Davie concentrates on defense during spring practices
By TIM CASEY
Assistant Sports Editor
Visions of Stanford's Troy Walters scorching the Notre Dame secondary for 183 yards, of Tennessee's Travis Henry rushing for 132 yards, of Boston College quarterback Tim Hasselbeck throwing for 272 yards and three scores still linger in Bob Davie's mind. Instead of a possible run at a bowl berth, the end of last season became a November to forget for the Irish.
No wonder Davie's main objective entering the spring season is to address his defense.
"Our No. 1 priority, without a doubt, is improving our defense," Davie said at Wednesday's press conference. "At the end of last season, we really bottomed out, for a lot of different reasons. We had a lot of unfortunate things happen, but the bottom line is at the end of the year we couldn't stop people and because of that we couldn't win football games."
In last season's winless November, the Irish defense allowed over 30 points and 385 total yards to each of their four opponents. Against Stanford in the season finale, the Irish allowed 472 total yards, including 385 through the air. For the year they allowed an average of 27.6 points and 383.7 yards per game.
"We spent every second since the end of the season looking at what we did scheme-wise, personnel-wise and technique-wise," Davie said. "I would say [the problems] would be more of not what we did, but how we did it.
"I think at the end of the season we really had a difficult time tackling," Davie added. "And we had a difficult time in our techniques as far as just man-to-man coverage techniques in the secondary."
The secondary will be aided this year by the returns of Brock Williams and Tony Driver from suspensions. Williams, who missed all of last season, is expected to contend for a starting nod at cornerback. As a sophomore Williams started eight of the last 10 games for the Irish, struggling at times but gaining some valuable experience.
Davie also mentioned Clifford Jefferson, Jason Beckstrom, Albert Poree, Shane Walton and walk-on Dwayne Francis as also possibly contributing at cornerback to the 2000 Irish.
Driver has moved from running back to free safety for his senior season. Sophomore Gerome Sapp and senior Justin Smith will challenge Driver for the starting position.
"It's by far the most talented, deep group of guys [in the secondary] we've had," Davie said. "But just saying that will not win us any awards. We've got to play and be productive."
Though he's learned from experience not to promise immediate results, Davie believes the talent is in place to improve his defense.
"It's bigger than just saying we're going to line up in this defense and be more aggressive because of this scheme," Davie said. "It's the overall thing of confidence, not giving up the big play, being able to blitz and play man coverage. We've got no excuses because I think we've got some guys that can do that."
NOTES:
u Spring practice begins Saturday and concludes on April 29 with the annual Blue-Gold game in Notre Dame Stadium.
u 15 Irish players had surgeries in the off-season according to Davie. Only one player, Ryan Roberts, a defensive end, is expected to miss some practice time after back surgery.
u Driver cut a tendon in his left pinky finger during a kitchen mishap recently, according to Davie. He will be ready to practice on Saturday.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, March 30, 2000
