Irish Defense Needs Improvement to Return to Elite Level

by John WaltersFiled under: Notre Dame Aaron Taylor has vivid, if not entirely pleasant, memories of his first hours in a Notre Dame uniform in August of 1990. "Chris Zorich was the guy who I took my first reps against," said Taylor, who was an offensive lineman. "He threw me to the ground and then he ragged on me. Over and over." That evening Taylor slunk back to his dorm room. "And you have to remember," he said, "I was All-Everything in high school coming out of De La Salle. But that night I cried to my mom wondering if I could play at this level." Zorich, a nose tackle three years Taylor's senior, won the Lombardi Award as the nation's outstanding college lineman in 1990. Taylor, an offensive tackle, won the Lombardi Award in 1993. No Fighting Irish player has won it since. This isn't a story about the Lombardi Award. It's a story about defense. Or, more specifically, Notre Dame's lack of it in recent years. In...