Notre Dame Coordinators Talk Continuity And Takeaways From Spring Practice
Today, Notre Dame's offensive and defensive coordinators spoke with the media after practice. The Irish are over a third of the way through spring practice, and new defensive coordinator Chris Ash and second year offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock had a lot to say in this afternoon's press conference about getting acclimated to this 2025 team, and the state of the union on both sides of the ball.
There's a lot of speculation and promise lingering on both sides of the ball for Notre Dame and head coach Marcus Freeman this spring. The Irish are slated to be one of the top returning teams this upcoming season. Both Coach Ash and Coach Denbrock will play an integral role in the team's success this season.
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You can watch the full press conference here:
Here are some of their comments:
Chris Ash On What's Stood Out To Him This Spring
"These guys are smart players and they can retain information. You can throw a lot at them and you can go from the meeting room, to walk throughs, to the practice field. It doesn't take a lot of reps for these guys to get it. Conceptually, we've been pretty consistent with what's been done here in the past so that helps. I'm just impressed at the volume of what these guys can retain and take from the meeting room to the practice field."
Chris Ash On The Defensive Line
"I see players at all three levels that can make plays and do some things that I'm really excited about. Our interior defensive line is probably better than what I had initially thought. There's more depth there; the two transfers have really fit in nice and done a great job. Jason Onye is a guy that wasn't here for a chunk of last season dealing with personal things. He's back in the mix and doing a great job. That group as a position group has stood out more than anything.
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It's everything. Everything starts up front especially inside if you're going to control the line of scrimmage. You have to have those big guys inside and I think we have them."
Mike Denbrock On Going Into Year Two
"So, year one, you're hoping to establish an identity, a base of what you do and how you do it. You can teach scheme and you try to dig into details as much as you possibly can, but, you have to play games and win games as well. It's kind of a balancing act in year one. Year two gives you a chance to take a deep breathe, assess the things you really liked about what you did, and the things you need to change and adapt to. Year two gives you an opportunity to slow down and really dig into the details.
It's all over the cut ups and the tapes from last year's offensive unit. If we're a little better at the details in situational football, we're going to be really hard to stop. A lot of times, we were the ones stopping ourselves. Getting that stuff cleaned up and getting everybody on the same page in year two is a big piece of the puzzle."
Mike Denbrock On The Difficulty Of Naming A Starter
"At this point, I'd tell you it's going to be incredibly difficult. All three of the guys are playing very consistently, they're making good decisions with the ball, they've got a good understanding of the offense which is obviously a benefit again from going into year two and having a full year under their belt. It's going to come down to some very specific things at the end and we'll evaluate those things as we go. All three guys at this point in the spring have done a really nice job."
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