Jon Tenuta...Come On Down

First, let me say thank you to Bill Lewis for being an excellent coach and recruiter. Every time I saw even a glimpse of practice the man was coaching his heart out. Rarely was his voice at full go simply because he never stopped talking, teaching, coaching. He recruited hard, he coached hard, and he worked hard for the University of our Blessed Mother. I don't like to see a good coach go, but I am very pleased that he has decided to remain a part of the Notre Dame athletic family. It just serves as another example of how special ND is and how it can really grab ahold of a person with its mystique.

If Lewis had to go, and he did due to a double hip replacement, Jon Tenuta was about as good of a hire as we could have made. To get a coach of his caliber as a position coach is astounding. He is a high profile name, an excellent defensive mind, and a no-nonsense coach. All of these things are tangible additions to our football program. This hire isn't a home run, it's a grand slam. Tenuta is among the top defensive minds in all of college football. He ranks with Charlie Strong, Bud Foster, the Stoops brothers, and our very own nemesis Pete Carroll.

Tenuta is the perfect complement to Weis and Brown. Brown is a sideline coach, involved in the game, motivating the players, creating energy in the play of the defense. Tenuta is a press box defensive tactical guru. He schemes, he adjusts. His presence in the defense will not only be felt in improved toughness and aggressive play, it will be evident in a improved ability to adjust to opposing offenses. The 3-4 is built to blitz, to confuse, to apply pressure to the quarterback from all over the field. Tenuta's background and experience is in aggressive, pressure applying, blitzing defensive schemes. Brown is new, raw, inexperienced. Tenuta is polished, he is battle worn, he has years of coordinating experience.

Tenuta will change our defense, he will make it faster, tougher, more aggressive. Our defense will dictate what opposing offenses can do, the tempo of the game, and will force our opponents out of the comfort zone. Brown tried to do this some last year, particularly in the UCLA and Boston college games. Tenuta is excellent at it. He has a background coaching in the secondary, but he also has a reputation for producing excellent linebackers. I could see either he or Corwin coaching the secondary and/or the linebackers with great success. Tenuta's style of defense is the epitome of what great defenses do: pressure and confuse the quarterback while playing press-man and/or roll zone coverage. His style is what all defensive coaches should aspire to. He has run it with pretty good success at Georgia Tech with average talent. Let's see what he can do with the talent Weis and Brown are bringing in.

Tenuta is a no-nonsense type of guy. He will make our practices tougher and more intense. He will give our offense a multitude of looks, making practice more like games. He isn't afraid to tell Weis when he is wrong, he isn't afraid to tell him how he would attack his offense, and he isn't afraid to speak up when he believes he is doing something wrong. On top of that, Tenuta explicitly stated that he took the job because of Weis and Notre Dame, to bring Notre Dame back to where it belongs in the college football landscape. Weis again hired a coach he didn't do well against in the past, upgrading the talent of his staff, and bringing in someone who's philosophy on the defensive side of the ball will upgrade our performance on the offensive side of the ball.

And the icing on the cake is the fact that Brown and Tenuta talked about how they would work together prior to Tenuta arriving. My one concern regarding this whole situation was a "too many cooks in the kitchen" type of thing. The fact that Weis got Corwin on board prior to the hire means he will be open and receptive to advice from Tenuta and will work well with him.

Welcome to Notre Dame Mr. Tenuta, I look forward to watching our defense play in the future.