Defensive Coordinator Search 2020

[tko]

Wonder if a guy like Jim Leonhard would take a call from ND or even have an interest? I'm assuming, like Lea, he wants a HC job in the near future. Probably looking at staying at Wiscy to take over?

 

[IrishRazor82]

Can Jim Leonard be taken from his alma matter? I'd prefer a younger guy who has the energy to put into recruiting if one's available.

 

[tko]

Can Jim Leonard be taken from his alma matter? I'd prefer a younger guy who has the energy to put into recruiting if one's available.

Razor!!!!!!

 

[IrishRazor82]

Haha I promise it was an original thought. Great minds.

 

[Rogue219]

I am leaning toward Seth Wallace right now. If they can get the guy from UNC that would be a great hire as well.

Definitely keeping an eye on Stockton and Crum down the road.

 

[rtrn2glory]

Can Jim Leonard be taken from his alma matter? I'd prefer a younger guy who has the energy to put into recruiting if one's available.

I agree....Hartline at Ohio St has proven this from a recruiting perspective. Is there any young position coaches with NFL experience that could do this?

 

[Rogue219]

Diaco
Van Gorder
Elko
Lovie Smith
Tony Dungy

All a hard no.

Freeman is the dream guy I think, but Wallace and Bateman seem like more viable choices at this juncture.

Maybe Kelly goes from within and snags another assistant like he did when Elko left. Whoever it is, have to hope they're good. Whoever the guy is would be in a situation with some toys on the shelf to play with, that's for sure.

 

[PANDFAN]

I am leaning toward Seth Wallace right now. If they can get the guy from UNC that would be a great hire as well.

Definitely keeping an eye on Stockton and Crum down the road.

NO thanks! we should be getting top tier guys or very wanted guys....he doesn't move the needle for me...

 

[IrishLax]

Any option besides promoting Elston (or someone else on staff) is probably the wrong short term option. We have a system that works that we've been recruiting to for four years. Continuity is the most important thing.

If an internal promotion doesn't work, it was low risk and you move on from them in 1-2 years.

 

[Irish YJ]

https://www.si.com/college/notredame/football/notre-dame-football-defensive-coordinator-candidates

 

[PANDFAN]

Any option besides promoting Elston (or someone else on staff) is probably the wrong short term option. We have a system that works that we've been recruiting to for four years. Continuity is the most important thing.

If an internal promotion doesn't work, it was low risk and you move on from them in 1-2 years.

I approve this message! this is 100% where i am at....Don't mess what is working and what guys have been recruited for in terms of specific positions....i will be extremely disappointed if we go any other way besides Brett venables coming over after we beat them

 

[IrishFanJMercy]

I think the top guy should be Marcus Freeman he is the new hot coach and up and coming younger guy who should help with recruiting. He is also from Ohio which is rich with football talent so it shouldn't hurt to have a guy from that area. He also went to Ohio State and has NFL experience as a player.

 

[IrishRazor82]

https://www.si.com/college/notredame/football/notre-dame-football-defensive-coordinator-candidates

I agree with their point on Freeman, in that you need an outside voice. Even if Elston would otherwise be a good DC, if he's not Lea, it subconsciously sticks in the players/staffs minds. That little devil in your ear manifests quickly at a high pressure place like ND.

It just so happens that Lea was Elko, but even better.

 

[SoIll]

Lovie Smith?

No No and fvck No.

Dude wouldn't recruit. Illinois high school coaches hate him. Zero enthusiasm

 

[FDNYIrish1]

I’m intrigued by Seth Wallace from Iowa now. I like the scheme continuity with his success and player development.

 

[Irish YJ]

I agree with their point on Freeman, in that you need an outside voice. Even if Elston would otherwise be a good DC, if he's not Lea, it subconsciously sticks in the players/staffs minds. That little devil in your ear manifests quickly at a high pressure place like ND.

It just so happens that Lea was Elko, but even better.

I haven't dug into the candidates yet, but I do agree with some of the points. I read another article pretty much making the same point too, but also went deep into why not to choose Elston. It wasn't really a bag on Elston, but suggested he's too important to the DL, and would likely move to LBs if moved to the DC.

While I would prefer to stay with the current scheme, I'm not closed to some tweaks. And if you can tell Elston to stick to the script, you can likely find an outside hire who runs a similar scheme, or at least is smart enough to adapt to minor tweaks while staying on script.

Also, we may have a totally different perspective in the coming weeks if Clemson, or someone in the CFP curb stomps our D.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Bob Davie is available.....

 

[ulukinatme]

Boob Davie is available.....

FIFY

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh my god... did ESPN really put the name "Boob Davie" on Bob Davie's lower during the 2005 Purdue vs. Notre Dame game or is this all part of an elaborate hoax?! <a href="https://t.co/9kZ6PyUaXY">pic.twitter.com/9kZ6PyUaXY</a></p>— Jessica Smetana (@jessica_smetana) <a href="https://twitter.com/jessica_smetana/status/1026558971669344257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[irish4ever]

No No and fvck No.

