishSpartan

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Finally got aggressive this week but I did start screaming at the TV when that stupid soft zone came out late again.
 
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LifelongFan

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You can't put guys like Sneed, Bowen, Traore, Shuler, and Tae on a leash. This week they were unleashed and they will find a way to make plays. Golden understood that. Someone in the building should have let Ash know before Week 4. These guys were brought in to be aggressive. Let them do it.
 

LifelongFan

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I still think we beat A&M if Shuler didn't get that bullshit targeting. We are better than them and Miami and will show it the rest of the season and in any rematch.
 

SportsingHard

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You can't put guys like Sneed, Bowen, Traore, Shuler, and Tae on a leash. This week they were unleashed and they will find a way to make plays. Golden understood that. Someone in the building should have let Ash know before Week 4. These guys were brought in to be aggressive. Let them do it.
They were unleashed quite a bit early on in the season, but you can't just keep sending the house when the house can't do shit.
 

arrowryan

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The defense has been so much better. We were so critical of Ash (deserved), but he has really responded.

I still want to see continued improvement in communication in the secondary. I’m sure two true freshmen DBs logging heavy minutes contributes to some communication miscues.

Boise State had a 4th & 2. The WR at the top of the screen motions down to create a 3x1. Doing so made Notre Dame declare they are in man coverage. The motioning WR runs into the flat and is open; Madsen looked at him but, for some reason, didn’t throw it. There appeared to be some sort of miscommunication between Gray and Golden.

Just something I’d like to see get cleaned up.
 

Dale

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Would be curious what our points against is with Johnson, Shuler, Gray, Moore & Golden/Smith on the field.
 

NDFAN2008

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Gotta give credit where credit is do, also against A&M moore was banged up Smith didn't play. Miami is a offensive juggernaut. I wanna see how we do against USC, keep them under 21 and I think this defense can be great. It's only going to get better next year though. Everyone at DE, LB, Corner should return, and we alone loose Smith at NB. Biggest question mark will be DT (Hinish, Hughes, Mullins) need some other guys to step up.
 

Jiggafini19Deux

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The defense has been so much better. We were so critical of Ash (deserved), but he has really responded.

I still want to see continued improvement in communication in the secondary. I’m sure two true freshmen DBs logging heavy minutes contributes to some communication miscues.

Boise State had a 4th & 2. The WR at the top of the screen motions down to create a 3x1. Doing so made Notre Dame declare they are in man coverage. The motioning WR runs into the flat and is open; Madsen looked at him but, for some reason, didn’t throw it. There appeared to be some sort of miscommunication between Gray and Golden.

Just something I’d like to see get cleaned up.
Sounds like a job for Mike Mickens.
 

irish4ever

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They currently have the #1 rated offense in all of CFB, so it'll be interesting to see how they fare against Michigan and then ND back-to-back. Anything under 28 should be good enough to win.
Really, really hoping that U$C pulls it out this wk against scUM. That would be two-fold for me ... scUM loses and hopefully puts U$C into the top 25 AP for the BIG game at Touchdown Jesus! Go Irish :headbang:
 

PolishDomer

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Really, really hoping that U$C pulls it out this wk against scUM. That would be two-fold for me ... scUM loses and hopefully puts U$C into the top 25 AP for the BIG game at Touchdown Jesus! Go Irish :headbang:
I cannot and will not ever root for USC...nor Michigan
 

KMac151993

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They are getting better. The yo-yo motion still confuses the back end like crazy and any good coach will just run that over and over.
 

NDFAN2008

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They currently have the #1 rated offense in all of CFB, so it'll be interesting to see how they fare against Michigan and then ND back-to-back. Anything under 28 should be good enough to win.
Correct they have a decent DL but their LB's and Secondary are awful
 

Ndaccountant

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They currently have the #1 rated offense in all of CFB, so it'll be interesting to see how they fare against Michigan and then ND back-to-back. Anything under 28 should be good enough to win.
Agree. They moved the ball well last year. Will be a good test. I feel gross saying this, but I hope they win a slugfest with UM this weekend. Two physical games back to back should play to NDs advantage.
 

Dale

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USCs offense is definitely good but the sample size is rough. Carr and Altmyer (ILL) both had better days than Maiava against Purdue. Similar with Dylan Lonergan (BC) against Michigan St. Mendoza better day against Illinois, similar to Mensah (Duke).

They haven’t played a pulse on defense.
 

Firevangorder

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Man it's frustrating that "Ash figuring it out" is just doing exactly what we had success with last year. It shouldn't have taken an entire spring and fall camp plus 10 quarters of football for him to get to that point. That should have been the starting point. Maybe I'm being unfair but I just can't give the dude any credit for taking 5 weeks to get to where we should have been day 1 of spring practice.
 
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