You can’t keep your boy down. After mulling over taking the week off to let the Fiesta Bowl loss simmer before coming back to writing I’m here to offer some brief thoughts on the 2022 depth chart. Typically, this would be one of if not the longest articles of the year. This time around, I’m going to get this quick preview out before embarking on individual posts for each position group over the next couple months. I personally love the massively long article but would agree doing them separately offers a little more detail for everyone to discuss.

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As of this writing, the following players listed on the 2021 roster will not be playing next year for the Irish:

QB Jack Coan – out of eligibility
WR Kevin Austin – turning pro
RG Cain Madden – out of eligibility
NT Kurt Hinish – out of eligibility
DE Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa – turning pro
LB Drew White – turning pro
LB Paul Moala – transferring
LB Shayne Simon – transferring
S Litchfield Ajavon – transferring
S Khari Gee – transferring
PK Jonathan Doerer – out of eligibility
P Jay Bramblett – transferring

It’s been weirdly quiet about their future and intentions but MTA has accepted a bid to the East-West Shrine Game and isn’t coming back while Drew White has accepted an invite to the Hula Bowl and his career with the Irish is done.

So far, wide receiver Braden Lenzy and tight end George Takacs have announced their intentions to return as graduate students for 2022.

We now await graduate decisions from the following:

RB C’Bo Flemister
WR Avery Davis
WR Joe Wilkins
C Jarrett Patterson
OG John Dirksen
OT Josh Lugg
DE Justin Ademilola
DT Jayson Ademilola
LB Bo Bauer
LB Isaiah Pryor
CB Tariq Bracy
S D.J. Brown
S Houston Griffith

Reading the tea leaves, it certainly seems like Flemister, Dirksen, and Griffith won’t be coming back. The program needs both Davis and Wilkins to come back. It was thought Patterson was leaning towards staying but now it seems like it’s swung the other way and he’s more likely to leave. Lugg made it public a few weeks ago he’s thinking about coming back for a 6th season. I’ve been betting both Ademilola brothers come back, so we’ll see. Everyone wants Bauer to come back but I wouldn’t be shocked if both he and Pryor moved on. It’s been assumed both Bracy and Brown will return.

In the non-graduate category we now await the decision of rising redshirt junior Isaiah Foskey and his decision with the NFL coming off a season with 11 sacks, the 3rd most in a single-season at Notre Dame.

INJURIES

For the players able to come back and/or expected on the 2022 roster we only have 7 injuries heading into the off-season, which includes incoming freshman tight end Eli Raridon who unfortunately tore his ACL recently during a high school basketball game. He is not an early enrollee so he’ll rehab outside the Notre Dame medical team umbrella and it’s believed he’ll likely redshirt and be unable to play as a freshman.

The rest of the players are dealing with longer term injuries that will likely put their spring practice health in doubt. The only exception is linebacker Marist Liufau who did some work during bowl practices, dressed for the Fiesta Bowl, and should be 100% for spring ball.

MORE TRANSFERS?

There’s quite a bit of roster imbalance in scholarships so the program seems ripe to lose more players while picking up a handful more through the Transfer Portal.

Heavy Numbers:

OL (18)
TE (7)
DL (18)
CB (11)

I’m anticipating one more transfer from the offensive line which, if Patterson and Dirksen leave, drops those numbers down to something more manageable with a 5-person freshmen class arriving. Also, if Harry Hiestand returns I believe he had a desire to carry 14 scholarship linemen so that’s something to keep in consideration, as well.

Keeping 7 tight ends on the roster seems like an awful lot (especially with how much playing time Michael Mayer receives) but Notre Dame’s spurned Mackey Award star is gone after 2022 anyway. The abundance of numbers was one reason many expected Takacs to grad transfer but he’s thought otherwise. With knee injuries to a couple players the higher scholarships numbers are okay for now.

Seeing 18 players for the defensive line isn’t a ton and we still need to see what happens with Foskey, the Ademilola’s, and whether someone like Kia is actually a long-term pass rushing player or goes back to linebacker.

My prediction is that we’ll see at least 2 corners transfer out by the end of spring football. There’s just way too many players and some of them will be nowhere near playing time.

Light Numbers:

QB (4)
RB (5)
WR (7)
S (6)

I’ve included quarterback for those who don’t consider Ron Powlus III a true option. Adding a backup-type is probably a storyline on the message boards for a while but never actually happens.