Dude wouldn't recruit. Illinois high school coaches hate him. Zero enthusiasm

Plus, he's 62 yrs old, so do you think that he's going to change his mind on how he calls pays, does recruiting, etc.? Well said... No No and fvck No!!!

 

[Irishize]

Freeman or Wallace are my top two choices.

 

[Classic Irish]

Lovie Smith?

While at Illinois, he always looked like he was just going through the motions—-as if he were there just to collect a paycheck. No thanks.

 

[SoIll]

While at Illinois, he always looked like he was just going through the motions—-as if he were there just to collect a paycheck. No thanks.

yep. never made adjustments. TAMPA 2 NO MATTER WHAT! But hey its Littyville!

 

[317Irish]

I think we’re oversimplifying the ability to continue on with the current defensive scheme and keep up the results. Elko and Lea are proficient in not only running the D, but countering anything the offense throws at us while staying in the same scheme. IF Elston or Joseph were to stick with the same scheme (they both presumably have more experience with other styles of defense, though BK might nix the idea of them implementing something else), can we really expect their minimal experience in working with Elko and Lea to be enough to run that style with anywhere near the success those two had?

 

[InKellyWeTrust]

I just want to enjoy the moment. Can we let this sink off the front page so I don't have to think about it for a week?

 

[Free Manera]

Freeman or Wallace are my top two choices.

Me too. I think I would go for Freeman, Wallace, and Heacock and if none work out, then keep it in house.

I understand the benefit of consistency. But you have to really believe in the internal hire. If they do (like with Rees), then fine. But you can't hire internally just to hire internally. It has to be that the consistency plus the experience and ability is greater than the experience and ability of the outside hire.

 

[NDRock]

I think we’re oversimplifying the ability to continue on with the current defensive scheme and keep up the results. Elko and Lea are proficient in not only running the D, but countering anything the offense throws at us while staying in the same scheme. IF Elston or Joseph were to stick with the same scheme (they both presumably have more experience with other styles of defense, though BK might nix the idea of them implementing something else), can we really expect their minimal experience in working with Elko and Lea to be enough to run that style with anywhere near the success those two had?

Not sure. One thing to remember, Lea was with Elko for one year at Bowling Green, one at Wake and the the ‘17 season at ND. 3 years in total when he took over. Elston has been coaching in the system for 4 years. Not sure if he is or isn’t the man but I hope he is. Would love to continue the continuity we have.

 

[Wingman Ray]

Not sure. One thing to remember, Lea was with Elko for one year at Bowling Green, one at Wake and the the ‘17 season at ND. 3 years in total when he took over. Elston has been coaching in the system for 4 years. Not sure if he is or isn’t the man but I hope he is. Would love to continue the continuity we have.

Unless there is an issue with Elston being the DC. Lots of people are really good at doing a specific role but not so good when over multiple things. Just saying as I dont know a thing about the guy on that level.

I would think if there are NO issues and Elston WANTS the role only to have BK give it to an outside hire then that may cause some issues...

 

[Rogue219]

NO thanks! we should be getting top tier guys or very wanted guys....he doesn't move the needle for me...

What about his resume doesn't move the needle for you? Guy seems to be recruiting at a good level at UNC. He helped get Army going again.

I'm curious as to how top tier or very wanted Elko and Lea were upon their appointments as DC at Notre Dame.

ND hiring Bateman after what he's done thus far at UNC, Army and Ball State would not be the worst thing that ever happened to your football viewing experience.

 

[Rogue219]

Found a free article via the Google Machine:

The Method Behind Jay Bateman's Defensive Madness
ByGREG BARNES
Jul 16, 2019

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – By the time North Carolina’s spring game kicked off in April, Mack Brown had seen enough of Jay Bateman’s defense to know that his rhetoric regarding attacking schemes was factual. That afternoon the public received a 64-play sampling of Bateman’s approach at Kenan Stadium, and while spring games are notoriously vanilla, there was seemingly constant pressure for the offense to navigate in the glorified scrimmage.

“Jay Bateman's defense blitzes every play,” Brown told reporters after the game. “There's somebody coming every play and you don't know who they are.”

Maybe it’s a matter of semantics, or possibly adherence to the decades-old football axiom that labels any non-lineman rush as a blitz, but Bateman disagrees. While the concept of a blitz-heavy scheme is often romanticized in the testosterone-fueled arena of college football, it also suggests a no-holds-barred carelessness that doesn’t match Bateman’s concepts.

His 2018 defense at Army led the nation in DB havoc rate (10.0), which is calculated by adding up the total number of tackles for loss, passes defensed and forced fumbles and dividing it by total plays, and ranked 18th in overall havoc rate (18.9), according to footballoutsiders.com. Yet in manufacturing that success Bateman blitzed six defenders just once in 688 plays defended last season.

