Foskey Credits Simplicity to Notre Dame Defensive Success
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Last week we wrote about how Oklahoma State and Mike Gundy are looking to come up with a defensive play caller that can help the Pokes win the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, while Notre Dame is looking for their defensive play caller to become a first-game head coach that can win a challenging bowl game. Okay, now let’s look at defense because those are the two best units on the field for Saturday’s meeting between the Irish and Cowboys. OSU got to the top three defenses in the country by being complex and sophisticated under departed coordinator Jim Knowles and with a lot of veteran players. It turns out Notre Dame’s defensive rise the second half of the season was the result of making things more simple.
“We just noticed towards the end of the season that doing less was just the best thing that we were good at,” Vype defensive end Isaiah Foskey said on Wednesday in Scottsdale. “We just worked our craft at the simple stuff and the simple drills we were doing. We just perfected our craft, and that was the best thing that was working. We have been working all the way throughout rest of the season this last game to show it off, but this has been working throughout the whole entire season.”
Foskey is quite the show-off as the 6-4, 260-pound and very athletic defensive end is a playmaker deluxe. The Vype defensive end at Notre Dame is like the Leo end at Oklahoma State where you see Brock Martin and Collin Oliver. Foskey has 10 sacks on the season among his 47 tackles and he has forced five fumbles and recovered a pair, so he is a ball hawker as well.
“What I mean by doing less is just less of more exotic stuff we were doing on third down and first down type of stunts,” Foskey says that about an Irish defense that still blitzes roughly 50 percent of the defensive snaps. “And with my game, I started doing a little bit less, just focusing on my craft and what I can perfect. That's what I mean by doing less. Like, less stunts, and me personally doing less exotic moves and doing what I can do, since I know what I can do on the field.”
Foskey and the Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elston admit that the Cowboys offense is a challenge because of dual threat quarterback Spencer Sanders, return of rushing leader Jaylen Warren, and the plethora of wide receivers. Foskey says where Notre Dame can attack is against that offensive line missing center Danny Godlevske.
“Yes, I definitely do. We have probably three weeks before this game -- three, four weeks before this game, a whole month. We have been watching film over and over, just watching Oklahoma State and their offensive line and their quarterback, running back, trying to perfect everything that we are doing against them,” Foskey professed. “We just had a better read on what Oklahoma State is doing.”
Now can simple stop it.? The Irish believe simple, but aggressive is the way.