Quick hitters: Notre Dame DC Al Golden explains play calls on final Ohio State drive
Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden answered several questions from reporters about Saturday’s 17-14 loss to Ohio State.
Here’s what Golden had to say.
On Notre Dame playing nickel with Ohio State at the 1-yard line and less than 10 seconds left
“So I chose nickel, because, without saying too much, I wanted a specific look. And obviously, I guessed right on [second] down [when Ohio State ran a sprint-out pass to junior wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. that fell incomplete]. But I really thought that this call would be the call that would handle all the options that they could have: move the pocket, some kind of read-option or zone-read component. So that’s the choice I made there.”
On playing cover-4 quarters on third-and-19
“I just thought we would get a good vision and break, and obviously we’ve got to coach it better. But what I didn’t want to do [was what we did on] the previous fourth down, the previous longer third down. Went cover 1 both times, and they beat us. And what I didn’t want to do is throw a jump ball in the back of the end zone. That would have been one that I would have lamented. Could we call other things there? For sure, but we need to execute that call, break on the ball, get the ball on the ground.”
“We were thinking three plays [left] at that point. If we stop that play — anything in that defense should be caught in front of [the first-down marker]. And then we’re dealing with one play.”
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On Notre Dame not rotating as much during the Ohio State game
“We needed to rotate more. Sometimes that happens. You guys might know the numbers better than me, because I was fixing this or fixing that. I wasn’t looking like you guys might be able to look after this conversation, but I think I think our numbers were low in the first half. I think our numbers were low, and then got longer in the second half. And then, obviously, the two-minute drill added a bunch of plays at the end. So there’s no question that we need to rotate more.”
On Notre Dame graduate LB Jack Kiser only playing 10 snaps against Ohio State
“We talked about that. We have to mix [Thomas Harper] in a little bit more at safety, and Jack’s numbers are going to go up. Jack’s played well the last two games, and he probably got shortchanged. I don’t know the numbers from the other day. [Told it was 10 snaps] So, not enough, so we need to get his numbers up. … It’s always a challenge [to get the Rover snaps in a nickel-based defense], but yes, we need to rotate more as a defense.”
On what went made it hard to sleep Saturday night
“I don’t think there’s a coordinator in the country that has been in that position that wouldn’t say, ‘Ah, I wish I would have called this instead of that, because they threw the ball here or they completed that ball.’ There are always calls that I can look back and say, ‘I would do it differently.’ But the bottom line is execution. So, whatever we call, we need to execute. We need to coach it better. And we need to finish. We really do. We need to finish, and it’s not just one play or one series of plays. We need to do a better job.”
