Can we credit Ric Flair if Notre Dame's defense improves over the rest of 2016?
If Notre Dame stifles North Carolina State on Saturday, it’s all due to Ric Flair.
OK, maybe not. But Notre Dame defensive coordinator Greg Hudson played videos of the wrestling legend at defensive meetings earlier this week to help lighten the mood around Notre Dame’s maligned defense.
“We’re like what?” defensive lineman Jay Hayes says of when the intro song was being played.
“He was like, ‘just watch just watch,'” relays Notre Dame cornerback Julian Love.
“Ric Flair—wooooo,” Hayes continued belting out the 16-time world champion’s signature quote. “He played that and we were like alright cool. alright cool. So what’s the install?”
Hudson took over as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator following the firing of Brian VanGorder after Notre Dame’s loss to Duke. His first game in charge of the Irish’s defense came in Week 5 vs. Syracuse, one of the most up-tempo offenses in college football.
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The stats on the surface don’t look pretty; Syracuse scored 33 points in the 50-33 Notre Dame win and had 489 yards. But those yards came on 88 plays, an average of 5.56 yards per play. That’s below Notre Dame’s season average of allowing over 6 yards per play and also under Syracuse’s average of 5.72 yards per play.
So maybe the Flair magic will pay off even more vs. the Wolfpack. We just hope Notre Dame doesn’t tell Michigan it’s using Flair for inspiration, however. Flair was at Michigan’s signing day event in February and we all know you can’t both be a Michigan fan and a Notre Dame fan.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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