Photo by Rick Kimball/ISD
Notre Dame Football
Scouting the Roster: Drue Tranquill
May 23, 2017
4,708
Player name: Drue Tranquill
Player position: Rover or strong safety
Years of eligibility left: Potentially 2 if he returns for a 5th year
Projected rank on the depth chart: Starting Rover
Player productivity so far: 2016: 79 tackles 2 TFLs 2 PBUs 1 INT
2015: (3 games) 9 tackles 2.5 TFLs 2 PBUs
2014: 33 tackles 1 TFL 0.5 sacks 0 PBU 1 INT 1 blocked kick
What player does best: What Tranquill does best fits perfectly into the new position he is playing this year. He is a good blitzer that has improved as a pass rusher and is a very good tackler when asked to attack in a short area.
Playing close to the line of scrimmage or in the box is his sweet spot. He can affect more areas of the game there, including covering backs and tight ends. His greatest impact has been in games where he has played versus the option (Georgia Tech in 2015) and when he was in a role as the Dime (Joker) in Brian VanGorder’s defense. He is an intelligent player and good communicator on defense.
What player needs to work on: The good news is that the things he needs to work on he won’t be asked to do as much. He had trouble attacking the run from depth and missed tackles against speedier players on the perimeter. At Rover he won’t be asked to do that. There will never be a play where he is lined up 12 yards off the ball unless they play him at strong safety and it doesn’t appear they’ll do that this season. Even assuming the move should cut down some of those missed tackles, he missed far too many last season. CFB Film Room had him at 16.
He is a bit stiff laterally and can get beat by smaller, quicker players in one on one situations. That’s more of a physical limitation than what he needs to work on and I don’t think him trimming down from 230 pounds would make a significant difference. He is who he is as an athlete. He can be more physical in coverage, though.
Notre Dame needs to see him be more productive in terms of disruptive plays. He’ll have much more opportunities to do so at Rover, but he’ll need to hit home more as a blitzer. Seeing an increase in sacks, tackles for loss, and pass deflections is something that he’ll need to do in 2017. Tranquill also has zero forced fumbles in his career.
Productivity of former ND players and top players in the nation at his position:
Rover isn’t the exact same position as the Sam in VanGorder’s defense, but it is fairly similar. Because of that the comparison to James Onwualu works.
Onwualu 2016: 77 tackles 11.5 TFL 3 sacks 5 PBU 3 forced fumbles
Onwualu 2015: 38 tackles 6 TFL 3 sacks 2 PBU 1 forced fumble
Steven Taylor Houston: 74 tackles 12 TFL 8.5 sacks 3 PBU 1 INT 2 forced fumbles
Matt Milano Boston College: 58 tackles 11 TFL 6.5 sacks 2 PBU 1 INT 1 blocked kick
Jabrill Peppers Michigan: 71 tackles 15 TFL 3.5 sacks 0 PBU 1 INT
Chris Worley Ohio State: 69 tackles 4.5 TFL 4 PBU 1 INT 1 forced fumble
Thomas Brown Wake Forest: 65 tackles 8.5 TFL 4 sacks 4 PBU 2 forced fumbles
What can we hope for ? Exactly what we saw from Tranquill in the spring game. That showed exactly what he was capable of from the Rover position and backed up some of what we saw from him when put in similar situations earlier in his career. Tranquill can make instinctive plays where he is knifing into the backfield. He can blitz and get after the quarterback.
I don’t think it’s out of the question to see one or two tackles for loss per game out of him and see him be involved making splash plays much more often than he has so far in his career. We can hope for him to surpass the season Onwualu had last year and be one of the best at this particular position in the nation.
What is a realistic expectation? I think it’s realistic to expect it won’t happen overnight for him with the adjustment to the new position. He has plenty of experience, but there will be a lot asked of him at Rover. It’s more multiple position and he should be able to handle it, but it might not be second nature early in the year. As you can see from the other top players who played a similar role for their team last season, it’s out of the question to think he is going to be a triple digit tackle guy. The 60-70 range is reasonable to expect and 10 tackles for loss with 4 sacks is pretty reasonable as well. He’ll get plenty of opportunities to make plays and we’ll need to see him come through and make them.
What about the future? The future really depends on the kind of year he has this year and his health. If he surpasses expectations and puts up monster production, he may elect to leave for the NFL because he should have his degree next spring. But if he doesn’t have the kind of production he is hoping for and is not healthy (he has had two season ending knee injuries), then I think he will almost definitely return for a 5th year.
Who knows, he may have a great year and choose to come back simply because he will probably not be a high pick with only one year of production. It’s tough to say until it actually does or doesn’t happen.
For right now he is valuable leader and should be a valuable contributor on this defense at Rover. This is the kind of position Tranquill was meant to play at the college level and we could be in store for two really good years from him at Rover.
