Notre Dame’s recent win has done little to quiet concerns over the team’s porous defense, with fresh questions about DC Chris Ash‘s ability to stabilize the unit. Notre Dame has allowed a total of 98 points in the first three games, which is by far one of the worst defensive starts in the school’s history. The slate is 27 allowed in a loss to Miami, 41 to Texas A&M, and then again 30 allowed to Purdue in their first victory this season. The offense keeps trying to minimize the gap the defense makes, but that’s a never-ending race as the defense keeps hemorrhaging points rather than stabilizing the game.

Notre Dame’s defense allowed 379 yards to Purdue, with 303 through the air. Throughout the game, defense has led in points from the get-go and often. They surrendered 238 passing yards alone in the first half. For context, last year, Notre Dame had one of the best man-to-man coverage defenses in the entire nation. The difference between this year and last year is some good players and the defense coordinator graduating to the pro level. Now, Chris Ash is in the crosshairs of the fans, and they are demanding his removal and for Marcus Freeman to take the reins of defense.

A tweet by Pete Sampson crystallized the context of the backlash. Sampson’s post read, “Notre Dame has allowed 98 points in its first three games under Chris Ash, the second-worst scoring defense in the opening three games of a season in school history. 102 points: 2007, 98 points: 2025, 96 points: 2016. Notre Dame went 3-9 in ’07 and went 4-8 in ’16.” So, Chris Ash’s defense becomes the 2nd worst-performing defense in the school’s history. Here’s an interesting flashback. During the 2016 season, when Notre Dame surrendered 96 points in their first three games, it started the season 1-3. And after that, the defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder was fired. History repeats itself, but we don’t want Notre Dame to go through another loss just to arrive at this decision.

The reputational fallout has been immediate. “Fire Chris Ash” was trending after the loss to Texas A&M, and that exact drumbeat continued after beating Purdue. During the game, a fan held up his phone with “Fire Chris Ash” written on the screen as the camera panned onto him. The camera was gone as soon as the operator realized what was written. Notre Dame lost both of their two games because of the defense, where the offense had to play catch-up with the opponent, just because the defense couldn’t stabilize the scoreboard.

Now, we don’t know the way ahead. But the obvious steps are to change what’s not working. That does not necessarily mean a personnel change, but the strategy, the tactics, the calls, and especially, the early point surrenders. Freeman’s public stance has been confident and striving for improvement, but the statistical ledger and the fans always make it difficult for the head coach and other supporting staff if they don’t see any tangible corrections. Until the defense adopts those corrections, a moderate Notre Dame schedule will keep becoming more and more difficult courtesy of the defense.

Fans are calling to fire Chris Ash

After the Purdue game, fans have not held back their beliefs. “He needs to be fired. Disaster,” a fan commented, capturing the raw emotions that are riled up watching scoreboard reality. All those points conceded on early explosive plays, the defensive line that can’t sack a QB even if it was touch football, and the struggles on third downs—everything is summed up in this reaction. Marcus Freeman is not immune to the criticism either. A fan asked him to be accountable and responsible and to do what he must, saying, “These are moves you expect that a young, innovative head coach to make. He has to cut him loose. I am not a fire the guy kind of person. This is a different situation.” 

“Ash is literally the second coming of Brian VanGorder,” another fan commented. This is less about personalities and much more about the similarities of outcomes that can be seen on the scoreboard with that 2016 roster. While a fan shared a perspective on the offense, saying, “The offensive is will be very explosive by the end of the year with Carr throwing the ball down the field I hope so we don’t waste the best offense we ever had with this god awful defense.” This tracks because the preseason hype was all about the defense, whereas the preseason skepticism was centered on the offense and a young CJ Carr. Now, CJ Carr has outdone himself, whereas the defense has been a snoozefest.

Finally, a nail in the coffin was, “Everywhere Ash has been, the pass defense has been underwhelming. The run defense has been ok. Sound familiar?” This is the reality, and in this context, Notre Dame should be learning from their rivals, USC, which fired Alex Grinch when he could not produce results. But they were also a tad bit too late. USC had a stretch where the defense surrendered 41 points five times. Before that happens, Freeman should do something concrete, which is either to handle the defense calls himself or find Chris Ash’s replacement.