Notre Dame’s defense looked like a different unit when Chris Ash turned up the heat against Miami. That’s why the lingering question now is simple: will he keep doing it?
The Fighting Irish were at their best when they attacked the quarterback last weekend, and the numbers make the split obvious. Against Miami, Notre Dame pressured Darian Mensah 33 times, hitting him five times and hurrying him 25 more. The Irish only logged three sacks in that game, but the constant disruption helped fuel a touchdown win.
That was a sharp contrast from the BYU game two weeks earlier, when Notre Dame’s approach looked far more passive. The Irish pressured Bear Bachmeier only seven times, finishing with four quarterback hits and three hurries. Notre Dame did tighten up after halftime, allowing just one touchdown in the second half after giving up 21 points in the first, but it still wasn’t enough to survive.
Even Marcus Freeman seemed frustrated by what he was seeing against the Cougars. Going into halftime, he said, “We got to get them off track.
We’re not getting them off track right now. They’re doing a couple new things, but it’s just the execution.
We can’t panic,” Freeman said at the time. “You can’t start calling things that your guys don’t know how to execute, so we gotta make sure we clean up what they have to do, and then they gotta play physical.
We gotta play on their side of the line of scrimmage, but you can’t be out of control.”
The uncertainty around Ash’s next move is already showing up in the locker room. Asked earlier this week whether he believed Ash would keep bringing the pressure he used against Miami, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa could only say, “I hope he liked it, yeah.”
That answer says plenty about where things stand. Notre Dame’s star linebacker may not have meant to reveal anything, but the comment fits the larger concern: nobody seems fully sure what Ash is going to call next.
The Miami game wasn’t just a one-off spike in pressure, either. It was Notre Dame’s season high, and the second time the Irish topped 30 pressures. They also reached 31 in a 49-10 win over Purdue, a game in which they set a season high with eight sacks.
Now the Irish head into Boston College as heavy favorites, expected to win by four touchdowns. That makes the next stretch a useful test of whether Ash keeps the defense on the front foot or shifts back into a more cautious shell. There’s also the bigger picture, with a potential Top 25 matchup against SMU looming.
For now, the concern isn’t that Ash is keeping his plans quiet. It’s that Notre Dame doesn’t yet trust him to choose the right one.
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