Notre Dame DC Marcus Freeman Has Some Important Decisions To Make On Defense

Notre Dame's newly hired defensive coordinator needs to figure out what his base defense will look like, and do it quickly

Notre Dame made a huge splash this offseason when it hired Marcus Freeman to be its next defensive coordinator. The talented young assistant coach is expected to not only keep Notre Dame's defense playing well, but to make it even better, and he has the chops to do it.

But Freeman has some decisions to make, and those decisions must be made immediately. The first is what look will he build his base defense around. Freeman has run four-down looks during his career, he's been part of 3-4 units and he ran a 3-3-5 the last few seasons at Cincinnati.

He must decide which of these alignments will serve as the base of his defense, and then the versatility that made him so effective will need to be built around that. It's important to make this base decision because it will determine who lines up where, and that could have an impact on how certain players are developed this offseason.

For example, if Freeman decided to go with a base three-down defense there's a chance players like Jayson Ademilola, Rylie Mills and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa could be more edge players, and they'll spend less time playing inside over guards. If that is the case the need to add weight decreases, especially for Ademilola and Mills, two athletic but undersized players that would need to add more size to be every down interior players.

Where they are going to play is going to have a significant impact on the plan that strength coach Matt Balis and his crew will implement with them.

It could also require some players to make a shift to linebacker. If Notre Dame goes with a four-down look then not much will change from what we currently see from a position standpoint. If Freeman decides to go with a three-down look then it will shake things up with the defensive line.

So who plays where if Notre Dame does go with a three-down look? Here's my best take based on what I've seen on film from Freeman's defense at Cincinnati and the skillset of the returning Irish players.

Here's a look at the base 3-down look from Freeman:

On the depth chart, Cincinnati didn't specify between the two end spots, so this is a name I'm giving to this position until we know more about how Freeman will label them. In Notre Dame's previous defense the strongside end, its power end, would line up to the field side, which is the wide side of the field. In the photo above the field side is to the defense's left.

In Cincinnati's defense the Power End wasn't lined up to the strongside when it was in a base 3-down look, which is why I didn't call the Power End a strongside player. The Power End needs to be a bigger player, because when the defense goes to its four-down looks the Power End will slide inside and take over the role of a three-technique defensive tackle.

The Defensive End is more of an athletic, pass rusher type. If you look at the four players that made up the two end positions in the Cincinnati depth chart, that group of four dropped into coverage a grand total of 11 times, combined (according to Pro Football Focus).

That would mean if Freeman uses the same structure at Notre Dame the drop end position would be eliminated. Working with the premise that Notre Dame will use a 3-man base, here's my best projection at who will play where, looking strictly at the current defensive linemen on the Irish roster. (Class refers to eligibility)

POWER END

95 Myron Tagovaioa-Amosa - 6-2½, 286, 5th
57 Jayson Ademilola - 6-3, 279, Sr.
99 Rylie Mills - 6-5, 259, Soph.
56 Howard Cross III - 6-1, 265, R-Jr.
98 Alexander Ehrensberger - 6-7, 247, R-Fr.
-- Jason Onye - 6-5, 245, Fr.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE

41 Kurt Hinish - 6-2, 296, 5th
54 Jacob Lacey - 6-2, 293, Jr.
92 Aidan Keanaaina - 6-3, 302, R-Fr.
-- Gabriel Rubio - 6-5, 285, Fr.

DEFENSIVE END

7 Isaiah Foskey - 6-5, 255, R-Soph.
19 Justin Ademilola - 6-2, 248, Sr.
17 Jordan Botelho
18 NaNa Osafo-Mensah - 6-3½, 249, R-Soph.
-- Devin Aupiu - 6-5, 225, Fr.
-- Will Schweitzer - 6-5, 225, Fr.

There are a number of players that would greatly benefit from this alignment. Players like Jayson Ademilola, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and Rylie Mills would get more work playing on the edge, which plays to their athleticism and should both all of their draft profiles, if they handle playing on the edge.

This alignment would also better suit Isaiah Foskey's skillset, much more than being more of a drop player. Foskey reminds me a great deal of Myjai Sanders, a 6-5, 258-pound player who manned the end spot at Cincinnati. Sanders led Cincinnati with 10.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks in 2020.

Jordan Botelho and Will Schweitzer could play the power end spot, but there's also a chance they could get a look at the weakside linebacker position, which is much closer to the drop end position in the previous Notre Dame defense than it is either of the end spots in this three-down look.

In 2019, Cincinnati used what it called a Jack position, which is also a spot that we could see Botelho and Schweitzer. That position was played by 6-4, 248-pound Michael Pitts, who led Cincinnati in sacks that season. We didn't see as much of that Jack position in 2020, as Cincinnati went with a more pure 3-3-5 alignment this past season.

It shows Freeman's ability to adjust his defense based on the strengths of his current personnel. Pitts finished his career in 2019, and Cincinnati didn't have anyone like him on the field in 2020.

I am not advocating for this alignment, but I do think Notre Dame has personnel that could handle this alignment quite well. My question is how much would Freeman alternate between three-down and four-down personnel, and which players have to be sort of hybrid players that play end in a three-point stance (hand down) and also have to learn to play in a two-point stance (standing up).

Related Content:

Film Room: Marcus Freeman Will Use Multiple Fronts/Looks on Defense

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