via Indystar.com

As andrewwinn mentioned in his daily Morning Roundup, some eyebrows were raised with Ben Koyack was the only Notre Dame player selected in the 2015 NFL Draft–and in the seventh round at that. While some within ND fandom grew concerned about what this meant for the current talent in the Brian Kelly era, some outside of it saw a golden opportunity to take a lazy potshot at the Irish as the draft wound down:

More picks than Notre Dame

Chattanooga
Delaware
Delaware State
Hobart
Northern Iowa
Samford
SIU
Tennessee State
Texas Southern
Towson

— College Football by SB Nation ? (@SBNationCFB) May 2, 2015

Now, there’s the obvious retort: Notre Dame is returning practically every single starter from 2014. This is certainly true, but would it then follow that the level of talent on the field is so poor that it is in every Irish player’s best interest to remain in South Bend?

Every year, we see many posts showing which school/conference managed to draft the most players. This year, I wanted to go a bit deeper–compare the draft results to recruiting rankings as well as recording the star ratings for each pick and which recruiting class they came from.

To do this, I used recruiting rankings and ratings from 274 Sports (with exception of 2010 team rankings as they weren’t available on 247–Rivals was used). The classes of 2010-2012 were examined as all but four picks came from these classes.

The end goal was to see if there is really any cause for concern for a poor draft class and if any other interesting data points/patterns could be found.

Let’s start with the top schools in terms of NFL draftees and compare them to their recruiting rankings from 2010-2012:

The obvious outlier here is Louisville and they have an outlier within their draft class as well, a 2014 JUCO transfer, James Sample (who originally started at Washington). Sample went in the fourth round and the Cardinals also claimed Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick of the draft, Gerald Christian. Still, that’s quite an impressive haul for Louisville, even though their draft rankings are by far the lowest out of the teams on this list.

Mississippi State, Oregon State, and Arkansas all found themselves with a ranking average in the mid-thirties and tied teams with top ten average rankings. So it certainly seems that your draft class isn’t dependent on recruiting rankings, let’s see how this works the other way with rankings sorted by average recruiting class:

Why hello there, Notre Dame, good to see you sticking out like a sore thumb. So, the talent should certainly be there according to the recruiting rankings. ND isn’t alone with solid recruiting marks and low return on draft picks either.

So is ND not developing their talent or seeing a high number of busts? Not really.

The 2010 class saw a few people drafted last year: Louis Nix, Prince Shembo, and Bennett Jackson. Last year’s draft also took Aaron Lynch (albeit not a true Irish pick, but explains the ranking boost) and Stephon Tuitt from the class of 2011. And as for the 2012 class, no one left early for the draft, although Ronnie Stanley and Sheldon Day certainly could have (and probably Everett Golson too if he really wanted to roll the dice).

And really, we should talk about people leaving early. A lot is made about the young guns in the draft, but only 40 of the 256 picks (~15%) came from the class of 2012 (not including one JUCO in the class of 2012). The class of 2010, meaning the fifth years, were the most drafted class this year pulling down 98 picks (~38%). The class of 2011, some of whom did have another available year, had 92 total picks (~36%).

So a strong senior/fifth year crop is what tends to boost the number of draft picks. So young teams like the Irish tend to not put together impressive draft classes. There was notable exception to this standard and that was Florida State who had four draftees come from the class of 2012.

And what about star power? Is the lack recruiting/retaining five-stars hurting the Irish in the draft?

Again, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As there are so few five-stars overall, there isn’t a round in which they dominate. Not surprisingly, the first round is where you see the most, and this year saw eight former blue-chippers drafted; however, there was at least one five-star taken in every round, even the seventh.

This year, the majority of five-star talent came from the class of 2012 (15 out of 24), giving more credence to the argument that the recent attrition of five-star plays might just be expected. After all, if these guys are really as good as their ratings, they are looking for the best route to maximize their potential and exposure in the least amount of time.

As far as those diamond-in-the-rough players that also get their fair share of love, they actually take up a sizable portion of the draft. 61 players were drafted with a rating of two stars or less–that’s almost a quarter of all the players taken in the draft (23.8% to be more precise). Normally, I’d say that Notre Dame would get roasted for taking players like that in their draft class, but these also include walk-ons and the Irish just so happen to have a walk-on that might have an outside shot at landing on an NFL team next season in Joe Schmidt.

