Notre Dame Football: Irish ready for another playoff run in 2019

Clark Lea’s defense looks to maintain 2018 production

While Notre Dame’s Book-led offense stole the show in 2018, it was the Notre Dame defense that served as the backbone for the Irish throughout the season. In fact, the Notre Dame defense deserves credit for a chunk of Notre Dame’s wins, especially those with former quarterback Brandon Wimbush under center.

It was immediately clear that first-year defensive coordinator Clark Lea had got his unit to completely buy in despite the unexpected loss of coordinator Mike Elko the year before. With a solid assortment of both youth and experience, Lea was able to transform a good defense into one of the nation’s best.

Fast forward to today and Lea is much more focused on maintaining the defense’s current pace than improving upon it after losing numerous key pieces across the board. The dangers of losing such players was put on display against Clemson, made evident by the Irish’s collapse in the wake of cornerback Julian Love’s first half injury.

Lea will now have to find a way to recover not only from the loss of Love, but also the permanent losses of Drue Tranquill, Te’von Coney, and Jerry Tillery, among others. The coaching staff has been grooming some of the underclassmen for these now vacant positions, and it will soon be seen whether or not they are up for the task.