Eyes on the Notre Dame Secondary
Notre Dame has their only full open practice of the spring this Saturday and most eyes will be on the quarterback.
The rest of them may be glued to the secondary.
It may sound strange to describe the defensive backs as a group that is in transition when they are returning their top three corners and three safeties who played a ton of snaps last season. That’s just how it feels when the one player they are losing is All-American Kyle Hamilton.
It’s logical to think that so many returning players will equal better play in 2021, but that is in question at the moment. That’s also why many fans are eager to see if there are young players who didn’t play last season who can emerge and possibly overtake those who have more experience.
It’s all unknown and what makes it even more of an enigma is the fact that the secondary isn’t loaded with blue-chip talent. At least not blue-chip talent according to composite recruiting rankings. Out of the 15 players currently on the roster and the other freshmen set to arrive in the summer, only four of them were ranked as 4-stars.
It’s not to say that blue-chip level play can’t be developed from athletes who were ranked as 3-stars, transfer addition Brandon Joseph, Julian Love, and Alohi Gilman are/were much better than their recruiting rankings would indicate, but it’s not an ideal ratio. It certainly doesn’t match up with some of the programs the Irish are chasing.
It’s a different story in the front seven for Notre Dame where 18 of the 26 (69.2%) projected to be on the roster this fall were blue-chip recruits. That includes 9 of the 11 linebackers. If not for the recent dip in defensive line recruiting, only three blue-chips out of eight were signed from the most recent three cycles, then that number would look even better.
There’s good news with Mike Mickens and Chris O’Leary improving recruiting in the secondary. Three of the four current blue-chips were in the last two cycles and they have two more committed in the current class. That ratio is going to be much better in the future. But that help isn’t there yet so it may mean that a 4-star like Jaden Mickey has to be ready to play now or that they develop a Gilman or a Love out of the veteran players.
This is exactly why defensive back is the most important position on the roster outside of quarterback this spring. They need players to play above where they were projected as recruits.
The front seven should be good enough to carry the unit as a whole to another top-20 F+ defensive rating this season. Whether they can be better than that could largely depend on if the play in the secondary can change the ceiling of the defense.