Three things from the article
1) PRACTICE : “You get what you emphasize,” he said. “So we’ve gotta just keep emphasizing it.”
2) LEVERAGE versus IMPOTENCE : Opponents picked up first downs on 41.67 percent of their third downs against Notre Dame’s defense in 2013. Head coach Brian Kelly and the Irish staff believe that is tied closely to the amount of pressure they were able to produce.
“We're going to find other ways to bring pressure,” Kelly said. “…I watched teams in bowl games that on third down, they had a hard time getting off the field, too. You have got to find ways to get after the quarterback, and it's not necessarily just those big guys that put their hand on the ground.”
3) BALANCE : “If you look at the game of football and you go into a game and you get four sacks, most people consider that a pretty good day for the D line,” VanGorder said. “But if you threw it 30 times, I think the question is what happened on the other 26 passes. Affecting the quarterback and changing the pocket on him is what we always emphasize.”