FOOTBALL: Defense makes changes in the background
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
During the first 20 minutes of the typical Notre Dame football practice — the only time the media can watch the Irish practice — dozens of eyes focus on receivers running long pass patterns or quarterbacks practicing three-step drops.
If Kent Baer notices all the attention the offense gets, he doesn't care. He's too busy coaching the defense.
"It doesn't matter to me," the defensive coordinator said about the relative lack of media attention devoted to the defense this spring. "I don't care who gets the credit. As long as we win."
With most of the attention this spring swirling around who's going to run the West Coast-type offense, Baer has quietly stressed aggressiveness, intensity and fundamentals to a defense that finished No. 14 in the nation in yards allowed last season.
While many elements of last year's defense will still remain in place, Baer said there will be some changes — changes he's working on getting into place this spring.
"They'll need to learn the language, and there's a lot of new things we're doing," Baer said. "There is some carryover, but there's still some things they've got to learn."
"It's weird," linebacker Courtney Watson said. "You could be calling something the same thing for two years and now all of a sudden you're basically doing the same thing and calling it something different. You gotta make decisions fast, but you get out there and think so much and then you play slower."
But the Irish are slowly making progress from the first day of spring practice. On day one, they missed reads and botched assignments. Now, six practices and a scrimmage later, things are beginning to fall into place.
"[Our mistakes were] very evident in the first couple of practices," Watson said. "But now, we're starting to get our checks down."
Baer doesn't plan to make too many changes to Notre Dame's defense. The Irish will still rely on linebackers to make reads and execute blitzes.
If anything, the new defensive staff will have to adjust to the various styles of offense used by teams on Notre Dame's schedule. Baer already cringes at the thought of preparing for Air Force's option attack one week and then adjusting to Florida State's speedy offense the next.
"We faced a wide diversity of offenses [at Stanford]," Baer said. "The biggest difference is we're going to see some option and wishbone teams, and that's what I'm concerned with."
Head coach Ty Willingham and Baer only have one deadline on when they want the defense to be running full speed — Notre Dame's season opener on Aug. 31 against Maryland. For now, they understand that the players have a lot to learn.
"We've got guys that are doing some good things, the energy level is very high," Willingham said. "At the same time, the execution at all times is not where you want it to be."
"I just hope we continue to make progress," Baer said. "I'm not setting a standard, as long as we continue to make progress on a daily basis, then by Aug. 31 we should be where we want to be.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 16, 2002
