Spring Ball Preview | Safety
Any time a program loses a potential top-three pick from its roster, it’s not an easy transition to replace that player. Fortunately for Notre Dame, they had a head start on that after Kyle Hamilton missed the second half of last season with a knee injury.
Hamilton missing those games allowed some younger players to gain valuable reps and flash some exciting potential. That combined with a big addition from the transfer portal should make the transition a lot less rough than it could have been.
It all starts with Brandon Joseph, the aforementioned transfer from Northwestern. In 21 games over the past two seasons he has nine interceptions and 17.5 total Havoc plays. That’s more than enough reason to be excited about what he will do this spring, especially in coverage.
Joseph did have some tackling issues in 2021, though. That will be an area to monitor for him where he’ll need to be better.
Not many players have made as big of an impact in his first start than Ramon Henderson did against Virginia. The converted cornerback showed range that was previously missing from the secondary after Hamilton was injured against USC.
He made that position switch in-season. This time he’ll get a chance to work at safety full-time and there are high expectations that he can be a big factor this season.
This could be the start of him forming a strong duo with DJ Brown and Houston Griffith will have something to say about that.
With both going into their fifth year in the program, they have played plenty of snaps. With Brown, the question is whether he can overcome some athletic limitations to play deep. He lacks the range of Joseph and Henderson. He did have three interceptions last season and showed he can be a solid option, but his ceiling doesn’t appear to be as high as others he’ll be competing against.
Griffith was steady in his role for the Irish, but he never even flashed anything above that level. He hasn’t made a significant impact and he has only four career Havoc plays in four seasons. It is now or never for him to show he can be more productive this spring.
Notre Dame fans were certainly excited by the flashes that Xavier Watts showed as a perimeter tackler. The former wide receiver looks like he has the athleticism that the defense needs at safety. He has a tremendous opportunity in front of him to make a move up the depth chart, but if Notre Dame likes where they are at the safety position, it might make sense to move him to Rover because he has a skill set that could fit there too.
Justin Walters turned some heads in summer practices last year and he’ll need to do the same this spring to break into the two-deep. He showed the potential to be a future starter and we’ll see how much closer he is to that over the next couple of months.
It’s possible that other young players like Ryan Barnes or early enrollee Jayden Bellamy end up shifting to safety, but if they do, it won’t be because Notre Dame lacks numbers at the position. It would be more about it being a better fit for them.
There is no doubt that losing Hamilton hurts, but adding Joseph and getting expected development from players like Henderson, Watts, and Walters makes this an intriguing group.