6 Thoughts on a Thursday

Notre Dame’s 2018 and 2019 defenses could be correctly described as loaded.

Seven starters from the 2018 defense ended up being drafted. That didn’t include Te’von Coney, one of the top inside linebackers in the country. They had two other defensive linemen in the rotation who would also end up being drafted.

The ‘19 defense had five starters end up as NFL Draft picks, two more in the D-line rotation who were eventually selected, and two other defensive linemen who went undrafted, but made 53-man rosters in the NFL. They also had a true freshman in Kyle Hamilton who gave a sneak preview of the Swiss Army Knife he’s become with the Baltimore Ravens.

The scout team defense was dang good too. It had guys like JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau, Howard Cross, Jack Kiser, and Cam Hart giving the offense a look every week.

The 2023 defense, which finished seventh in DF+ (combined FEI and SP+ rankings), might eventually be considered more talented than those previous two. They already had four starters drafted earlier in the spring. It’s very likely that four more will end up drafted next spring with Ben Morrison, Xavier Watts, Howard Cross, and Rylie Mills.

As Greg Flammang and I were ranking the top-10 players from Notre Dame’s defense in 2024, I started to become convinced that this defense is more talented than those three.

We need to see some of the underclassmen make plays on Saturdays before anyone could say definitively it’s the most talented of those groups, but when I was trying to sort out my top-10, I realized that there are several players who didn’t make it who could make a case to be included.

There’s also more players on this year’s defense who aren’t projected starters who could develop into impact players for the Irish whether it’s this season or the next one. (The defensive scout team could end up being pretty nasty too)

Notre Dame is one of the few teams who have three legitimate All-American candidates heading into the season with Morrison, Watts, and Cross, but it’s the depth of talent that could really make the defense the best they’ve had over some other very good ones in recent seasons.

Players like Jaylen Sneed, Kyngstonn Villiamu-Asa, Boubacar Traore, and Adon Shuler may not be starters. That doesn’t mean they won’t develop into playmakers for Notre Dame this fall.

2. If there is one area where Notre Dame’s defense needs to be better in ‘24 it’s tackling.

They finished 37th in PFF’s tackling grades, which isn’t bad, but not where they want to be. They averaged 8.2 missed tackles per game. Michigan and Georgia graded out as the two best tackling defenses with 5.9 and 6.1 missed tackles per game respectively.

More snaps for Jack Kiser will help in this department. PFF has him credited with eight missed tackles…over three years. His 4.5% missed tackle percentage is even better than Coney’s 5.3% in his career, which pretty much says it all about how reliable Kiser has been as a tackler.

Rod Heard II should also be an upgrade as a tackler at safety as well. He was credited with 54 solo tackles last season and his 34 “stops” (tackles on plays with negative expected points added) were tied for sixth out of all Power 5 defensive backs.

3. Back in June, I read this piece by Yahoo!’s Tom Haberstroh about “NepoBallers”. That’s the term for players whose fathers played in the NBA. While I watch Bronny James in Summer League look like he’s not ready to play in the NBA, there is statistical proof that many NepoBallers outperform where they are drafted.

The only reason I’m bringing this up has to do with Notre Dame’s recent penchant for targeting recruits who have had fathers who played in the NFL. I haven’t done all of the number crunching with it yet, but Cross, Morrison, and Joe Alt are three examples of players who have far exceeded where they were ranked as recruits. All had fathers who had played in the NFL.

Maybe it’s the success of that trio I mentioned. Maybe it’s that the early bet on Bryce Young, the son of Bryant Young, that paid off in a huge way with his physical development. Maybe it’s that they’ve been happy with what they’ve seen from Kennedy Urlacher, the son or Brian Urlacher, so far since he’s been on campus. Maybe it’s that they have the data that backs up something similar to what Haberstroh found with the NBA.

Whatever the reason is, Notre Dame has added a number of commitments from transfers and recruits whose fathers played in the NFL.