Player position: Rover or strong safety
Years of eligibility left: Potentially 2 if he returns for a 5th year
Projected rank on the depth chart: Starting Rover
Player productivity so far: 2016: 79 tackles 2 TFLs 2 PBUs 1 INT
2015: (3 games) 9 tackles 2.5 TFLs 2 PBUs
2014: 33 tackles 1 TFL 0.5 sacks 0 PBU 1 INT 1 blocked kick
What player does best: What Tranquill does best fits perfectly into the new position he is playing this year. He is a good blitzer that has improved as a pass rusher and is a very good tackler when asked to attack in a short area.
Playing close to the line of scrimmage or in the box is his sweet spot. He can affect more areas of the game there, including covering backs and tight ends. His greatest impact has been in games where he has played versus the option (Georgia Tech in 2015) and when he was in a role as the Dime (Joker) in Brian VanGorder’s defense. He is an intelligent player and good communicator on defense.
What player needs to work on: The good news is that the things he needs to work on he won’t be asked to do as much. He had trouble attacking the run from depth and missed tackles against speedier players on the perimeter. At Rover he won’t be asked to do that. There will never be a play where he is lined up 12 yards off the ball unless they play him at strong safety and it doesn’t appear they’ll do that this season. Even assuming the move should cut down some of those missed tackles, he missed far too many last season. CFB Film Room had him at 16.
He is a bit stiff laterally and can get beat by smaller, quicker players in one on one situations. That’s more of a physical limitation than what he needs to work on and I don’t think him trimming down from 230 pounds would make a significant difference. He is who he is as an athlete. He can be more physical in coverage, though.
Notre Dame needs to see him be more productive in terms of disruptive plays. He’ll have much more opportunities to do so at Rover, but he’ll need to hit home more as a blitzer. Seeing an increase in sacks, tackles for loss, and pass deflections is something that he’ll need to do in 2017. Tranquill also has zero forced fumbles in his career.
Productivity of former ND players and top players in the nation at his position:
Rover isn’t the exact same position as the Sam in VanGorder’s defense, but it is fairly similar. Because of that the comparison to James Onwualu works.
Onwualu 2016: 77 tackles 11.5 TFL 3 sacks 5 PBU 3 forced fumbles
Onwualu 2015: 38 tackles 6 TFL 3 sacks 2 PBU 1 forced fumble
Steven Taylor Houston: 74 tackles 12 TFL 8.5 sacks 3 PBU 1 INT 2 forced fumbles
Matt Milano Boston College: 58 tackles 11 TFL 6.5 sacks 2 PBU 1 INT 1 blocked kick
Jabrill Peppers Michigan: 71 tackles 15 TFL 3.5 sacks 0 PBU 1 INT
Chris Worley Ohio State: 69 tackles 4.5 TFL 4 PBU 1 INT 1 forced fumble
Thomas Brown Wake Forest: 65 tackles 8.5 TFL 4 sacks 4 PBU 2 forced fumbles
What can we hope for ? Exactly what we saw from Tranquill in the spring game. That showed exactly what he was capable of from the Rover position and backed up some of what we saw from him when put in similar situations earlier in his career. Tranquill can make instinctive plays where he is knifing into the backfield. He can blitz and get after the quarterback.
I don’t think it’s out of the question to see one or two tackles for loss per game out of him and see him be involved making splash plays much more often than he has so far in his career. We can hope for him to surpass the season Onwualu had last year and be one of the best at this particular position in the nation.
What is a realistic expectation? I think it’s realistic to expect it won’t happen overnight for him with the adjustment to the new position. He has plenty of experience, but there will be a lot asked of him at Rover. It’s more multiple position and he should be able to handle it, but it might not be second nature early in the year. As you can see from the other top players who played a similar role for their team last season, it’s out of the question to think he is going to be a triple digit tackle guy. The 60-70 range is reasonable to expect and 10 tackles for loss with 4 sacks is pretty reasonable as well. He’ll get plenty of opportunities to make plays and we’ll need to see him come through and make them.
What about the future? The future really depends on the kind of year he has this year and his health. If he surpasses expectations and puts up monster production, he may elect to leave for the NFL because he should have his degree next spring. But if he doesn’t have the kind of production he is hoping for and is not healthy (he has had two season ending knee injuries), then I think he will almost definitely return for a 5th year.
Who knows, he may have a great year and choose to come back simply because he will probably not be a high pick with only one year of production. It’s tough to say until it actually does or doesn’t happen.
For right now he is valuable leader and should be a valuable contributor on this defense at Rover. This is the kind of position Tranquill was meant to play at the college level and we could be in store for two really good years from him at Rover.
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