Midweek Musings
Thoughts on Notre Dame football, its recruiting efforts and college football.
BREAKOUT TIME - DEFENSIVE EDITION
Clark Lea has built Notre Dame into one of the nation’s best defenses in a very short period of time. In his first season running the show (2018), Notre Dame had the No. 16 defense in the nation according to the Fremeau Efficiency Index. Despite losing first-round NFL Draft pick Jerry Tillery, All-Americans Julian Love and Te’von Coney, and team captain Drue Tranquill, the Irish defense was even better in 2019, ranking No. 5 in the nation.
Lea and the defensive staff have already shown they can replace standouts by developing new standouts. There are plenty of options for that in 2019, and during the spring we’ll start to get our first look those possible breakout players.
Here’s a look at five possible defensive players that are at the top of my list this spring:
DAELIN HAYES AND ADETOKUNBO OGUNDEJI, DEFENSIVE ENDS — I won’t be the least bit surprised if the 2019 ends - Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem - are both taken by the end of the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. At the very least I expect both to be off the board by the end of day two.
Despite the loss of those two talented ends, Notre Dame’s starting ends in 2020 should be just as good. In fact, before going down in game four with a shoulder injury, Hayes was playing as well - if not better - than any end on the roster. In the final three games, Adetokunbo Ogundeji was playing the best ball of all the ends.
Hayes started at drop in 2017 and was a key rotation player the last two seasons. He’s a strong all-around player that thrives against the run and excels in coverage. If Hayes keeps doing what he has done the last two years he’ll be a standout for the defense, but I am not putting him into the breakout category because he’ll be a stout run defender or good in coverage. I believe we will finally see Hayes become a more impactful pass rusher, and that’s why I view him as a breakout in 2020.
Ogundeji has a unique combination of length, power and burst. Even when he was a 215-pound high school player you could see he possessed exceptional power in his hands. Now that power is part of a 253-pound grown man body. Ogundeji played quality football for much of the 2019 season, but he turned it up in the final three games, registering 5.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.
If he carries that into the 2020 season he will not only be a top player for the Irish defense, he’ll have a chance at developing into one of the nation’s best ends, and Ogundeji and Hayes could form one of the elite edge tandems in the country.
KYLE HAMILTON, SAFETY — This one isn’t all that surprising. Hamilton was a freshman All-American in 2019, and he finished his first season with 10 passes defensed while playing just 250 coverage snaps. For context on how impressive that is, there were four different safeties that earned multiple All-American honors in 2019. Here’s how Hamilton stacks up:
Hamilton — 250 coverage snaps, 10 passes defensed (4 INT, 6 break ups)
Grant Delpit, LSU — 505 coverage snaps, 9 passes defensed (2 INT, 7 break ups)
Xavier McKinney, Alabama — 435 coverage snaps, 8 passes defensed (3 INT, 5 break ups)
Antoine Winfield Jr., Minnesota — 401 coverage snaps, 8 passes defensed (7 INT, 1 break up)
Hamilton now becomes a starter, and with more time in the system and more time in the strength program his game could explode in 2020. As good as he was as a freshman, there’s still plenty of room for growth with his game. There’s literally growth, which means getting bigger and stronger, which should make him a more effective run defender. Hamilton was a willing tackler, but the extra strength will help, as will improving his run fits and angles to the ball.
Hamilton is incredibly rangy as a zone defender, and he improved in man coverage throughout the year. If he continues making strides he’ll become a true ballhawk on the back end of the defense.
TARIQ BRACY, CORNERBACK — Bracy came to Notre Dame as more of an athlete than a pure cornerback. A dominant two-way player in high school, Bracy got by on top-level athleticism during his first two seasons at Notre Dame. He showed flashes of being a breakout player last season (go watch the Georgia game if you have any questions about that), but his play was far too inconsistent.
Now a junior, Bracy needs to start being a more fundamentally sound player. Notre Dame needs Bracy to combine sound technique and footwork with his top-level athleticism, and if he does that we’ll start to see more and more of the strong performances and less and less of the inconsistency. The rising junior also needs to add more functional strength and improve as a tackler, but he’s more than willing to mix it up.
