Jaylon Smith’s announcement earlier this week that he would be entering the NFL Draft should not have been a surprise, but it certainly still hit many Irish fans right in the feels. First, there’s that hollow feeling of knowing that we’ve all watched Jaylon play his final game, tragically cut short, in the Navy and Gold. This is not a mourning in any sense of the word. Irish fans should feel elated that a player and person of Smith’s quality will get to follow his dreams of playing at the next level, and it takes virtually no imagination to anticipate his future success. However, there’s a second aspect to Smith’s announcement which is how it completes a rather drastic shift on the defensive side of the ball. Smith’s announcement along with KeiVarae Russell’s and the graduations of Sheldon Day, Joe Schmidt, and Mathias Farley mean that the 2016 Irish defense will have a brand new identity.
There are many out there who won’t see this as a bad thing. In fact, there’s a coaching departure that some are actively rooting for, and we’ll get into that more in the weeks to come. However, this piece is more about the players and leadership of the defense.
While the offense paced the 2015 Irish, it was the defensive side of the ball that presented much of Brian Kelly’s natural leadership for Team 127. Smith, Day, Schmidt, and Farley all served as captains. Russell’s been a mainstay (with an obvious exception) in the Irish secondary since the national title game run in 2012-13. It’s hard to imagine replacing so much natural leadership in one offseason.
The logical place to start is to assume there will be, from a team perspective, a natural shift to more offensive players taking leadership positions in 2016. Players like Malik Zaire, Tarean Folston, Corey Robinson, Mike McGlinchey, Steve Elmer, and Torii Hunter all seem like obvious candidates to move into leadership positions for the team next season. A hallmark of the Brian Kelly tenure has been increased leadership among the players, and there’s little reason to expect that to change. Finding the possible defensive candidates though is a tad more tricky.
While the defense may not have as many team captains as it did in 2015, it will still be vitally important for new voices and faces to emerge to guide next season’s squad. While I have little doubt that these voices will emerge, predicting exactly who it will be is a bit more difficult. Here are a few of the players that need to take a step forward in 2016 for the Irish defense to be successful:
1. Jarron Jones: After suffering a pre-season injury that cost Jones all but some strained snaps in the Fiesta Bowl, 2016 would appear to be Jones’ year. There is no player on the defensive side of the ball that more naturally slots in to a leadership position than Jones. Not only will he be entering a fifth season in the program, but his talent and importance to the construction of a defensive line that loses both Sheldon Day and senior breakout Romeo Okwara cannot be overstated. While the overhaul at linebacker may feel more stark having to compensate for Smith’s departure, a healthy Jones is vitally important to the 2016 season. Early in his career there were doubts about his dedication level to the game. His story mirrors Louis Nix’s trajectory pretty closely, and let’s hope that his on field performance does the same.
2. Max Redfield: The unceremonious removal of Redfield prior to the Fiesta Bowl felt just a little too apt to symbolize the star struck tenure of Redfield to this point. Whether it’s been injury, lack of focus, or lack of adjustment, there’s been a near never-ending list of excuses as to why Redfield has yet to reach the 5-star potential he arrived in South Bend with. However, the secondary will need to take center stage for the Irish as it returns by far the greatest percentage of starts with Redfield, Elijah Shumate, and Cole Luke all expected back next season. Redfield can no longer hide and needs to let his natural football ability finally shine. The thing is, all of the components are in place for Redfield to do this. He’s by all accounts a tremendously smart individual with athletic gifts to match. What’s kept him back is more difficult to pinpoint. For anyone on the outside to speculate about his desire or preparation is a form of recklessness that I think best to avoid, but whatever the reason, his on field production has yet to reach its (pun intended) Max potential.
3. Drue Tranquill: If there’s a guy who can fill the selfless leadership role that Mathias Farley has inhabited for the past 2+ seasons, it’s Tranquill. The case for Tranquill is not about heart, desire, or selflessness. In the rare moments he’s gotten, he’s proved time and again he has all of those qualities. It’s strictly a matter of health. Nothing pains me more than watching young men receive setback after setback and never get a chance to show their full potential on the field. I’m hoping for 2 good ACL’s and 13+ games for Tranquill to get to show how much he can really contribute.
4. Nyles Morgan: No unit on the field will look more different next season than the ND linebacking corps, and Morgan should finally get a chance to prove what he can do on a game in and game out basis. The injuries in 2014 forced Morgan to play before he was ready, but he certainly exhibited his natural physical gifts. This past season, much to the chagrin of many fans, Morgan found it nearly impossible to break into the linebacking rotation. We can speculate that this was a continued “inability” to adapt to Brian VanGorder’s “scheme,” but at the end of the day, VanGorder’s scheme must find a way to let a player of Morgan’s physical gifts participate. 2016 should see a heavy rotation of James Onwaulu, Morgan, Te’von Coney, Greer Martini, and Josh Barajas. Morgan will enter the season as a junior and needs to be able to help fill the athletic void left by Smith’s departure. Whatever Joe Schmidt’s advantage may have been in “getting” BVG’s scheme, Morgan’s got a chance to be a vast improvement over the actual play of 2015 Schmidt. You may have noticed all my quotes…it’s because if BVG does stick around and can’t get a guy like Morgan to settle in, you have to seriously question whether he understands how to balance the use of players versus scheme at all.
5. Andrew Trumbetti: The question I seem to ask myself every offseason is “where will the pass rush come from?” Sheldon Day’s loss goes beyond the numbers that show up on a stat sheet. Particularly this past season that saw Day receive the benefit of more health than at any other point in his career, he was a consistent play disrupter. More tangible, the Irish also lose their leading sacker each of the past 2 seasons in Romeo Okwara. That leaves a gaping hole that someone along the line must fill. Sure, Jarron Jones can be disruptive, but it’s unrealistic to expect him to turn into an interior pass rusher. Instead, someone must step up from the defensive end position, and Trumbetti seems like the best candidate. He’s displayed flashes of pass rush skill ever since Brian Kelly declared him the most advanced 2014 recruit in pass rushing skills. Trumbetti does not have to be a “leader” but he does need to at bare minimum fill the Okwara void of becoming the team’s best, if not breath taking, pass rusher.
- Who the _______ am I Watching? ND’s Depth Chart (Literally) by the Numbers (Part II) - August 29, 2019
- Who the _______ am I Watching? ND’s Depth Chart (Literally) by the Numbers - August 27, 2019
- The People’s Free Guide to ND Football 2019 - August 26, 2019
KyNDfan
I’m curious to see where Daelin Hayes is getting reps in spring ball.