Although Brian VanGorder became Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator in 2013 with an excellent resume (defensive coordinator with the New York Jets and the University of Georgia), he very much underperformed. His complex and too complicated defenses had the defensive players thinking too much and not reacting as they are supposed to do.
Two weeks ago, the Fighting Irish hired a new defensive coordinator named Mike Elko, the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest. Elko is 39-years-old and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He was Wake Forest’s defensive coordinator for three years and before that he held the same position at Bowling Green for five years.