Three-star selections account for the lion’s share of the picks in the draft (~44%) with the class of 2011 (your seniors and redshirt juniors) taking up the largest piece of that pie. This all points once again to a strong, developed senior class being the ticket to a strong draft class.

So yes, it’s certainly great to have the ability to brag post-draft that the guys you were watching on Saturdays will start playing on Sundays, but it certainly isn’t a solid measuring stick year in and year out. With eight players departing in last year’s draft and six the year before that, there was bound to be a gap year for the Irish in the draft.

There were simply too many gaps to fill with a lot of young talent who needed to make their mark on the depth chart rather than the draft. A handful of players could have left early to boost number, but they didn’t.

All of that talent is coming back to play another year for Brain Kelly and we should be nothing but over-the-moon excited about it. Don’t convince yourself that this is a sign that Kelly failed to develop talent. On the contrary, this program unbelievably healthy and continuing to move in the right direction.

Now, should next year’s draft see only one player drafted, something went terribly wrong and I’ll be the first to start screaming that the sky is falling. But for now, take a deep breath and get ridiculously excited for the potential that the 2015 squad has.

The post Only One Notre Dame Draft Pick–Should We Worry? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

VIDEO

• Varsity Sports: Brandon Wimbush 2014 highlights (Notre Dame commit 2015) (6:11)
• Stephen Barnett: 1990 Orange Bowl: #1 Colorado vs. #4 Notre Dame (3:04:50)
• Stephen Barnett: 1995 Fiesta Bowl: #4 Colorado vs. Notre Dame (2:59:00)

RECRUITING

• Irish Illustrated: Pacific Northwest OL visits (Paul Gicewicz)
• eDuck: Alloway on Oregon (Damian Alloway)
• Fansided 150: 2015 Recruiting Recap: Number 12 Notre Dame
• Herald-News: Providence boys basketball completes journey to Chicago Catholic League title (Miles Boykin)
• Chicago Tribune: Miles Boykin, Providence make CCL statement with title win
• NJ.com: Oops! Notre Dame sends recruiting letter to Rutgers junior Chris Muller

CURRENT TEAM

• UHND: A pre-spring ranking of Notre Dame’s starting defense
• Irish Sports Daily: Fuller’s dominant 2014 season in perspective – NFL Combine style

IRISH IN THE NFL

• Atlanta Journal Constitution: Falcons to keep character on draft picks (Prince Shembo)
• Steelers Depot: 2015 NFL Combine: Offensive linemen and tight end notes (Ben Koyack)
• 247 Sports: Saturday NFL Combine update: Daniels runs 40-yard dash
• NFL Mocks: NFL Scouting Combine: Phillip Dorsett fails to topple Chris Johnson (DaVaris Daniels)
• Paint by Numbers: Cleveland Browns: 2015 complete mock draft (Kyle Brindza)

SCHEDULE

• Eye on Annapolis: Navy football home opener scheduled for Sept. 5 against Colgate (Oct. 10 vs. Notre Dame)
• Slap the Sign: Notre Dame spring practice dates

MISC.

• Official Notre Dame Athletics Blog: Rivalry renewed
• WKRN: Joe Biddle: Sunday notes: Feb. 22, 2015
• Civitas Media: New coach sees potential to build a winner at Shawnee (Jon Carpenter)
• The State: Oldest McDonald’s in SC operates in new building in Anderson (Dick Frankel)
• Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: 2015 NFL Draft outlook (Tom Carter)

The post Morning Roundup: Feb. 22, 2015 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

VIDEO

• Irish Illustrated: NFL Combine interview: DaVaris Daniels (5:23)
• Scout: Scout spotlight: Bo Wallace (00:54)
• Irish Illustrated: NFL Combine interview: Ben Koyack (5:10)

RECRUITING

• Scout: The No. 1 center in Florida will visit Auburn (Brett Heggie, brother of Bruce Heggie)
• Scout: Noah Davis finding recruiting surreal (Notre Dame has not offered)
• Irish Sports Daily: Recruiting week in review (Chauncey Gardner & Tre Nixon)
• Fox Sports: Miami football: Hurricanes are absolutely crushing with their 2016 recruiting class (ND is currently #40)
• Washington Post: Freedom-Woodbridge’s Kyree Campbell makes up for lost time
• NJ.com: Jordan Fuller, N.J.’s top athlete, on Rutgers: “They’re pretty high for me.”
• Scout: Kraemer flattered by attention being shown

