Jon Tenuta has been a defensive coordinator at five schools, and for 15 of the past 21 years of his career. At his most recent stop, Georgia Tech, his defenses ranked in the top 30 nationally four years running, befuddling Charlie Weis and Notre Dame in 2006 and 2007.
On Thursday, appearing for the first time as the Irish’s new assistant head coach/defense, Tenuta insisted a titular step back can be a step up. He also maintained that playing consigliere to defensive coordinator Corwin Brown won’t be an issue.
“We just kind of meld the packages together,” Tenuta said. “Something’s good, something’s bad, whatever. We work it out, game-plan together and get ready. Some of my ideas, and most of [Brown’s], will go into spring ball and we go from there.”
Tenuta joined Notre Dame’s staff Jan. 31 but has been in South Bend all of four days. He has had scant time to formulate opinions on personnel.
That left everyone to dissect philosophies. Tenuta has run primarily 4-3 defenses, while the Irish installed a base 3-4 in ’07. Tenuta said flexibility should ease any transition.
“If you look at my package, lot of fronts we played, the ends dropped and they were like a linebacker,” Tenuta said. “The whole package meshes together.”
Georgia Tech led the nation in sacks in ’07 with 3.69 a game, ranking fourth in tackles for loss per game. Tenuta declared that “you need to be the one to dictate” Thursday, and apparently he won’t need to remind Brown of that.
“I’m an aggressive, attacking guy,” Tenuta said. “Corwin is, too. We’re going to attack, make things happen.”