Heated Position Battles Could Lead to Notre Dame's Defense Being Great
Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman wasn’t dishing out too many praises following the first day of practice on Wednesday.
It’s day one. The pads aren’t on, freshmen are trying to find their groove and everyone else is trying to dial back into actual football. It’s not going to be a day of praise. Heck, Kyle Hamilton picked off three passes in about 15 minutes during his first practice and Brian Kelly refused to acknowledge it even happened.
Yet, Freeman did highlight sophomore safety Adon Shuler for his work over the last seven months as the New Jersey native finds himself competing with graduate transfer Rod Heard II to start opposite All-American safety Xavier Watts.
Heard and Shuler took reps with the first and second team on Wednesday and it’s a trend that will continue throughout camp as Freeman wants competition to further growth. Freeman also made it clear both will play week one against Texas A&M, which is high praise for Shuler, who redshirted a year ago.
“I'm trying to do a really good job of getting our guys to focus on every day right and each day, and I don’t care who's with the ones today and who's with the twos today,” explained Freeman. “If you're rotating, focus on your reps. We'll get to tomorrow, and it'll be another guy and another group, like, focus on your opportunity. I know that's coach speak, but it's reality. Like them worrying about who's going to be the starter in Texas A&M doesn't matter.”
“We'll figure out who's going out there with the first group, both of those guys are gonna play for us. I'll tell you that right now. I just want to make sure their mindset is right. It doesn't matter who goes out with the ones. Take advantage your opportunity today."
Notre Dame’s defense appears loaded on paper with two All-Americans in the secondary and two defensive linemen who could easily be All-Americans by the end of the year. The linebackers will be young outside of Jack Kiser, but it could be the most talented group top to bottom Notre Dame has had in years.
Freeman knows it’s a talented group and believes linebackers coach Max Bullough can get the unit to the level they need to be at to impact football games.
“I'm very confident in that linebacker core,” stated Freeman. “There's five guys in that room that have shown us they can play right away. Max Bullough has done an unbelievable job of really developing those guys.
“Kiser’s an old head. He's a sixth-year and he's been through a lot of these training camps. (Jaylen) Sneed has been here a while. To see what Sneed and Drayk (Bowen) and (Jaiden) Ausberry and Kyngstonn (Viliamu-Asa) and even Preston Zinter. It's a credit to Max and his development of that room. I have a lot of confidence and whoever comes out of that room that's going to be on the field."
The other battle on defense will be at field cornerback as sophomore Christian Gray and junior Jaden Mickey will duke it out for the starting spot. That said, it’s similar to the safety battle as both will play regardless of who starts.
"Just continue to build trust,” Freeman said of Gray and Mickey. “That's how you earn playing time. Can you do exactly what your coach tells you to do over and over and over. Everybody has ability but we will play the guys that we trust more than anything to get their job done. That's what you want to see over the course of now to the end of fall camp.”
As for the defense as a whole, Freeman has mentioned in the past that Al Golden won’t be adding new schemes to the defense, but rather disguises and being creative with the plethora of experience available.
Notre Dame is also entering year three of the same defense and that will allow Golden to expedite installs and personnel packages over the next three weeks.
“They're able to start at a place that they haven't been at the past two years because it's the third year in Coach Golden's system,” said Freeman. “It's also a veteran group that has learned the details of every defense that he wants to run.
“They're starting at level 500 and that's great because now you continue to harp on the little intricate details of what makes a successful defense. I'm excited for the future of this defense in this upcoming season because of what they've built over the past two years.”
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