Everything Notre Dame linebackers coach Max Bullough said during spring practice

Notre Dame linebackers coach Max Bullough spoke to reporters after Wednesday’s spring practice. Here’s everything he had to say.

On the impact a new coordinator in Chris Ash has had on his position group

I think each year you lose guys and have new guys come in. So each team is completely different from the year before whether you have a new coordinator or not, quite frankly. 

It’s been an adjustment for all of us with Coach Ash coming in, in terms of what we’re doing. Really not changing much, the identity of our defense is going to be the same—little bit different verbiage here and there. So it’s a transition for us. But other than that, man, we’re rolling. 

On if that’s par for the course

Yeah, and it’s less than normal.

On if the Notre Dame linebackers aren’t new to the game anymore

I get what you’re saying. A lot of the guys at the top half have played a lot of football. We don’t just have two guys—like, we got a lot of guys that played a lot of football. Heard a lot of words, a lot of different— played a lot of different defenses. So all they’re doing now is, here’s the word, it means this from last year, ‘okay, boom I got it.’

It’s just word association, because they know it all, right? It’s just now: here’s what we’re calling, so you say ‘Hey, Jaiden, that’s just this last year. It’s as much as that as anything. 

On if he wants to hone in on one position for versatile players like senior Jaylen Sneed and junior Jaiden Ausberry

I think there is time for that, yes, but to be honest with you, from a holistic perspective we’ve kind of done the opposite. Because of the confidence that we have in the room as a whole. It’s been, hey, ‘You guys are out there. You don’t have to be Mike; you don’t have to be Will; you guys can interchange. And that gives the flexibility, like you saw last year, you get a bunch of guys out there. Otherwise, you’re doing math. Like, okay, I know this guy’s Mike, this guy’s Will. Whereas we want to be rolling. Be able to go out there and get it figured out.

On if Notre Dame plans to rotate five linebackers again

My plan is: There’s guys physically capable to help us on the football field, and there’s guys that are still building toward that each day. They’re still working. My job is to get the guys that are physically ready to play football for Notre Dame, and to make an impact, mentally ready to play on Saturday— at the same level as the guys that are already out there. 

It’s not, ‘Oh, this guy has talent, we’re going to get him reps because he has talent.’ Our starters— ‘starters’ — our top guys have talent. It’s now we have to get you to a position where you’re comfortable with the defense, you’re communicating, commanding the defense. You’re not making mental errors. You’re playing at the same level or higher than the other guys that are in it. And there’ll be no exceptions made from that. You have to meet a certain standard of playing if you go on the football field.

On junior LB Preston Zinter’s development

Zin is someone you can count on every day to be the same. He’s gonna be the same guy every day. He’s gonna come, he’s gonna work. He’s gonna know what’s going on. He’s gonna help the young guy get lined up. I can’t say enough about Z. He’s a core special teamer. He does it the right way. He’s here for the right reasons. He’s one of the core pieces of our room. 

He’s working on finishing the ball a little bit more. It’s like ‘Z, I know you know where to go, now, let’s make the play. Let’s go let it loose a little bit. That’s the one thing about Z. Were trying to take the leash off him.

On freshman LB Madden Faraimo

Madden’s in a good spot. He came in early. He had about three weeks of practice for the Playoff, maybe about a month, which is a very, very odd time to come into a football team. And then you switch coordinators and everything changes. So you’re going from game-planning at the extreme end of one to beginning basic of another. So there’s been a lot of things coming his way. He lives across campus, he has to get to class, get back here, the weather’s different from where he’s from.

Saying all that, and we just got the mid-term grades in. Madden is doing great in that regard. In football, I just talked to his mom. He is in the grind-it-out part of his career. Stuff is coming fast. There’s new installs, there’s new classes, there’s new terminology. I’m playing a new position. All of a sudden there’s crowd noise. There’s a lot coming at him. 

He’s done a great job. I think, specifically this last week or so, everything’s kind of slowed down for a little bit. He’s starting to hear the words for the second and third time, and not just the first time. He’s right on track. 

On if he learned much of the Notre Dame defense during the CFP run

No, he was scout team in that capacity.

On junior LB Drayk Bowen stepping up as a leader for Notre Dame

“I think we have a room where we take a lot of pride in linebacker room for being leaders. Not only the room, but the defense and then the team. We want to set the tempo. We want to have that. We want that burden, we want that responsibility. We know that we’ll be there to answer the bell. Drayk has thus far been the bell cow. Stepped out in front, been the guy that people listen to him. He’s done things right year after year here. He’s made plays, he’s communicated. Commanded the defense. He’s put himself in position where his teammates trust him, and I’m sure that’s ultimately his goal. That’s a great feeling. That’s what you come here to do. You come here to gain your teammates’ trust, to gain your coaches’ trust, and to be that guy. And you just do it over and over and over again. And that’s what Drayk is in the middle of right now.

