Quick hitters: What Notre Dame OC Gerad Parker said prior to NC State game
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker cut right to the chase when talking about the NC State defense; he said the Wolfpack “do a hell of a job” immediately after being asked what makes that team so tough to play against.
“The statistics speak for themselves,” Parker said. “It’s hard because it’s multiple, but also, they do what they do, and what does a great defense do, they run to the football and read, react and fit. Yout turn on the film and watch them from this year early and last year and all their tape through [defensive coordinator Tony Gibson‘s] years, they fit and fit fast. What better compliment to a defense than that?”
NC State had the No. 11 total rushing defense in the FBS in 2022. In Week 1 vs. UConn, the Wolfpack allowed 160 rushing yards, well over their average of just over 100 last fall, but they only gave up 113 passing yards. A balanced defense is what Notre Dame is up against Saturday in Raleigh.
Here are some updates from Parker on the Notre Dame offense he’s taking on the road trip, plus a tidbit on a certain Notre Dame defensive player.
On Pat Coogan winning the Notre Dame left guard spot
“Of course, always and forever it’s performance-based in everything that we do. Coogs has done a great job of getting himself there. He’s a very physical player. Very conscientious in the way he approaches the game. He’s detailed oriented. All the things that you would want to say and the adjectives that you would use in describing a guy.
“And then for his inexperience, he’s made up for it in effort and knowing what to do and knowing exactly where coach [Joe] Rudolph wants him to be. That’s what Coogs has done. All of that i just said has developed trust with his teammates, his O-line and certainly us as coaches. He’s put himself in a position to play well so far.”
On Coogan and right guard Rocco Spindler getting out on the move to block
“It’s something we want to do. It makes us harder to attack in our run fits, pass protections and all of those things. We’re always hunting ways for us to do that, and I think it’s critical for us to stay ahead of it.”
On Notre Dame’s depth on offense
“Our staff, we believe in our guys that we brought here as a recruiting staff all the ways down to our staff members and coaches. If we don’t let these guys grow and empower them to get better and try to assess where our depth is, we won’t know. So the the only thing we can do is continue to give our guys opportunities that they’ve earned because it is performance based but also let them be able to go out there and have pieces of success. And then if there is some small failures, then we allow them to fail up and keep moving forward. That’s what these two games have allowed us to do so far.”
On the Notre Dame offense being 9-for-9 on touchdown drives in the first half
“You would credit it to a good summer that our guys put together with the install and our base offense and then growing it to the variations that we need. And then we have good players. The quarterback is playing at a high level. Those things all contribute to early success. Hopefully we keep it rolling now.”
On Notre Dame defensive end Joshua Burnham being a problem
“It was noticeable for him midway of fall camp. You were like, ‘Burnham is showing up.’ So this stuff and how he is starting to show up in games is no surprise to us. It started to be a noticed thing about him making a transition and how hard he plays.”
