SOUTH BEND —As Notre Dame football safety Tae Johnson has become increasingly comfortable on the field as a first-year starter, the same could be said for his working relationship with first-year defensive coordinator Chris Ash.
The redshirt freshman from North Side High School in Fort Wayne has developed a running joke with Ash, a native of sleepy Ottumwa, Iowa, that plays off their disparate upbringings.
“I think he’s from Iowa or something like that,” Johnson said Tuesday evening after practice. “He’ll make the little jokes about Fort Wayne, so I’ll just make a little joke about Iowa or something.”
Thanks to such moments of harmless humor, the mutual trust between them has grown exponentially during this five-game turnaround after a 0-2 start.
While Ash can come across as stern or perpetually “dialed in,” as former Drake University teammate (and now N.C. State coach) Dave Doeren said recently, Johnson has come to appreciate other aspects of the football lifer’s personality.
“The more I kept watching film with him and just being around him, he kind of softens up,” Johnson said. “He made it clear to us that he cares about the relationship first as a player and a coach before anything else. He just wants us to have a great relationship with him as just regular people. That doesn’t have anything to do with football.”
And when the subject inevitably turns back to football, Johnson has learned the well-traveled coach is typically right on the money. Ash, after all, is a former small-college safety who has coached the position at various stops.
“He’s a very smart coach,” Johnson said. “He kind of knows things that you didn’t even know were a thing. It’s like he tells you something, and you’re kind of confused, and then it will happen, and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, OK, yeah. He was right.’ “
For Tae Johnson, the key stop vs. USC was prep mixed with instinct
After struggling for large chunks of the first three games, Notre Dame has reeled in nine interceptions over the past three outings, something no Irish defense has done since 1977.
Notre Dame has surged up to plus-8 in turnover margin, tying the Irish for ninth in the country ahead of this Saturday afternoon at Boston College.
“He understands it,” Johnson said. “That’s where I appreciate Coach Ash. I know he wants me to grow as a safety and as a player. He has a great background. He’s been at a lot of places. Just getting that knowledge from him and his background, it’s only for the better. I think it helps our team and it definitely helps our DBs for sure.”
Limited to just nine defensive snaps in the season-opening loss at Miami, Johnson leapfrogged Virginia Tech graduate transfer Jalen Stroman on the depth chart by Game 3 against Purdue.
The 6-foot-2, 192-pounder missed just two of a combined 149 defensive snaps in wins over the Boilermakers and Boise State. He played the vast majority of the time in blowouts over Arkansas and N.C. State before going the distance (all 78 defensive snaps) in the 34-24 win over USC.
Johnson was credited with a career-high nine tackles against the Trojans, none more impressive than a second-and-goal stop of freshman quarterback Husan Longstreet. Sweeping right from the 7 after subbing in for starter Jayden Maiava, Longstreet appeared to have the corner until Johnson came storming in to make the stop for no gain.
USC settled for a field goal and a 14-13 halftime deficit.
Exhaustive film study that week, including 45 minutes a night on his own, had Johnson primed for that goal-line look when it materialized.
“I would just say it felt like I was supposed to do it,” he said. “More than anything, it feels like I just knew, really. Instincts just took over. It feels good to do stuff like that. That’s what our defense needed in that moment. I just feel like it’s what I’m supposed to do, and it’s normal. It’s just what I do.”
Safety-coordinator relationship keeps growing
Johnson’s overall performance against USC must have made those one-on-one talks in Ash’s office even more entertaining during the off week.
“It all takes time,” Ash said in the run-up to USC. “Nothing is going to happen overnight. We talk all the time; we’re in a race against time. We want to reach our full potential, we want to be great, we want to be as good as we can be, and we’re in a race.
“We’re in the middle of that race right now. Thankfully, our players understand that and there’s a lot of urgency to what we’re doing every single day.”
Now fully entrenched as the quarterback of the secondary, Johnson thinks nothing of popping into his coordinator’s office for another round of hometown putdowns.
“That was something I had to go day by day and grow and grow more and more with, just going in his office and sitting down,” Johnson said. “Definitely, my relationship with Coach Ash is growing still to this day. I know he wants what’s best for me. I respect him as a coach and as our defensive coordinator.”
Whether it’s defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, assistant defensive backs coach Marty Biagi, or senior defensive analyst Andy Buh, who mostly works with the nickelbacks, Johnson is a football sponge.
And these days, he’s gleaning all he can from Ash as well.
“Any type of gems he can give me,” Johnson said. “I always go in there and just check in on him. We might joke around a little bit, but every time there’s something. When it comes to football, I know he’s always going to give me the right perspective. I definitely respect Coach Ash, for sure, and I respect our relationship.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