“It’s simple math - every time you add one more rusher, you take away from the coverage,” Bateman said. “So if you're rushing four and dropping seven, you can play all of the coverages known to man. If you rush five and drop six, well, now there's starting to be holes in the coverage. And then if you rush six, now there's major holes in the coverage …

“It's my job to try to find a way to bring the least amount of players and have the most in coverage and create the most havoc.”
Bateman, who turned 46 on Tuesday, has crafted his defense over 23 years and seven stops. His first coaching gig was at Hampden-Sydney as the program’s defensive coordinator at the age of 23. He’s been a defensive coordinator in all but one year since his start in 1997, thereby providing plenty of trials and errors. His coaching destinations have come at places not known as powerhouse football programs – stops such as Siena, Elon, Ball State and Army – which required creative defensive adjustments to counter superior opponents.

“The main thing I try to do is find who our best 11 players are and play those guys,” Bateman said. “If you have a defense that, I have to have this kind of guy and this kind of guy, and you don't have that kind of player or that player gets hurt, all of a sudden the defense suffers. So you need to have enough multiplicity in your defense that you can manipulate your coverages, your run fronts, however you're trying to defend people, with who's available to you.”

Bateman is on the leading edge of a dynamic shift in football to what amounts to position-less schemes. Strict definitions for all 11 positions is only beneficial for teams with the talent to impose their will. For all others, erasing those constructs and highlighting certain players’ strengths while disguising their weaknesses helps to level the playing field.

“The more a kid can do, the more likely you can use him to create havoc,” Bateman said. “So if you have a defensive end who can drop into coverage and do a pretty good job in coverage, that allows you to bring a fourth rusher that's not him and cause issues. People talk about hybrids all the time. That's a great term, but to me everybody on our defense has to be a hybrid.”

Bateman has used the analogy of Revolutionary War tactics to describe his approach. While wars waged on battlefields hundreds of years ago utilized volley fire as a primary tactic, quality depth and marksmanship commonly won out. It’s akin to lining up against Clemson and Alabama in a base defense and expecting to consistently beat their litany of five stars with four down linemen at the line of scrimmage. Bateman’s counter is to apply as much pressure as possible by disguising his coverages and sending defenders the offense is not expecting.

In an effort to teach his assistants his method, Bateman ran film cutups and froze the screen shortly after the snap before asking his coaches what the offense sees and then what the defense could do different. What if the backside linebacker blitzed? Or maybe the nickelback thought to be covering the slot? By blitzing from different positions out of the same package, offenses are unable to key on certain players in pre-snap calls, thereby leading to confusion.

The Glen Allen, Va. native teaches his scheme to his players at each level of the defense. The secondary may be taught a certain look with the knowledge that two defenders will be dropping into coverage - without knowing which two - while the defensive line is taught its assignments without worrying about the coverage on the back end. The coaching staff will then determine who actually blitzes during game prep for each opponent, which allows for consistent base schemes and coverages with weekly tweaks.

Bateman has heard offensive coordinators suggest that he’s got a hundred blitzes, although in actuality, he only teaches six to his players. By changing fronts and disguising coverages, defenders simply switch jobs, thereby appearing to be a different blitz to opponents without complicating matters for his own players.

“The thing that I like that about what Jay Bateman does on defense is the fact it's multi-fronted and it’s multi-coverages on the back end,” co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen said. “You never know where a squat corner is going to be, you never know where the rotation of a safety is going to be and you never know what (scheme) the front is going to be in, so there's hesitation.”

Bateman’s defense, which blends schematic elements from elite minds such as LSU’s Dave Aranda and Texas A&M’s Mike Elko, has been widely described as working out of a 3-4 base, albeit somewhat inaccurately. Brown told reporters during spring ball that Army roughly split snaps out of 3-4 and 4-3 fronts last season, while Bateman suggested such a designation is “overrated” due to most defenses utilizing multiple fronts nowadays.

“If you line up the same way every time and they know where you are and they know what coverage you're going to be in, I think it's very easy to attack you,” Bateman said. “The thing offensive coordinators have gotten so much better at in the last 15 years or so is that they will take the easy play all the time…. My thing now is I'm going to call defensive plays. I'm going to dictate to you. We're going to solve our problems with aggression. If I'm pressuring and you have to deal with that, that limits how many plays you can run.”

Regardless of how complicated a defense may appear, an offense can neuter its opponent with an effective rushing attack, a fact that Bateman has reiterated at his various stops. Army ranked 40th nationally in yards per carry allowed (3.86) and 56th in Bill Connelly’s rushing S&P+, an advanced metric that combines efficiency, explosiveness, field position, finishing drives and turnovers. Bateman has a significant challenge ahead in his first season at the Power 5 level as run defense has been a constant weakness for UNC in recent years. The Tar Heels have not ranked in the top-60 nationally in the yards-per-carry-allowed statistic since the 2012 season.

 

[317Irish]

Not sure. One thing to remember, Lea was with Elko for one year at Bowling Green, one at Wake and the the ‘17 season at ND. 3 years in total when he took over. Elston has been coaching in the system for 4 years. Not sure if he is or isn’t the man but I hope he is. Would love to continue the continuity we have.

Good points. Yes, I agree that if we could find a way to keep the D at the same level and with the same scheme it would be ideal.