We have all heard the colloquialism as old as football itself - defense wins championships.
This isn’t just a saying, either. It’s an empirically true trend. Thinking back to all of the recent national champions in college football, from the Clemson Tigers to the Ohio State Buckeyes to the Alabama Crimson Tide, this saying is applicable. Each team fielded a stellar defense.
It seems that Brian Kelly took notice of this, and decided to begin building his team around this idea last season.
According to 247Sports’ rankings - which were more fond of Irish defensive commits than other services - the average rating for a Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive commit in 2017 was 88.