Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Brian VanGorder is gone. Now what for Notre Dame?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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With the news that Brian Kelly has fired defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, what can Irish fans expect from the Notre Dame defense moving forward?

What thousands of Notre Dame fans have been clamoring for for weeks finally happened Sunday afternoon, as Irish head coach Brian Kelly formally announced that he has “relieved” defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder of his duties.

This news is, understandably, being lauded by fans as a necessary move for the Irish to recover from a disastrous 1-3 start to a season some though could see the Irish in the College Football Playoff. There is just no denying that the ND defense was terrible through four games. The stats, the results and the on-field product are all embarrassing, especially given how well DeShone Kizer has been playing.

#NotreDame D now 103rd overall (454 ypg), 101st in ppg (33.5), 104th in yards per play (6.18), 96th in rushing (201), 87th in passing (253).

— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) September 25, 2016

More: #NotreDame D 110th in completion % (64%), 94th in passing yards (1,012), 81st in passing TDs (7), 99th in 20+ yard completions (16).

— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) September 25, 2016

That’s out of 128 FBS teams in the country. There’s just no way around it. If the defense was even mediocre instead of flat-out terrible, the Irish could be, conceivably, 3-1 or even 4-0.

OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to look forward. Believe it or not, Notre Dame still has eight games left in the regular season, and if the team wants to play in a bowl game, they’re going to have to play above-.500 football the rest of the way. That starts this next Saturday with Syracuse, a 2-2 foe that, much like Duke, the Irish are vastly superior to in terms of talent.

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But if you think that VanGorder’s dismissal will solve all of ND’s defensive problems, you will almost certainly be disappointed. In fact, things are likely to get even worse before they get better.

Switching coaches midseason is hard. Like really, really hard. No matter how complex and difficult VanGorder’s defensive scheme was, it was what Notre Dame’s defensive players were used to. They had spent the past three years working within it.

And now they will have to adjust to a brand new style from interim DC Greg Hudson. Make no mistake, Hudson will make sweeping changes. He has to, because whatever the Irish were doing before was not working. But that’s going to take time for the players to get used to.

On the flipside of that, Hudson is suddenly in charge of unit he was not expecting to lead this season. It will take him time to adjust to the personnel he has, to mesh with the assistant coaches around him and to get his legs under him.

That’s not even considering the possibility that VanGorder’s firing might be upsetting or mentally challenging for some within Notre Dame’s program. Everyone likes winning and realizes this move was made for that sole reason, but the fact remains that for a lot of younger players, on whom Notre Dame’s defense relies, VanGorder was one of the main coaches they committed to play for. They wouldn’t have come to Notre Dame if they didn’t believe BVG to be a capable coach, and now he’s gone.

Granted, given how the team has played as of late, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn the players had lost their trust in VanGorder and were ready for something new.

But the biggest reason Notre Dame’s defense won’t magically get better now that VanGorder is gone is lack of execution. Brian Kelly harped on it yesterday following the team’s loss to Duke, and today’s news doesn’t change the fact that the Irish tackling was pathetic against the Blue Devils and has been so for quite some time.

From a fundamentals standpoint, Notre Dame is just not up to scratch defensively, and a new coach cannot fix that right away. It’s going to take time. And it’s going to be rough along the way. Brian Kelly just has to hope that Hudson is a miracle worker and Kizer keeps slinging it.