One year ago, Brian VanGorder was running the defensive side of a spring camp in South Bend, Indiana. Now he’s walking around observing practices in Stillwater.
Four games into the 2016 season, after the Fighting Irish’s worst upset loss in 20 years (to Duke), his team was 1-3 and VanGorder (then defensive coordinator) was shown the door.
His departure, as it turns out, did little to help Notre Dame.
While he was running the defense, Notre Dame allowed 33.5 points per game and held a scoring margin of +3.75 in its first four games. Without VanGorder, the Irish went 3-6, giving up 25 points a game but their scoring margin dipped to +2.