They brought in RJ Oben and Jordan Clark as transfers. They have commitments from James Flanigan‍, Anthony Sacca‍, Jerome Bettis Jr.‍., Elijah Burress‍, and Gordy Sulfsted‍. That’s seven more with NFL Dads, which is the most I can recall Notre Dame bringing in at one time.

Oben has already outplayed his ranking (889th in the composite). We’ll see what happens with everyone else, but it’s definitely going to be something worth monitoring, especially since Urlacher, Bettis, Burress, and Sulfsted aren’t considered elite prospects according to their composite rankings.

4. On3 came out with a future freaks list that featured Notre Dame commits Deuce Knight‍ (first), Flanigan (third), and Will Black‍ (ninth). ND wide receiver target Derek Meadows‍ also made the list (13th).

I don’t think anyone who follows it closely is surprised by Knight, Black, or Meadows making the list. They may be surprised by Flanigan’s inclusion and might have been blown away by him being third, but as they highlighted in the piece, he has elite throws in the shot and discus in track and field in addition to an elite high jump and elite 100m time for someone his size.

All of that is on top of him flat out running away from people after the catch on the football field.

He is considered a blue-chip prospect. It’s not out of the question he ends up as a top-50 prospect before this cycle is finished. Elite athleticism at the tight end position is very important.

Flanigan has the potential to be a third generation NFL player and he’s an elite athlete as a tight end. Not that anyone needed reassurance that the Irish got another good one at tight end, but yep, they got another good one.

5. People are rarely happy when Notre Dame has to settle for “Plan B” when a recruit decommits. Sometimes “Plan B” turns out to be Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau, Audric Estime, or Mitchell Evans, though.

Alt was also considered a “Plan B” prospect. They weren’t getting Nolan Rucci, Wyatt Millum, or Landon Tengwall, so they went and offered Alt. That worked out more than okay for the Irish.

Osita Ekwonu was supposed to be the prize at linebacker in Notre Dame’s 2019 class. Kiser was the one who had to earn an offer during the May evaluation period. Liufau and Bertrand were the ones who might not have a scholarship on signing day.

It doesn’t always work out this way, but it certainly has worked out that way more than a few times for the Irish. It’s normal to be dissatisfied if Notre Dame loses out on a highly ranked recruit they’ve been after for a long time. However, no one should dismiss any potential replacements because they are “Plan B” guys.

6. One player who isn’t going to be in anyone’s top-10 ranking of Notre Dame’s defensive players is Jason Onye. He might have a hard time cracking the top-20, at least based on what he has done so far.

He’s entering his fourth season for the Irish. He’s racked up 0.5 tackles for loss in the first three. He found himself in and out of the rotation last season. He played 155 snaps total on defense, but over 40% of those came in three blowouts against Navy, Tennessee State, and Stanford.

Those numbers and his age might not make anyone project a breakout season because many figured it was supposed to happen last year, but it’s easy to forget just how raw Onye was when he arrived at Notre Dame.

He had a lot of room to grow, literally and figuratively, as a defensive lineman. He played in a state, Rhode Island, that didn’t exactly present top flight competition and he also didn’t have an opportunity to play his senior season during the pandemic.

He made a massive jump physically heading into 2023, transforming himself into a twitchy 6-5 290 interior lineman. That part looked great, but the technical aspects of his game were still a work in progress.

So, he’s in the Steve Filer category with his freaky traits and also in the Steve Filer category with his on-field production.

Even though his statistical profile doesn’t show a lot, I still think he has a chance to be an NFL player. The physical traits are just too tantalizing if he can put it together and he showed signs of that this spring. He was so much more consistently explosive off the ball.

He seemed to take full advantage of the reps he was given with Howard Cross and Rylie Mills taking on less of a workload and Gabriel Rubio not practicing. In terms of a backup who could really make a plausible leap this fall, Onye is on the list even if there aren’t many who have played as little as he has who would be.

If he does break out as a player this fall, then it might be the best player development story for Notre Dame has had in the decade that I’ve been covering the team.

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