Notre Dame's Disruptive Pass Defense Will Carry Over Into 2026
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
Notre Dame's pass defense, and really the defense as a whole, started off the 2025 season under a lot of scrutiny, and rightfully so. The first year of the Chris Ash era on defense was not off to a hot start. In their first three games they allowed 868 passing yards and seven passing touchdowns; 50 percent of the passing touchdowns they allowed on the season came in the first three games.
They didn't force a single turnover against Miami in the season opener, and in the following game, they allowed Texas A&M's Marcel Reed to throw for 360 yards and two touchdowns. The following game, Purdue's Ryan Browne threw for over 200 yards and one touchdown in the first half. Running back Devin Mockobee threw the other first half touchdown to Browne on a trick play.
The outlook of Notre Dame's pass defense, despite all of it's talent, was starting to look bleak, but after a much-needed shift in philosophy and time needed in the new system, it started to look like the pass defense we were expecting to see.
In their final nine games of the regular season, Notre Dame only allowed one team to throw for over 300 yards and that was USC in a game where they scored 24 points and lost by 10. Boston College threw for 269 yards in a game where they scored 10 points and Stanford threw for 226 yards in a game where they lost 49-20 and were down 35-3 going into halftime. Every other opponent they faced were held to 215 yards or less against Notre Dame's defense.
This pass defense won't allow the same amount of yardage as the 2024 pass defense did. In 2025, they ranked No. 56 in the country in yards allowed per game (213.5). In 2024, they ranked 4th in the country in yards allowed per game (167.0) and that was with playing four postseason games. They allowed more yards per game in 2025, more yards per attempt in 2025 and a higher passer rating in 2025.
What this pass defense did do better and will likely continue to do better in 2026 is be a more disruptive pass defense. This past season, in 12 games, they recorded 21 interceptions. In half of their regular season games, they picked off opposing quarterbacks at least twice. They forced three interceptions against NC State and Boston College and forced four interceptions against Boise State. In 16 games in 2024, the Irish forced 19 interceptions.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Notre Dame defense accounted for 40 pass breakups in 12 games in 2025. The previous season in 2024, the Irish accounted for 39 pass breakups in 16 games. Are there still areas of improvement? Absolutely, but this is a much more disruptive pass defense on a per-game basis and overall than what we saw in 2023 and 2024.
The returning talent is why I'm optimistic around this continuing into 2026. The Irish return Unanimous All-American cornerback Leonard Moore, Christian Gray who is entering his third year in the starting lineup and one of the best safety tandems in the country in Adon Shuler who was a captain in 2025 and Tae Johnson who was a FWAA Freshman All-American last fall. Improvements will still have to be made, but I'm willing to sacrifice 30 to 40 more passing yards a game if that will result in more pass breakups and more turnovers.
——-
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @TTrow5
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos