Brian Kelly Gives Brian VanGorder Ringing Endorsement

In December, Irish head coach Brian Kelly danced around the question of defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder’s job performance in his two seasons at Notre Dame.

That wasn’t the case Wednesday.

Kelly rejected the premise that Notre Dame had to “sell” recruits on its defense or the scheme of VanGorder after the coordinator’s unit struggled often again in 2015.

“I didn't have to sell it,” said Kelly, who signed a six-year contract extension last week. “I've got a great defensive coordinator in Brian VanGorder, great experience, former Broyles Award winner, is [one of the most] outstanding assistant coaches in the country. Look, we made a pretty substantial change in defensive philosophy from a 3-4 two-gapping defense that played cover two, to a 4-3 attacking defense that played cover one. That's a huge change, and it requires a bit of a transition.”

Part of the transition included surrendering 5.57 yards per play last season, which ranked 64th in the nation with a number of starters that have piqued the interest of professional scouts.

During Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl preparations in Arizona, VanGorder used the word “inconsistent” several times to discuss the 2015 defense.

“That’s really what the season shows,” he said. “For the most part they’ve been really good, but there’s four or five or six plays a game that are hard to explain. We don’t like that, and these are young players. They’re all developing. They’re all involved in a process of developing. The process is different for all of them. We’ve just had some inconsistencies. That’s player and that’s coach responsibility. We’ve got to coach it better. Players have got to play it better consistently.”

Any doubts that Kelly was prepared to give VanGorder a third season in South Bend were laid to rest with the head coach’s ringing endorsement Wednesday.

“As we were transitioning, we were winning some football games along the way,” Kelly said. “We're not where we want to be defensively and we're not going to apologize for the fact that we had injuries. We had injuries. But we're going to play great defense under Brian VanGorder and the staff that we've put together.”

The understandable question is when.

“It was an opportunity to play at Notre Dame under a coach that has had great success coaching football at the college level and the NFL level and an opportunity, a great opportunity, as evidenced by the seven defensive backs that we were able to encourage to come to Notre Dame,” Kelly added.

In 2016, the Irish will replace six defensive starters, including linebacker Jaylon Smith, the Butkus Award winner. Notre Dame hopes the comfort of the personnel being in its third year of this defensive installation will more than offset the loss of talent.