Bracy will likely be more in the Troy Pride Jr. mold at cornerback, being more of a top cover player than a strong tackler or ball hawk, but that skillset is certainly an asset Noter Dame needs if its going to have an elite defense and compete against the best offenses.
HOUSTON GRIFFITH, SAFETY — Griffith saw his development stunted by constant moving around his first two seasons. Cornerback to safety to nickel to cornerback to safety, but now he’s finally settled in at safety. Griffith will need to hold off Ohio State transfer Isaiah Pryor, but Griffith should get every chance to force his way into the rotation this spring.
I believe if given that opportunity, Griffith will not only solidify a spot in the rotation, he’ll develop into a difference maker in the defense. The reality is he needs reps, and he needs as many opportunities as possible to get comfortable playing on the back end after having spent so much time at corner the last two years. If he gets that chance I expect him to make more and more plays.
Pryor is a quality downhill player, but Griffith has the potential to be an impactful all-around safety that can play the run, thrive in zone coverage and also man up tight ends and running backs. He flashed playmaking skills during his first spring when he got moved to safety, and as long as he regains his confidence I believe we’ll see that again this spring.
Teams will likely try to avoid Hamilton as much as possible, which means they’ll target the second safety more frequently. If Griffith is up to the task he and Hamilton could quickly form into an impact duo on the back end.
Note: It was very, very difficult for me to leave Marist Liufau off this list, but I want to see him in practice this spring before putting too much on his shoulders.
CLAYPOOL HAS THE MOST TO GAIN AT THE COMBINE
The NFL Scouting Combine will be big for all nine former Notre Dame players in attendance. I predict that tight end Cole Kmet will solidify his standing as the top tight end in the draft class at the combine, and don’t be surprised if defensive end Khalid Kareem shines as well. We all know cornerback Troy Pride Jr. will dominate the 40-yard dash.
Safeties Jalen Elliott and Alohi Gilman both need to perform well, and strong combine performances will improve the draft stock of both players.
But in my view there isn’t a player in the group that could see his draft stock see a more dramatic rise with a strong performance than wide receiver Chase Claypool.
Claypool was brilliant as a senior for the Irish, hauling in 66 passes for 1,037 yards and 13 touchdowns. His numbers should have been even better, but for whatever reason there were stretches where he wasn’t targeted nearly enough.
The 6-4, 229-pound pass catcher has outstanding size, ball skills and he’s an explosive athlete. Right now, however, he’s buried behind an absolutely loaded group of wide receivers, and some are even talking about him needing to move to tight end due to a perceived lack of speed and separation ability.
If Claypool can come anywhere close to performing at the combine the way Miles Boykin did a season ago he could skyrocket up draft boards. Let’s be honest, Claypool was a better player than Boykin at Notre Dame. Not only was his senior season far better than Boykin’s senior season, a case could be made that for much of the second half of the 2018 season Claypool was more impactful than Boykin.
Boykin was not drafted in the third round by the Baltimore Ravens based on his film. That’s not to diminish Boykin’s 2018 season, or his ball skills, or his clutch play, but he barely topped 1,000 yards for his career. But we can appreciate how effective he was in 2018 and still accept that it was his dominant combine performance that pushed him that high up in the draft.
Should Claypool have a similar combine performance to go with a much better career and more natural wide receiver skills, he could finally start to climb up the very, very deep wide receiver board.
THOUGHTS ON THE ONE-TIME TRANSFER RULE
The ACC announced this week that it was joining the Big Ten in supporting a rule change that would allow college student-athletes to transfer one time without having to sit out a season.
I recently shared my thoughts on this possible rule change, why it's not really about what's best for the players, and why it will end up being very bad for college football.
You can listen to them here:
TWEET OF THE WEEK
This tweet links to an excellent, moving article about former Notre Dame wide receiver TJ Jones. It's definitely worth your time to read.
FILM TO WATCH
The list of talented defensive ends on Notre Dame's radar is extensive. The latest 2021 defensive end film to watch is Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha standout Colin Mobley.