COACHING

• Slap the Sign: Autry Denson is a slam-dunk hire for Notre Dame
• 247 Sports: Getherall: “Irish lucky to have Denson”
• 247 Sports: Bob Davie: Denson would be a home run hire
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Bucs hire Duke Preston as director of PD
• Tampa Bay Times: Bucs hire Preston as new director of player development (Duke Preston)
• Athlon Sports: Ranking the ACC’s football-basketball coaching tandems (Kelly-Brey are #3)

CURRENT TEAM

• Inside the Irish: Spring solutions: Tight ends
• Irish Illustrated: Spring questions: Wide receivers
• Irish Illustrated: Regan seizes walk-on opportunity
• One Foot Down: May the Road Rise Up to Meet You: Elijah Shumate
• News-Sentinel: Notre Dame adds defensive depth with Pac-12 transfer
• UHND: The growing game of Corey Robinson

IRISH IN THE NFL

• UND.com: Three former Irish players invited to NFL Combine
• CSN Chicago: DaVaris Daniels not bitter about how Notre Dame career ended
• Chicago Tribune: DaVaris Daniels seeks to explain Notre Dame departure
• Chicago Sun-Times: After Notre Dame suspension, DaVaris Daniels seeks NFL job
• ESPN: Receiver DaVaris Daniels eager to move on from Notre Dame ordeal
• CBS Sports: 2015 NFL Combine 5 things to know: DGB passes the eye test (DaVaris Daniels)
• Chicago Tribune: Finishing kick boosts Kyle Brindza
• ESPN: Five things learned at the Combine: Falcons (Prince Shembo)

MISC.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Temple’s football schedule released (Oct. 31 vs. Notre Dame)
• Navy Sports: American Athletic Conference releases 2015 football schedule (Oct. 10 vs. Notre Dame)
• Chicago Tribune: Customer gets grandfather’s Green Bay Packers pic he spotted at a Grafton, Wisc. Rosati’s (Fred “Ojay” Larson)
• Go Game Cocks: Georgia to play North Carolina in Atlanta in 2016
• Athens Banner Herald: Georgia football will play North Carolina in Atlanta in 2016 season
• Naples Daily News: College football: Lou Holtz thinks Jameis Winston can succeed with right team

The post Morning Roundup: Feb. 20, 2015 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

FROM OUR SITE

• Playing the numbers: How do the Irish stack up?

RECRUITING

• Irish Sports Daily: 2016 FL WR lands ND offer
• A Sea of Blue: Kentucky football potpourri (Shaun Crawford)
• Chat Sports: Irish offer 3-star Oregon WR commit Dillon Mitchell

COACHING

• Blue & Gold Illustrated: Lyght years ahead
• Slap the Sign column: A week that will give Notre Dame nightmares
• Subway Domer: Coaching overhaul underway at Notre Dame

IRISH IN THE NFL

• The Falcoholic: What are the Falcons to make of Prince Shembo?
• Napa Valley Register: Tim Brown headed to Pro Football Hall of Fame

MISC.

• Northeast Ohio Media Group: Five-star junior RB, Ohio State commit Kareem Walker releases statement on Stan Drayton, Tony Alford
• NBC Sports: Georgia HS coach rips college programs that lie during recruiting

The post Morning Roundup: Feb. 9, 2015 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

As I watched the NFL draft over the last few days, I thought about the eight young Fighting Irish men who now know where their immediate futures will be taking them.  Who now take the knowledge, skills and values that they have learned at Our Lady’s University and will have a chance to shine with the best of them.

Eight men from the University of Notre Dame were selected in this years NFL Draft, tied for second with Alabama who also had eight men drafted, and only one behind LSU who had nine men drafted. This is the second year in a row that LSU had the most players selected in the NFL draft.

Here’s your Notre Dame Draft scorecard:

Round 1, Pick 16 – Zach Martin to the Dallas Cowboys

Round 2, Pick 14 – Stephon Tuitt to the Pittsburgh Steelers

Round 2, Pick 20 – Troy Niklas to the Arizona Cardinals

Round 3, Pick 19 – Louis Nix to the Houston Texans

Round 3, Pick 25 – Chris Watt to the San Diego Chargers

Round 4, Pick 39 – Prince Shembo to the Atlanta Falcons

Round 6, Pick 11 – Bennett Jackson to the NY Giants

Round 6, Pick 13 – TJ Jones to the Detroit Lions

I am so proud of these young men that will now go on to represent Our Lady’s University both on and off the field. They will showcase not only their football skills, but their values and character in how they lead their lives as Notre Dame men. And in twenty plus years we will all look forward to reading their “Where are they now?” stories.

