Pod of Gold: Former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Rick Minter on defending modern offenses

No. 8 Notre Dame (5-1) held on for a 30-27 victory over USC (3-3) after things got a little hairy in the second half. The Irish offense put together a game-clinching drive in the fourth quarter and the defense allowed 30 or fewer points for the 20th straight game. That includes all 19 games under defensive coordinator Clark Lea.

With the Irish defense being such a crucial part to the team’s success, Tyler James and Eric Hansen wanted to bring a defensive mind onto the podcast this week. So they invited on two-time Notre Dame defensive coordinator Rick Minter.

Rick Minter, who coached at Notre Dame from 1992-93 and 2005-07 joined the podcast to discuss defensive coordinator Clark Lea's gameplan against USC, the Irish personnel on defense, implementing a scheme specific to an opponent, how he'd defend quarterback Ian Book, the challenges modern offenses present, the difficulty of coaching linebackers and more (1:46).

Then Tyler James and Eric Hansen made predictions in the Place Your Bets segment (29:54), provided Keeping up with the Joneses updates (36:41), highlighted kicker Jonathan Doerer in the Junior or Jr. segment (40:31) and answered questions from Twitter (44:15).

"Pod of Gold" can be listened to in a number of different places. The audio file can be found at the end of this story. Hit the share arrow in the top right corner of the player if you'd like to download it directly. The podcast should appear on various platforms soon after being uploaded here.

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