If we see Flemister leave it’s not an emergency situation with the 4 tailbacks remaining but ideally another player would be nice to have for the immediate future.

Notre Dame should have at least 3 more receivers on the 2022 roster. Will they, though?

I get the feeling we’re going to see a shake up at safety. So, even though 6 players seems fine we still don’t know the future of Griffith and someone like Wallace has seemingly been passed up by a couple guys who converted from other positions. Is he going to stick around?

Portal Tracking:

I know with the concern for the performance at corner (specifically Clarence Lewis) that many fans are eyeing someone to come in as a transfer next fall. With the amount of bodies jammed into this position group–and honestly the staff feeling pretty good about Cam Hart and a veteran Tariq Bracy–it’ll have to be a no-brainer starting level guy otherwise they probably won’t bother searching.

On the other hand, safety seems like they are 100% looking for a veteran with starting experience to come in and lead this group. Without a doubt, it’s an off-season priority.

The situation at receiver is actually insane. I don’t think Davis and Wilkins will be healthy (if they come back!), Merriweather is not enrolling early, which means there are 4 receivers available for spring with a combined 80 career receptions. Bringing in someone capable of catching 40 passes and pushing someone like Lenzy for a starting role is very important. Beyond that, the program just needs bodies to fill out the depth chart for practice. I’m sure the staff feels great about the futures of Styles/Colzie/Merriweather and a healthy Davis is a no-brainer starter, too. I’m not sure how they’ll go about trying to add depth transfers in who might end up 5th or 6th in catches at best but I’m sure they’ll be searching down a certain aisle for those types of players (i.e. grad transfers with decent careers from academically-minded institutions).

Good vs. Bad

Our Fiesta Bowl reviews got a lot of people talking about the immediate future of the program under Marcus Freeman and if the ceiling can or will stay at 10+ win seasons.

So, how do we feel about this early look at the 2022 depth chart?

18 Stripes Scholarship Tracker CLICK HERE
 -We’re sitting at 90 scholarships for 2022 as of January 3, 2022 at 1:30 PM ET.

I like the strengths at offensive line, tight end, and with a mobile quarterback we should be able to bully a lot of opponents with a bevy of power running packages. I’ve mentioned I’m expecting some struggles from the running backs in comparison to our dear Kyren’s abilities, but who knows, maybe Buchner’s legs opens up a lot more explosive plays and things are super fun for someone like the speedy Tyree.

If Foskey leaves (to say nothing of the Ademilola brothers) I think we’re in trouble along the defensive line. This has been a position group that has, if not outright carried the entire defense for the past 5 seasons, at least been a major team strength that entire time. Especially with the relative question marks at rushing the passer without Foskey, it leaves me deeply concerned.

It makes me wonder if Freeman is looking at the Portal for a new Vyper (you know I hate these terms) if Foskey leaves? I know some will say it’s Botelho’s time but he effectively wasn’t in the 2-deep at the position (following a late-season move to Rover) in 2021 and I’m not sure he’s ready for a starting role.

I like where things are at linebacker, especially if Bertrand moves to a more manageable Mike spot. We’ll have the more disruptive Liufau coming back from injury with hopefully a blossoming superstar Kollie behind him. Getting something more out of the Rover position feels important, but is maybe a year away if Sneed is the next star for the defense.

We’ll be okay at corner, I think. Hart has big potential and the only good thing about playing so long without Kyle Hamilton is that we got players like Brown, Watts, and Henderson more seasoning. I have a hard time seeing things getting any worse at safety so any slight improvement there should help the corners to get better, too.

Typically, we’re not too worked up over special teams but replacing both kicker and punter in Freeman’s first year could be a concern. With punters, it seems like at the Power 5 level (and certainly for Top 25 programs) everyone is pretty much okay to good right out of the box, so maybe not a ton of worry with McFerson’s true freshman season.

We know virtually nothing about Josh Bryan at kicker, though. Doerer struggled with a leg injury all season and Bryan wasn’t used once on kickoffs which seems sort of worrisome. If I remember correctly, from the minimal viewing of practices Bryan wasn’t exactly pulling away from preferred walk-on Harrison Leonard. Both players each took a PAT this year (both in the Georgia Tech game) while Leonard kicked off a couple times back in 2019. We may see a kicking battle this off-season!