If anything, Steve Ishmael is curious about what’ll pan out come Saturday.

Notre Dame’s defense, which Ishmael has been studying all week, could be exactly the same as the film from the first four games of the season or drastically different. The Fighting Irish’s new defensive coordinator could turn out to be “a total expert” or not at all.

“It’s going to be really interesting,” the Syracuse wide receiver said. “I’m curious to see the defense.”

If Notre Dame is a “wounded mama bear,” like Orange (2-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) head coach Dino Babers compared the team to on Monday, then its defense is its biggest gash. The Fighting Irish, off to their worst start since 2010, are ranked 103rd in total defense, 101st in scoring defense and have given up an average of 41.3 points per game against Power 5 opponents.

UND head coach Brian Kelly fired defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder on Sunday and promoted defensive analyst Greg Hudson to the position. The move has left both teams in unusual situations. The Fighting Irish have to regroup and prepare for the dangerous Orange attack without its old coordinator. SU is unsure what exactly the Notre Dame defense will look like. Both head coaches have taken somewhat of a wait and see approach, which will come to fruition on Saturday at noon in MetLife Stadium.

“It’s certainly, for us, a difficult offense to go against right after you make a kind of change like this,” Kelly said.

Hudson joined Notre Dame in June and was previously the defensive coordinator at Purdue, East Carolina and Minnesota. But he’s not getting full rein over the defense just yet.

Kelly has taken a “hands on” approach this week and implemented a stay that he’s “more accustomed to.” He listed off Hudson’s responsibilities as bringing “the energy, the enthusiasm, the passion, the morale, the camaraderie.” The defensive staff will call the game with Hudson on the sideline and linebackers coach Mike Elston up in the booth.

“I’ll worry about the implementation, the scheme. I’ll take care of that for (Hudson) right now,” Kelly said. “… We’ll write the music and he’ll be the lead singer.”

The change in the Notre Dame defense starts in part with rotating in more players, Kelly said. Some players were overused, got tired and missed tackles in previous games, he added.

But the up-tempo style that Syracuse plays will cut down on substitutions and make this alteration even harder for the UND staff. Notre Dame faced a similar offense in Texas in the season-opener that gave up 50 points in a double-overtime loss.

Kelly went to Connecticut head coach Bob Diaco for advice on how to defend SU receiver Amba Etta-Tawo. The Fighting Irish will likely stick one of their taller defensive backs on Etta-Tawo because of how Etta-Tawo consistently jumped over UConn’s 6-foot cornerback Jamar Summers.

“I’m not too familiar with the defensive coordinator that’s there now, but I know that adjusting to an offense that goes this fast and the amount of plays we run each game is really hard,” Ishmael said.

On the flip side, the change has left Babers and SU co-offensive coordinators Sean Lewis and Mike Lynch with a lack of specifics to prepare for.

Ishmael noticed the flaws on the previous UND defense based on film and said the game will be “really exciting” if it plays at least a similar scheme. Otherwise he doesn’t know what to expect. It hasn’t changed SU’s offensive preparation heading into the game, though, he added.

“Watching the tape really doesn’t help you,” Babers said. “We’ll look at personnel and look at what they’ve done in the past. You would like to think that they can’t change too much, but any time you do, any time there’s a change in the middle of the season, that’s pretty drastic, and we have to be ready for a drastic change on defense, as well.”

What Kelly is facing is the challenge of slowing down the seventh-best passing offense in the nation. Ahead for Babers is a multitude of adjustments mid game, depending on how the Notre Dame defense shakes out, he thinks, to keep his offense going.

“I think our kids are going to play fast, they’re going to play free, and that’s what I was looking for in making this change,” Kelly said. “We expect to see it. I saw it yesterday in practice. I’m confident we’ll continue to see it on Saturday.”

“We really don’t know what they’re going to do on that side of the ball,” Babers said, “and we’re going to have to just wait and see.”

Published on September 29, 2016 at 12:45 am

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus