Everything Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said before Irish vs. Florida State

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden spoke to reporters Tuesday about Jaylen Sneed, Tae Johnson, Xavier Watts and more.

Here’s what Golden had to say.

On how junior Notre Dame linebacker Jaylen Sneed performed well against Navy

“I think he would have been practice player of the week before being named player of the week. We told him that going in. He practiced with a lot of confidence, a lot of urgency. He carried that over into the bye week and just what I saw today, same thing. I’m excited about where he is and his focus right now, his urgency. Just keeping it small. If he can keep it small, he’s just going to keep improving and impact the game. He can impact the game when he’s in there.”

On Sneed being the fifth player in the linebacker rotation despite coming in as a five-star recruit

“We don’t really look at it that way. It was just the situation where some of the other guys were playing a little bit more. But he’s got his focus now. Everybody grows and develops and changes at different times in their career. Maybe this is his time. I know the only way it’s going to be that is if he continues to keep it small and do what he’s doing right now. The urgency, the preparation, the focus, the attention to detail – all of that is about three weeks at a really, really high level.”

On Sneed ‘keeping it small’

“Don’t worry about everything you’re talking about: the five-star this, all the expectations. You go to Notre Dame, you won the Butkus [award] or whatever it is. None of that matters. What matters is your growth, your development, your maturity, your ability to execute the defense and then occasionally take it beyond the design that’s on the paper. There’s very few people in the program that can do that.

“He’s one of those guys that can impact a game, whether it’s violent hit against Stanford a year ago, his violent hit against Purdue, causing a fumble; the tackle last week against Navy. Those are big-time plays that, if on all the other ones that maybe he doesn’t have the opportunity to show that, he just does his job, then those plays will avail themselves to him. That’s where he’s cashing in on those right now.”

On Notre Dame freshman Tae Johnson playing cornerback

“I think he really likes the game. He’s long. Anytime you can recruit guys with skillsets – basketball, multiple-sport guy, wide receiver, hand-eye coordination, problem-solver, all those things. I think that’s what’s translating right now for him. Just get him a little taste of it, get him a little call sheet that he can execute and learn and get him ready to go for the home stretch here.”

On if nickel is harder to learn than safety or corner

“Yes.”

On why that is

“You’re playing linebacker one play. You’ve got the hardest matchup a lot of times. You’re defending inside fades or what we call spades. There’s a lot to it. You have to pattern read. If ‘2’ goes out, I go here. If ‘2’ goes vertical, I do this. There’s a lot to it, and [Johnson] can do it someday. I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’ll do it someday. He’s not there yet. He can learn it, but he’s not quite there yet.”

On how graduate student Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts has elevated his game

“I think that’s a great question for him, but there were a couple of challenges when he decided to come back. One was to be more audible and be more vocal. You could probably pick 30 instances on the tape this year where he’s physically, demonstrably and audibly changing something on our defense. Running down, telling Ben something in the Louisville game, going back. That’s command, and it’s undeniable when you can see it as an evaluator. That’s No. 1.

“No. 2, his man-to-man coverage has improved. He really has been challenged a lot, ended up on the slot a lot or No. 3 to the field, and has done a good job. The third thing would be his transitions from the post have become so much better, starting with the A&M game. The first transition in the red zone, they jet motion, he spins; he puts a foot in the ground and hits the alley. Those three things are markedly better than a year ago. I mean, markedly better.”

On what allowed Notre Dame to cut Navy’s yards per play in half from the first half to the second half

I didn’t know that. I could tell you this: We were all disappointed with the explosive runs, only because they were the gun runs. They weren’t the triple-option runs. They were the gun runs that we fit. They weren’t surprise attacks, so we were disappointed in that. At halftime, the guys were kind of resolute about getting that off the plate and they did a really good job.

“The turnovers helped. Field position helps. All those things help. I don’t really have a pinpoint to go back. But I thought we fit the runs good. One of the big differences was when we did swap out, those guys who came in did a really good job defending the triple option, which was great to see.”