Okay, now go give your mom a big hug and thank her for all that she’s done for you!

Cheers & GO Irish!

The post Happy Mother’s Day! appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

To refresh, here’s how ND started to assign players to defend the option after the 2010 disaster in the Meadowlands:

1. FB Dive (Blue) – The DE and NG function as true interior DTs and attack the A-gaps that they line up over to stuff the dive.
2. QB Keeper (Red) – The Cat and DE get to the outside of the tackle and either make a play on the QB, force him back inside to the waiting safeties in second level support, or force a pitch.
3. Pitch to RB (Yellow) – The outside Will and Dog LBs contain the RB (or “pitch-man”), ensuring they are never beaten to the outside. As soon as they see the pitch, they attack the RB. The CBs serve as additional outside containment.
4. Manti Te’o (Orange) – Read the play and attempt to disrupt in the backfield if possible

While options #1-3 take care of the usual possibilities of the triple option, #4 was where Notre Dame’s defense was truly dangerous. Diaco used Te’o’s natural instincts and superb closing speed to force Navy into mistakes or quicker decisions on what to do with the football.

In 2011, Te’o had 23 tackles combined against Navy and Air Force, with 5 of those being tackles for loss (TFL). In 2012, Navy managed to avoid any Te’o TFL, but Te’o still managed 8 total tackles and 1 INT. As much as Navy tried to avoid Manti, they couldn’t do so completely.

To put it lightly, Diaco leaned on Manti and depended on him for defensive success against the option. So now that Manti’s gone, who fills his role? Or does Diaco go back to the drawing board and use a more traditional scheme without any unique wrinkles?

Personally, I would love to see Jaylon Smith slide inside and get a shot at filling Manti’s role in this kind of defense. He definitely has the raw talent and he demonstrated some impressive instincts against Southern Cal. If you are going to pick one guy from this LB corps to pretend to be Te’o flying to the ball, give me the one with the best instincts and closing speed.

This would give us a front seven that looks like this:

• DT (FB Dive): Rotation of Nix/Day/Schwenke
• DE (QB): Rotation of Shembo/Tuitt/Ishaq/Jones
• OLB (RB): Fox/Calabrese
• MLB (Rover): Smith

All that being said, and as awesome as I think it would be, I seriously doubt Kelly and Diaco would go for that idea. It would be a lot for a freshman to absorb and, if Kelly’s history is any indication, he does seem to favor experience in considering such large moves (remember, Jaylon likely isn’t playing as much as he is if Councell is healthy). So most likely the front seven will look like this:

• DT (FB Dive): Rotation of Nix/Day/Schwenke
• DE (QB): Rotation of Shembo/Tuitt/Ishaq/Jones
• OLB (RB): Fox/Smith
• MLB (Rover): Calabrese

Now, Carlo doesn’t have the same physical tools that Jaylon does, much less Manti. While I think he can do an adequate job in this role, I don’t see him completely filling the void. Because of this, I expect to see a lot more safety help than we are used to seeing. Specifically, look for the Strong Safety (SS), Elijah Shumate, to fill this role, giving almost a 4-4 look to the defense and, in a sense, having two people fill in the Manti void.

This then leaves the Free Safety (FS), Austin Collinsworth, to play “center field” and serve as the last line of defense on any run and ensure no receiver beats the secondary deep should Air Force sneak in a deep pass.

The Irish will most certainly miss Manti in defending the option, but Diaco has more than enough talent on this current squad to compensate.

The post Defending the Option: Who Takes Over for Te’o? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

LINEBACKER: THE IRISH

Manti Te’o won every award available to a linebacker, save one, last season, thereby leaving behind giant, Hawaii’an shoes to fill. With no disrespect intended to Carlo Calabrese, or Dan Fox, or Danny Spond, Prince Shembo is my pick for this piece and the Irish linebacker most likely to end thefts of bicycle seats for all time. Seriously, if Prince yelled at me and accused me of taking his bike seat, I likely would not only have peed a little, I probably would have given him my own bike seat and that of every first born male child in my ancestral village. What would you have done?

