Notre Dame Run Defense Is On The Verge Of Becoming Elite
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The Notre Dame defense went through a bit of an up-and-down season in 2025, and moving forward ChrisAsh and MarcusFreeman will need to make sure that doesn't happen again. The Irish defensive coordinator and head coach were able to find some answers during the second half of the season, and the hope is that it continues into 2026. One area where Notre Dame was strong for much of last season was with its run defense.
Notre Dame ranked 11th in the country last season, giving up just 100.1 yards per game on the ground. The defense also ranked 10th in the country at just 2.99 yards allowed per rush, which was tied with the Indiana Hoosiers.
That was Notre Dame's best regular season run defense performance since 2012. It also marked a significant improvement over the 2024 season, when the Irish gave up 138.8 yards per game and 3.7 yards per attempt in the regular season.
This improvement was intentional. Being strong against the run is the foundation of the Ash defense. It was a focal point for Ash when he took over the Notre Dame defense.
"That's where everything starts for us," Ash said of shutting down the opposition run game. "If we're going to be any good on defense, and we want to be able to affect the quarterback and go get interceptions, we've got to stop the run. Last year the guys really bought into that. We made a couple schematic tweaks to what we did to help us stop the run.
"I'd really look at 2024 and what were some of the issues, and we just thought, all right, here were the issues," continued Ash. "Let's make a couple changes here and try to get better at it. The guys bought into it and believed in it. We just worked the heck out of it."
The overall numbers were certainly impressive, but when you take a deeper dive into the numbers you get a better sense of just how good the rush defense was for Notre Dame. The Irish held six of its 12 opponents to less than 100 yards on the ground last season, and all but one opponent was held below 5.0 yards per carry.
That matches the number of games of less than 100 yards that we saw in 2022, the first year that Freeman took over as head coach and just one more than what we saw in 2021. But the 2025 defense was significantly better with its season-long numbers, with the 2022 defense giving up 131.3 yards per game (3.9 YPC) and the 2021 defense giving up 135.5 yards per game (3.9 YPC).
What made the 2025 defense better was that Notre Dame was strong against the run on a week-by-week basis. Only two Irish opponents went for over 150 rushing yards, and one of those teams – Navy (206 yards) – was held over 79 yards below its season average. Five of its 2022 opponents had more than 150 yards on the ground, including three games over 200 yards. Four of the 2021 opponents went for at least 150 yards, with three topping 200 yards.
The 2025 defense was far, far more consistent, which is what Ash is striving for.
"The biggest thing, like anything, is consistency," Ash explained. "We don't want to be one play we get a TFL (tackle for loss) or no gain, and the next play we give up an explosive run play. I think we were fairly consistent with our run defense last year. We just want to do it even more consistent and be a dominant run defense."
Notre Dame wasn't an elite defense when it comes to disruptive players, with the Irish ranking 53rd in tackles for loss per game (5.75). The 2022 and 2021 defenses were both better in this area, but it was an improvement over the 2023 and 2024 defenses. Stopping the explosive runs that Ash referred to was the key, with Notre Dame ranking fourth in the country last season in fewest gains of 20+ yards allowed, with just six allowed all season. Notre Dame gave up 17, 13, 15, 16 and 12 runs of 20+ yards in the previous five seasons.
Limiting big runs allowed the Irish to excel in an area that Ash focuses on more than yards per game.
"The most important stat for me in terms of rush defense, everyone talks about rushing yards per game, which is important. It's more about rushes per carry," Ash said. "If you look at Navy, how many times do they have to run to get those 200 yards? …. I look at that a lot, too, because if someone's got to run the ball 60 times to get 100 yards, that average per carry is not going to be very good. So we really look at that, too."
That improvement was a step in the right direction, but Notre Dame has to be even better in 2026 if it's going to field a championship caliber defense. The last five national champions have allowed 90.0 yards per game or less, with three of those teams holding opponents to less than 80.0 yards per game. That would be Indiana (2026) and Georgia (2022, 2021).
Last season's champion – Indiana – held opponents to 77.2 yards per game, including giving up just 76.2 yards per game against ranked opponents, 68.7 yards allowed against conference opponents and 68.4 yards per game against Power 4 opponents. Three of Indiana's playoff opponents were held to 93 yards or less on the ground, with Miami's 110 yards being one of just three opponents to top the century mark against the Hoosiers.
Notre Dame's defensive staff has focused this offseason on getting better, which is a must. Improvement is part scheme and part player.
"We evaluated our calls, our package, how we did schematically with things," Ash explained. "Are there things that we liked that maybe we didn't go out and execute well. We either got to make a decision to invest more time or not do it anymore. But we really looked at the individual player, and what they did well as well, was it football position, use of the hands, tackling, making a play on the ball, whatever it may be, zone drops. So we did two parts when we talked about self-scouting. The scheme part of it, the calls, the package, but more importantly it's about the individuals and making sure we can develop the individuals."
If the adjustments the staff makes this offseason take, the combination of improved scheme and talent should allow the Irish to put an elite defense on the field.
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