Going back to an earlier post and UHND blog entry of mine, I thought I’d look at some of the top defenses of 2005, but only focusing on the defenses that made the biggest improvements from 2004 to 2005, to see what’s in the range of possibilities to expect from our own Irish defense in 2006.
Defensive Benchmarks: 2005 vs. 2004

I. Top 20 Total Defenses in 2005 (vs. same team out of the Top 20 Total Defenses in 2004)

#4 Miami (9-3): 270.1 ypg - [vs. #28 Miami (9-3): 328.1 ypg]
#5 Ohio State (10-2): 281.3 ypg - [vs. #30 Ohio State (8-4): 332.0 ypg]
#6 Tennessee (5-6): 298.2 ypg - [vs. #45 Tennessee (10-3): 356.4 ypg]
#7 Connecticut (5-6): 298.3 ypg - [vs. #27 Connecticut (8-4): 327.4 ypg]
#9 Florida (9-3): 299.8 ypg - [vs. #42 Florida (7-5): 345.6 ypg]
#10 Texas (13-0): 302.9 ypg - [vs. #23 Texas (11-1): 320.1 ypg]
#11 Kansas (7-5): 303.3 ypg - [vs. #41 Kansas (4-7): 345.5 ypg]
#15 West Virginia (11-1): 310.8 ypg - [vs. #37 West Virginia (8-4): 339.3 ypg]
#16 Boston College (9-3): 311.7 ypg - [vs. #31 Boston College (9-3): 332.8 ypg]
#17 South Florida (6-6): 311.9 ypg - [vs. #77 South Florida (4-7): 398.5 ypg]
#20 Clemson (8-4): 316.6 ypg - [vs. #26 Clemson (6-5): 327.3 ypg]

#75 Notre Dame (9-3): 396.9 ypg - [vs. #54 Notre Dame (6-6): 369.4 ypg]

II. Top 20 Scoring Defenses 2005 (vs. same team out of the Top 20 Scoring Defenses 2004)

#11 Clemson (8-4): 17.6 ppg - [vs. #29 Clemson (6-5): 20.8 ppg]
#12 NC State (7-5): 17.7 ppg - [vs. #25 NC State (5-6): 19.8 ppg]
#13 West Virginia (11-1): 17.8 ppg - [vs. #28 West Virginia (8-4): 20.5 ppg]
#14 South Florida (6-6): 18.0 ppg - [vs. #94 South Florida (4-7): 31.9 ppg]
#15 Texas Christian (11-1): 18.6 ppg - [vs. #103 TCU (5-6): 33.9 ppg]
#16 Tennessee (5-6): 18.6 ppg - [vs. #38 Tennessee (10-3): 22.7 ppg]
#17 Middle Tennessee St. (4-7): 18.7 ppg - [vs. #68 Middle Tennessee St. (5-6): 26.6 ppg]
#18(t) Florida (9-3): 18.8 ppg - [vs. #31 Florida (7-5): 21.1 ppg]
#18(t) Texas Tech (9-3): 18.8 ppg - [vs. #67 Texas Tech (8-4): 26.2 ppg]
#20 Iowa State (7-5): 19.2 ppg - [vs. #35 Iowa State (7-5): 21.6 ppg]

#53 Notre Dame (9-3): 24.5 ppg - [vs. #46 Notre Dame (6-6): 24.1 ppg]

III. The point: it’s not impossible to drastically improve Notre Dame’s defense in one season.

From 2004 to 2005, in total yardage, Tennessee jumped 39 spots and reduced their yards-given-up by 58 a game.
Florida jumped 33 spots and gave up 46 fewer yards per game.
Kansas jumped 30 spots and gave up 42 fewer yards per game.
But the most dramatic increase occurred at South Florida, where the Bulls improved 60 spots and gave up 87 fewer yards per game

From 2004 to 2005, in total points, South Florida improved 80 spots and gave up 13 fewer points per game.
TCU did even better, jumping 88 spots, giving up 15 fewer points per game.
Middle Tennessee State and Texas Tech each improved about 50 spots and about 8 points per game less given up.

IV. Can Notre Dame do the same?

What were the factors that allowed Tennessee, Florida, Kansas, South Florida, TCU, Middle Tennessee State and Texas Tech to improve so drastically on defense in only one season? New coaches? Easier schedules? Better players?

Hopefully the Irish Defense can make the same kind of dramatic improvement on their rankings (#75 and #53) and their production (397 yards and 25 points per game) to join the elite Top 20 Defenses in the nation in 2006 and help us to a National Championship.

Defense Wins Championships.

Go Irish Go

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the UHND.com Blog RSS feed .