As a player, Shembo’s got three seasons under his belt and absolutely blew it up last year. A Butkus Award watch-listee, the 6’2″ 258 pound native of Charlotte, North Carolina tallied some rather impressive numbers over thirteen games: 22 solo tackles, 29 assisted tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, 12 quarterback hurries and 1 pass break up. His fellow watch-listee, Carlo Calabrese, had 19 solo tackles, 30 assisted tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 1 forced fumble. His other fellow watch-listee (yep, we have THREE), Dan Fox, had 30 solo talckles, 33 assisted tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 2 broken up passes, and 2 quarterback hurries. Highlights here:

http://youtu.be/6g-eLm6a2a0

LINEBACKER: THE ENEMY

Of all the linebackers on all the teams the Irish will face in the upcoming campaign, BYU’s Kyle Van Noy is likely the best of them all. Slightly taller at 6’3″ than Prince Shembo, and about fifteen pounds lighter, Van Noy is all over the field, even returning a punt. Which maybe Shembo can do for us. I don’t know. We should try something. How could make it worse? Amiright?

Last season Van Noy, a consensus preseason First Team All-American, put up some crazy numbers that harken back to the days when a fella played both sides of the ball, smoked Lucky Strikes and went off to fight the Hun: 37 solo tackles, 22 tackles for loss, 15 assisted tackles, 2 interceptions, 13 sacks, 8 quarterback hurries, 6 forced fumbles, 2 blocked kicks, and the aforementioned punt return.

Check out his action here:

The post Know Thyself, Know Thy Enemy: Linebacker appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Thankfully, I don’t have to justify ranking a kicker #1 (NEVER FORGET) or leaving our starting QB off the top 25 list (NEVER FORGET THIS AS WELL).

So without further ado, let’s get to the rankings.

#25 – #21

I’m splitting these into sections of five, not just because that’s how Keith did it, but because that’s how I tend to form the rankings in my head.

For the bottom five, I usually rank on pure potential. You’ll usually see most of the incoming freshmen around this area, but every now and then you’ll see a veteran in there as well. This year, that definitely happened.

#25 Chris Brown (Sophomore, WR) – Chris rounded off my top 25, mostly because I just couldn’t shake the long bombs he pulled down last year out of my head. The one against OU was one of the top plays of the entire season. The kid has some serious breakout speed and I’m hoping he can parlay this into a Golden Tate-type breakout year in 2013.

#24 Ishaq Williams (Junior, “Cat” LB) – Ishaq is one of those guys that we have also seen flashes of brilliance from. He has yet to record a sack, but did manage to rack up 3.5 TFL in 2012. I’m hoping that his junior campaign is when we see it all put together.

#23 Jaylon Smith (Freshman, “Dog” LB) – I am really excited to see Jaylon play this season. I have him slotted in the “dog” LB position, spelling Spond. He definitely has the raw talent to succeed at the coverage LB position, so I’m looking for him to make an immediate impact.

#22 Steve Elmer (Freshman, T) – The 6’5″, 300 lbs., top-rated tackle will likely see quite a bit of playing time this year on the line. Thankfully, he early-enrolled giving him a much needed jump start in experience and conditioning. Usually, I want all linemen to redshirt since it is such a physically demanding position, but with the Irish needing immediate, talented depth, a spring head-start definitely works. I think he has all the physical tools to succeed (notice a pattern yet?), so I’m looking for another immediate impact from the young lineman.

#21 Max Redfield (Freshman, S) – I can’t even remember the last time I was this excited about a safety recruit. I doubt he will start at the beginning of the season, but I could definitely see him winning a spot before the 2013 campaign comes to a close. The Irish secondary has needed a big-time recruit for quite a while. With Redfield coming into the fold, I feel he has the best chance out of this group to make an impact in 2013.

#20 – #16

This group tends to actually have some proven success. If I rate someone purely on potential here, I’m definitely high on them.

#20 Malik Zaire (Freshman, QB) – While he will likely see a redshirt this season (unless everything goes to hell like it did in my NCAA sim), Zaire is by far my favorite recruit in the 2013 class. Like Golson, he has a big arm and great mobility. There’s a reason Gunner Kiel jumped ship and my gut tells me he felt Zaire seriously breathing down his neck. It’ll be hard to project his impact, but I have no problem sticking my neck out for this kid, even with Golson’s return in 2014.

