Notre Dame Will Lean on a Four-Player Rotation at Safety, Watts Still Valued on Defense
Against Ohio State in two weeks, Notre Dame’s pass defense will face its toughest challenge of the season.
In 2021, the Buckeyes finished third among Football Bowl Subdivision teams in passing offense, averaging 380.9 yards through the air. Junior quarterback C.J. Stroud also returns this fall after receiving the fourth most Heisman Trophy votes last fall. He and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba could both be top-five 2023 NFL draft picks.
The backend of Notre Dame’s defense will be manned by a four-player rotation of Brandon Joseph, D.J. Brown, Houston Griffith and Ramon Henderson.
Who starts could change from game to game, depending on the offensive strengths of the upcoming opponent.
“What type of game is it going to be? Because they all the safeties have different skill sets,” O’Leary said. “You find out what type of game it's going to be. Those guys will go in first to give you the best chance, and then from there, you find out who plays well together and who complements each other well when they're on the field.”
The two safeties who come off the bench will still be significant contributors on defense.
“They're all going to play. They're all going to have a huge role,” O’Leary said. “Once we get out there, it's almost like a basketball game, and the guys that are playing the best, you're going to stay, and we'll find out a lot on game day.”
Depending on the situation, O’Leary says Notre Dame could play three safeties at once.
“We'll mix it up a little bit,” he said.
At the end of the day, O’Leary says he’ll be confident in whichever safety combination is in the game at a given moment.
“Right now all four of them understand that it's a competition up until game time,” he said. “Our mindset in that room is all four guys right now are starters. If we could start four guys, they'd all start, but at the end of the day, we're putting two out there.”
Filling In the Gaps
Among the projected four-man safety rotation, Henderson is by far the least experienced.
He flashed throughout the second half of the 2021 season as a rangy, ball-hawking safety with receiver-like skills. He even came down with his first interception at the college level in a 28-3 win against Virginia.
But for as well as he played versus the Cavaliers and at various points during the season, safety was still new to him. After switching from cornerback to defensive back mid-season, he learned his new position on the fly.
“I had never really played safety before prior to Kyle [Hamilton] going down,” Henderson said. “I maybe had a glimpse of it within certain packages when I used to play dime for field safety, but besides knowing the [specifics] of the position and certain plays, and I never have done that until the Virginia game.”
Now with a full offseason at safety under his belt, Henderson has shown tremendous growth, even if he still has the occasional on-the-field lapse.
“He still does some stuff that frustrates me, but he's a special talent, athletically and just his natural instincts,” O’Leary said. “He has taken a step to the point where he's handling everything we throw at him and he's understanding it.
“There's a difference between a guy that goes out there and just memorize what he's doing and a guy that understands what we're doing. He understands it.”
Throughout the offseason, he’s focused on mitigating mistakes and being assignment correct.
Beyond that, he knows how vital it is to master aspects all aspects of the position. To play consistently, he needs to be able to stuff the run and play closer to the line of scrimmage.
“Especially for this year, there's a lot more I have to do involved within the box, coming down and tackling, coming down and playing the edge and playing inside-out,” Henderson said. “I'm just trying to be a better tackler and to just eliminate problems that we had last year.”
Even though it’s been difficult for him, he’s also grown as a leader.
An only child, Henderson’s natural inclination is to stick to himself and focus on his own responsibilities. But on the field, the safety has the best view of the entire defense, so he must be able to effectively communicate what he sees.
“I'm more involved now. There's more expected of me,” Henderson said. “I've been talking more, I've been doing more, I've been trying to like fix things. I'm trying to help people understand their job rather than just mine.”
Managing Two-Way Expectations
Due to Avery Davis' season-ending ACL injury, Notre Dame is now having Xavier Watts train at safety and wide receiver.
When asked on Monday how to best designate Watts’ position going forward, O’Leary gave a quick and decisive answer.
"He's a safety,” O’Leary said. “He’s a safety.”
At least for now, the defense has to share one of its most valuable safeties with the offense, a sacrifice Watts and O’Leary were willing to make for the greater good.
“We've got to make sure that the team is in the best position to win,” O’Leary said, “but when we get the opportunity to rep him and get him out there, we're going to get him out there.”
Fans shouldn’t look at the position switch as an indictment of his play at safety.
O’Leary says Watts has grown more than anyone in recent months, especially when it comes to his understanding of defensive schemes, how he fits into Notre Dame’s system and what the coverage responsibilities are for the other 10 defenders on the field.
“He is in a really good place at safety,” O’Leary said. “He took an unbelievable step coming out of summer and [10 practices of] fall camp.”
To play offense and defense, Watts is sacrificing more than his ability to compete for a starting safety spot.
In order to learn the offense and continue to develop at safety, it’s been a huge demand on his time.
“It falls a lot on him,” O’Leary said. “He's got to take ownership of knowing both, and he's done that. Whether it's for defense or offense, after everybody's gone home, he's coming up and meeting. He'll come in on an off day and meet. He's going to take ownership of that, and he'll be able to do offense and defense.”