On how the young linebackers have improved as a group since this time last year

Well as a group, to me, you got this time last year to now, they’re completely — I don’t care how old they are, Sneed a little bit, I get, had a little bit more — but they’re green. They had no considerable playing time. And then to me, right now, you go last year to right now, now I look at them as vets. It happens like that. Now you guys have been there, you’ve seen it, you’ve done it. Played all the way to the end of the season, which plays a big part of it. We didn’t play 10 games. We played for eight months or six months or whatever. So they got a lot of game playing, a lot of pressure situations, a lot of different things to react to and it served them well. It’s given them confidence.

On Notre Dame sophomore LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa missing six weeks but coming back for the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl

No, I mean, you can’t say enough about Kyng. Kyng’s gonna do what he’s gonna do, and right now what’s important to him is school and football. As soon as he gets hurt, he’s smart enough, mature enough to know your job flips from playing football to getting back on the field. He’s a pro. That’s what they’ll tell him when they all go to the NFL. He’s a pro. He practices, prepares, he acts like it. And so he flipped the switch, focused where he was supposed to focus. When Coach says, ‘Be in the moment,’ and that brought him back and he was able to contribute. We knew once he got back, he’d contribute. He’s someone that’s on the field, you’re gonna feel him.

On maximizing Sneed

First of all, Jaylen Sneed, from where we ended the season to now, he’s 235 pounds. He has never been that. He has never been able to be above 220 since I got here. Even before that, too. Jaylen Sneed has now consistently been to, like, to the point where like, ‘Yeah, we can’t be over 240.’ That hasn’t been a conversation that’s had to happen, but we haven’t had that issue. That has been the big difference. It’s, ‘Sneed, you gotta get up to 230, 235 and then the sky’s the limit for you. But until then, it is what it is.’ And he’s got himself in that position, and I couldn’t be more excited about him. He’s physical. His feet are more underneath him. He’s able to take on blocks. He doesn’t run in there and bounce out. He really looks like a linebacker.

On finding different ways to use Sneed

We will. We will. Right now we’re just trying to put in — we’re in spring ball. We’re in the building phase. We’re doing concepts. We just want everyone to understand kind of the shell and how our defense is going to work. We’ll get into the matchups, and you’re going to play here and there as we move toward the season. But we certainly will.

On how Jaiden Ausberry evolved and got through a 16-game season

Just like the other guys — I mean, you look, I got cards of it. Every one of those guys basically played the exact number of reps. I charted it every game. It was basically the same. So they basically all have the same wear and tear. He had a few injuries here; I know he had the elbow. Drayk had the elbow too. Jaiden’s a tough kid. Jaiden’s a tough kid. He’s got big dreams. He’s seen it before. He knows he comes from a good place. He knows what it takes. I can’t say enough good things.

On if being bigger is an issue for Ausberry

Jaiden’s someone that’s been around 220, 225. He’s been moving great with that. As he continues to lift, if he ends up 230, great weight. But there’s no reason to put on any bad weight. He’s too efficient, he’s too physical the way he is now. It might happen naturally, but, you know.

On Notre Dame sophomore LB Teddy Rezac

Man, Teddy’s a football guy. He comes from a football family, a football area. He just gets it. He gets it right away. You dont have to teach him how it works, how the locker room works, the hierarchy of it, how to talk to coaches, who to talk to. He’s a glue guy for the room. I know I said that about Zin, but that’s true for Rezac. He came in and already is that. Brings people together from this side of the room to that side of the room. He’s funny. He’s accountable. He’s football smart. That’s what I meant by ‘came from a football area.’ He can pick it up. He understands the lingo, the verbage, the spatial awareness right away, where sometimes it takes freshmen a little bit longer.

On Notre Dame sophomore LB Bodie Kahoun

Bodie’s been — Bodie’s good. You ask Coach Landow, he’s the most explosive linebacker we got. He’s just like a bull in a china shop. Bodie’s challenge right now is he’s just got to have the game slowed down a little bit for him. Bodie’s just gotta learn what this means, and he’s gotta get out there and get his mind slowed down and just start seeing the game a little bit slower. But he’s evolving like the other guys are.

On Ausberry saying he’s put on more weight to improve his run defense

He’s always been good in the run. I know what he’s saying. He’s always been fine in the run. It’s just sometimes when they get big, 12 personnel and you gotta take on a guy and then fall off a play, like, that’s what he’s thinking about when he says that. So he’s just trying to put on that extra five pounds and get him to do that. I’ve never seen him as an issue defending the run, you know what I mean? He does it in a little bit different way. I think that extra five pounds will allow him to add more to his game, as opposed to, ‘Hey, making the guy miss and making it. Now I can kind of take it on and come off.’ Does that make sense? Or not being as affected by this block because I’m a little bit heavier, so that allows me to be in a better position to make the play. So I think Jaiden is just, he’s pinpointing the area that his game can get better. And that’s what it is for him. And he’s attacking it. It’s awesome. I think it’s smart.