#19 Greg Bryant (Freshman, RB) – I don’t think I’ve ever considered putting this many true freshmen in the top 25 ranking, but I can’t help it. 5-star RB recruit that will have the chance to take on a backfield that has some huge holes with the departure of Cierre Wood and Theo Riddick just has to make a huge impact, right?

#18 Ronnie Stanley (Sophomore, T) – Yep, that’s two young tackles in the top 25. Much like Elmer, Stanley will be needed to fill some depth on the Irish line. He’s had a full season under his belt, so he gets a bump into this group of five.

#17 Carlo Calabrese (5th year, ILB)

#16 Dan Fox (5th year, ILB) – I’m combining the reasoning for Calabrese and Fox into one because honestly, I see them as damn near equivalent in the ranking. They have loads of experience and you know what kind of play you will get from each.

#15 – #11

This is the group that starts separating talent and potential on the roster to moving towards the elite. To put it another way, this is the true middle-ground. Players here could end up being the true difference makers or the people that I will later be embarrassed to have ranked so high.

#15 DaVaris Daniels (Junior [RS], WR) – I can’t help but feel like I’m waiting for Daniels to just break out. We’ve seen some signs of the potential before, with the huge reception on Golson’s 45 yard bomb to help send the game into OT. He was also one of the few bright spots of the Irish offense against Alabama notching a career high 115 yards on six receptions, one of which was another long strike of 31 yards. I think he should be able to nail down a starting spot so hopefully we start to see him break out in a huge way.

#14 Sheldon Day (Sophomore, DE) – We all know that Tuitt and Shembo are the two big pass rushing threats, but don’t sleep on Day. In his freshman campaign, Day notched two sacks, 3.5 TFL, and 23 tackles. With the departure of Kapron Lewis-Moore, Day will likely see quite a bit more playing time and he is my personal favorite to start along with Nix, Tuitt, and Shembo. In completely unrelated things tainting my objectivity, Day destroyed opposing offenses in my NCAA ’14 sim and seemingly had at least one sack a game. Here’s hoping reality mimics video game success.

#13 Matthias Farley (Junior [RS], S) – When Slaughter went down for the season, I was definitely terrified that the Irish secondary was beyond screwed. But then Farley stepped in and made an impact that I’m sure very few people saw coming and I don’t see that stopping this season. Fear the beard.

#12 KeiVarae Russell (Sophomore, CB) – Because of a thin secondary, Kelly was forced to move Russell from RB to CB…and did that ever work out. Now, Russell is a returning All American and looks to continue the fantastic job that he began last season. The only reason I don’t have Russell ranked higher is my fear of a sophomore slump and the overwhelming fear that gambles like this just don’t work at Notre Dame so I’m awaiting the other shoe to drop somehow.

#11 Tommy Rees (Senior, QB) – Here are the facts about Tommy Rees:

• He had an incredible run to close out his freshman year in 2010
• His 2011 was completely awful and I want to forget it forever
• He came up clutch in several situations during 2012
• With that said, his start against BYU left a lot to be desired

There is definitely potential there for greatness, but there is also the potential for great disaster because none of us are really ever going to be able to shake 2011. Rees still appears to have issues with locking-in on receivers (see: Floyd in 2011 and Eifert in 2012), but if he can kick that habit, that alone will allow him to progress by leaps and bounds in 2013.

Here’s hoping.

#10 – #6

Now we start moving into the elite parts of the roster. These are the guys I expect to be no-doubt playmakers during the season.

#10 T.J. Jones (Senior, WR) – T.J. made some great strides in 2012 and I still don’t think he’s found his ceiling yet. The WR corps needs a leader and a playmaker and I expect T.J. to fill this role.

#9 Chris Watt (5th year, G) – Watt has been one of the veteran anchors in the interior of the line and will enter his third year as a starter. With the departure of Braxon Cave, I’m looking to Watt to be the glue that holds the middle of the line together.

#8 Troy Niklas (Junior, TE) – Niklas is just a beast at 6’7″ 260 lbs. He made his biggest impact blocking in two TE sets, but with Eifert gone, it will be Niklas job to continue the amazing string of badass TEs from ND. At 6’7″, I am fully expecting Niklas to be a bit of a security blanket for a Tommy Rees jump ball and will soon be one of his favorite targets all season.

