Bold Prediction: 2020 Defensive Line Will Be Notre Dame's Best Yet

In 2018, the Notre Dame defensive line fueled a defense that carried the Fighting Irish to the College Football Playoff.

That unit combined for 45.5 tackles for loss and 24 sacks, and Julian Okwara was one of the nation’s top ends and defensive tackle Jerry Tillery was a second-team All-American.

Despite the loss of Tillery to the first-round of the NFL Draft, and the loss of starting nose tackle Jonathan Bonner, I predicted the 2019 defensive line would be even more productive, and it was. The 2019 front four combined for 48 tackles for loss and 24.5 sacks.

Now the Irish must replace Okwara and Khalid Kareem, a pair of 2020 NFL Draft picks, and must also replace Jamir Jones, who had a strong final season with the Irish. Once again, I’m going to make a prediction that the 2020 defensive line will be even better and more productive than the 2019 unit despite those heavy losses.

The number one key to that happening is the emergence of fifth-year senior end Daelin Hayes and Adetokunbo Ogundeji turning their 2019 spurts in production into a consistency in 2020. If they don't become difference makers my prediction will likely fall short.

Hayes was on pace for 13 tackles for loss before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury. He was recently named a preseason second team All-American, and he needs to live up to that standard in 2020.

Ogundeji registered 5.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in the final three games of the 2019 season. I don’t expect him to do that over the course of an entire season, although that projected number of 24 tackles for loss and 19.5 sacks at that pace would be fun to watch. But there’s no reason Ogundeji can’t be a double-digit tackle for loss player and someone who can push towards double-digit sack numbers.

A rotation will need to emerge, and we’ll talk more about that when we get to the period of the offseason where we preview the defensive line. But young players stepping into key roles will be important.

Up the middle is where the true test will be, and that unit could be the difference between Notre Dame being very good up front or Notre Dame being elite.

Getting Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa to be more productive on the ball (MTA has just five career TFLs) is key, but if the Irish are going to be a truly dominant front four it will likely be a result of junior Jayson Ademilola and sophomore Jacob Lacey starting to fulfill their potential.

Over the last two seasons, Ademilola has been Notre Dame’s most productive run defender up the middle on a per-snap basis. The New Jersey native has played 416 combined snaps (according to Pro Football Focus) in his two seasons on campus, which is fewer than Tagovailoa-Amosa (477) and Kurt Hinish (433) played in 2019 alone.

Ademilola has 5.5 tackles for loss in those 416 career snaps. Compare to that to 5.0 tackles for loss for Tagovailoa-Amosa in 832 career snaps and 7.0 tackles for loss for Hinish in 963 career snaps.

If Ademilola gets more snaps this season, and if he can continue improving his game, there’s no reason to think he can’t creep up on double digit TFL numbers. If Ademilola can also improve his ability to get after the quarterback he could become a highly disruptive player for the Irish defense.

The same is true for Lacey, who I don’t see as being someone who will have the high volume production as Ademilola (at least not yet), but he has the talent to be more disruptive than the veterans.

There is plenty of depth, plenty of talent, and if the potential turns into production we will see another outstanding season from the Irish front four.

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