#7 George Atkinson III (Junior, RB) – GA3 still has some fundamentals to get down to truly be the best RB possible (One Foot Down has a great breakdown of this), but the bottom line is that GA3 is a straight-up playmaker. His speed on the team might just be unmatched and you can’t help but expect something special to happen when he’s in the open field. With two years under his belt, and the backfield begging for a breakout star, I’m expecting GA3 to take control.

#6 Bennett Jackson (Senior, CB) – Sure, Russell had an amazing, breakout year and Manti Te’o seemingly got all the INTs, but Jackson had a hell of a year himself. In 2012, he had 4 INTs (second only to Te’o) and broke up 4 passes (second to Nix, he led all DBs in this stat). I expect Jackson have yet another great season. With Te’o gone, the only people that can steal the spotlight from Jackson are on the defensive line — the rest of the show is all his to steal.

#5 – #1

The absolute elite on the roster and by far the easiest for me to rank.

#5 Danny Spond (Senior, “Dog” LB) – Spond was one of the best surprises for the 2012 defense and was a solid presence all year at the “dog” linebacker. He had one INT and broke up three passes, which was only second among LBs with Te’o taking top honors. I expect the arrival of Jaylon Smith to only further push Spond’s performance this season. He might not light up the stat sheet, but his presence on the defense cannot be overstated.

#4 Zack Martin (5th year, T) – Martin was my top-rated lineman last season and I see no reason to change that. Martin helped anchor a line that gave up only 13 sacks last season (T-28th in NCAA). Sack numbers (most often) speak to the strength of the exterior linemen and considering where this line used to be just a few years ago, I can’t help but give Martin all the credit in the world for that success.

#3 Prince Shembo (Senior, “Cat” LB) – Shembo was one of the people that helped us say “Aaron, who?” With 7.5 sacks and 10.5 TFL, Shembo was just an absolute beast on the line. To further blow your mind, consider that Shembo also led the team in QB hurries with 12. So that’s at least 30 plays that Shembo hung around in the opposing backfield which is just incredible. But as impressive as he was…

#2 Stephon Tuitt (Junior, DE) – 11 sacks, 11 TFL, 9 QB hurried, a blocked kick, a forced fumble, and an incredible fumble return for a TD — there’s no wonder why Bayou picked him as the Irish D-linemen to watch. Tuitt is simply incredible and the best pass rushing threat that we’ve seen in quite a long time. The only downside to Tuitt? He’s excellent play will likely make this his last year with Notre Dame. Enjoy this while it lasts.

#1 Louis Nix III (Senior, NT) – With all respect to Bayou’s selection, and to Tuitt, my pick at #1 was not hard at all. The success of the 3-4 defense starts with the nose tackle and Nix is one of the best that I have ever seen. Ideally, you just need a guy that can command and handle a double team on every snap. Nix goes well beyond that. NTs aren’t supposed to light up the stat sheet, but Nix manages to do so: 50 total tackles (7th on team), 7.5 TFL (4th on team), 2 sacks (T-4th on team), 3 QB hurries (T-5th on team), and 5 passes defended (leads the Irish). Simply put, Nix causes all kinds of havoc and opposing offenses have no choice but to respect the damage that he can cause. That opens up opportunities for the rest of the Irish defense, leading to TFLs, sacks, and turnovers. Plus, how can we ever forget this:

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Braxston Cave was the anchor of a very good offensive line last season. A fifth year senior, Cave started all 13 games in 2012 and his line opened holes for a Notre Dame running attack that surpassed 200 yards in a game seven times. The challenge for Coach Harry Hiestand is to replace Cave while keeping the O-line out of the color commentary next season.

Nick Martin proved he is up to the task last Saturday. While the 2013 Blue Gold Game provided a lot of the usual “meh” moments to which we have all grown accustomed, it also showed us that the center position is not going to be a concern. Paired opposite Nix, Martin acquitted himself rather well and we can only expect more improvement as Martin faces the nation’s best nose-tackle day in and day out.

The first series, to be honest, was nothing to write home about. On first down, Martin and the left guard double-teamed Nix and Golson threw an incomplete. On second down, the Irish ran right, but I’m prrrrrrrrretty sure there was a holding that went uncalled. Third down saw another incomplete.

The second series, though, saw the line, and Martin, come to the fore, and good things start to happen. With Tommy Rees under center, the Irish ran up the middle for a couple of yards. On second down, Martin took Nix one-on-one and Rees completed a quick strike to Prosise for four yards. On third and four, the Irish ran left, the line did its job and George Atkinson, III, picked up the first down.

On first down, Martin and the rest of the line got beat by the blitzing OLB and a bll rush by Nix, but Rees read it right and unleashed a timing pass to TJ Jones. This will happen. In running through the game a few times since Saturday, I can’t help but note that our defense is pretty good. Aside from Nix, our O-line had to contend with Stephon Tuitt and Ishaq Williams, not to mention Kona Schwenke and Prince Shembo.

On third and seven of the same drive, with about 7:55 left in the First Quarter, the O-line, and Martin in particular, do a great job of reading the rush and give Tommy all the time he needed to throw what should have been an incomplete pass, but for the amazing one-hand grab by Cam McDaniel. On the subsequent first down, Martin moved Schwenke out of the way and GAIII filled the hole for a six yard gain. On second and four, Martin neutralized Nix and Tommy should have picked up a completion, if not a touchdown, to Davaris Daniel, but for an uncalled pass interference on Keivarae Russell. On third and four, though, Connor Hanratty (I think) flinched, and that was called. Suddenly it’s third and nine and ultimately the Irish settle for a missed field goal.

There’s a bit to critique in Martin’s game from Saturday. He got manhandled by Tyler Stockton at least once, but with 2:01 left in the Second Quarter, he straight dominated, and maybe held, Kona Schwenke, allowing Golson to complete long to Troy Niklas. Still, even though the refs weren’t calling much, I only counted one false start and two “sacks.”

Not bad for playing the best defense in the country.

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Outside of Tuitt’s touchdown (we’ll get to that in a second) none of the linemen – including Prince Shembo and Ishaq Williams, who lined up as ends – put up gaudy statistics. But, against an option attack where the main assignment is to crash and prevent the fullback dive from even being a possibility, this is exactly the result you’d be hoping for.

The highlight of the game was big Stephon Tuitt not rumbling, not stumbling, but straight-up hauling-ass 77 yards for a touchdown to put the Irish up 27-0 in the second quarter. Ishaq Williams set the stage for his fellow sophomore by kinda/sorta forcing a Trey Miller fumble that bounced directly in Tuitt’s path. I really can’t explain the joy I was overcome with while I watched Tuitt glide down that Aviva Stadium pitch like a 300-pound gazelle. This type of athlete is one we have not seen in a loooong time on the defensive side of the ball for the Irish (the last one wears a similar facemask and plays for the New York Giants)…and he’s only a sophomore. That, folks, is a beautiful thing.

As Tuitt bolted away from Trey Miller and Darius Staten, a run-first quarterback and a running back that both weigh more than 100 pounds less than him, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the relative ease he scored with was due to simply being a freakishly fast 300 pound man and how much was due to playing against a slower team. So, I did the only thing I could do: I timed his run.

After a multitude of stopwatch trials, it appears that #7 ran 77 yards in about 9.45 seconds. If he kept that pace against Usain Bolt in the 100m dash, he would finish in 13.5 seconds. Not quite Bolt-type speed, and over 3 seconds slower than teammate George Atkinson (10.36 seconds) but still phenomenal speed for a defensive lineman [Also, this is clearly not comparing apples to apples as you don’t run track meets on grass wearing football pads].

Since nobody runs a 77-yard dash, how about a 40 yard dash? Breaking down his time, you are looking at a forty time of around 4.6 seconds for Tuitt at full speed and of just over 5.0 seconds for the first forty yards he had the ball in his hands. By comparison, George Atkinson ran the last 40 yards of his kick return against USC in between 4.0 and 4.1 seconds. For some context, Bruce Irvin of the Seahawks led defensive linemen at the 2012 NFL Combine with a time of 4.50 seconds, while the Bears’ Shane McClellin had the second best time with 4.63. The difference? Irvin weighs 58 pounds less than the 303-pound Tuitt, and McClellin weighs 43 pounds less than Tuitt. In fact, only one D-lineman with a top 10 forty time even weighed more than 270 pounds at the time of his run (the Jets’ Quinton Coples). For a multitude of reasons – grass, football pads, holding a ball, having a running start, not necessarily running in a straight line, ineptitude of guy trying to time another guy running on TV – this is a very rough comparison, but it is incredibly interesting nonetheless.

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