For the 3rd time in 9 years a Notre Dame player has won the Butkus Award as the best linebacker in the country. On Monday afternoon, redshirt junior Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah joined Manti Te’o and Jaylon Smith as the winners of this prestigious individual award.
Also, for good measure incoming 2021 recruit Prince Kollie won the high school Butkus Award, as well.
We had been thinking about this all season in our writer room that JOK was going to cause a reshuffling among the All-Brian Kelly Team in South Bend so why not try and rank the best linebackers since 2010? We’ll keep the criteria pretty simple:
1) We’re only going to include data from when someone played linebacker and not other parts of their career if they were in another position.
2) We are not including the “Cat” edge position under Bob Diaco. Technically, that was a linebacker in his 3-4 system but it was basically a glorified edge rusher.
3) We are only considering linebackers who played more than one year of quality snaps in the Kelly era. So, no Brian Smith or any of the new players like Marist Liuafu or Shayne Simon.
𝘞𝘶 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘵𝘴 💥#GoIrish x #Rally pic.twitter.com/QB2O7GNxr6
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 22, 2020
The Honorable Mention Group
Ben Councell
3 Seasons
26 Tackles
2 TFL
One of my personal favorite recruits who never could get his career going, didn’t grab a starting role, but played some decent snaps as a backup and was really good on special teams.
Jarrett Grace
3 Seasons
79 Tackles
2.5 TFL
A lumbering Mike linebacker whose lack of speed really slow down his career after a promising start following a nasty broken leg. At one point he looked like the future of the defense and then just like that his career was over.
Danny Spond
2 Seasons
52 Tackles
1.5 TFL
1 INT
Spond’s career was more brief than anyone else listed here today but he did show flashes in his small window of being a really good player before retiring due to head injuries.
Bo Bauer
3 Seasons
63 Tackles
6.5 TFL
1 Sack
1 INT
A special teams star for most of his career, Bauer had been an afterthought for the defense before really starting to blossom in 2020. It’s possible he finishes his career after 2021 without ever being a true starter, but at the same time, he could move up in our list with more production.
Joe Schmidt
4 Seasons
164 Tackles
6.5 TFL
1 Sack
3 INT
Schmidt provided Irish fans with a few highlight plays and was generally regarded as a good captain who tried his best to keep the VanGorder defense afloat. It didn’t really work out and Schmidt dealt with injuries that slowed down his career.
Dan Fox
4 Seasons
225 Tackles
9.5 TFL
3 Sacks
2 INT
Surprisingly more mobile than people believed for the Diaco-era jumbo linebackers. Fox played a lot of football and was a key member on some very good defenses.
Carlo Calabrese
4 Seasons
239 Tackles
14.5 TFL
4.0 Sacks
The harder-hitting but less mobile version of his buddy, Dan Fox. The two are practically inseparable in Notre Dame history. I may not speak for everyone but for all of the times I remember Calabrese getting beat by someone faster, it’s important to remember him squaring someone up in the hole, too.
The Top 10 Linebackers of the Kelly Era
#10 Nyles Morgan
4 Seasons
243 Tackles
16.5 TFL
6 Sacks
Morgan had a weird career colored early by his lofty recruiting ranking and a struggle (well covered on the internet!) to grab a starting position in 2015 as a sophomore. However, when you look back he made some plays as a freshman and ended his career with 2 very solid years. It’s just, he never really lived up to the hype and couldn’t break through as a true difference maker.
#9 Asmar Bilal
4 Seasons
174 Tackles
17.5 TFL
1 Sack
My Boy Bilal finally came through during his last year on campus. While enjoying an underrated 2018 as a first-time starter you could forgive all the fans who were disappointed with his career up to that point. However, Bilal came through with a very strong 5th-year and vaulted his way into the Top 10 of our rankings.
#8 Greer Martini
4 Seasons
190 Tackles
14.5 TFL
5 Sacks
1 INT
Quite possibly the most underrated player of the Kelly era. Martini was a great player at doing the dirty work and could also run down a ball-carrier when it was needed. Maybe never someone who should be your top linebacker on a good defense but an excellent second or third choice.
#7 James Onwualu
3 Seasons
139 Tackles
19.5 TFL
5 Sacks
After one year as a wide receiver, Kelly made one of his best position change decisions of his time at Notre Dame by moving Onwualu to linebacker. This was a slow and steady progression over his final 3 seasons, culminating in a fantastic 2016 that made Onwualu one of the few bright spots on Notre Dame’s defense that year.
#6 Drew White
3 Seasons
135 Tackles
17 TFL
3.5 Sacks
I remember back to that 2018 Navy game where White got the start seemingly out of nowhere. He didn’t do much the rest of the year but has been a rock solid Mike linebacker for the past 2 seasons. While not your prototypical inside linebacker with great size, White has been really disruptive through 2 years and following a similar 2021 could leave Notre Dame with more tackles for loss than any other player on our list.
#5 Te’von Coney
4 Seasons
313 Tackles
23 TFL
7 Sacks
1 INT
Coney didn’t do a ton as a freshman, then had a nice sophomore season, and completely blew up over his last 2 years with a combined 239 tackles. Many of us assumed he would round into a very good player but few expected this All-American type of breakout.
#4 Drue Tranquill
2 Seasons
171 Tackles
19.5 TFL
5 Sacks
1 INT
Tranquill’s career seemed to last 8 seasons in South Bend. Officially, he played 3 years at safety and only spent his final 2 at linebacker where he came to perfect the Rover role in a post-VanGorder world and then transitioned inside for his last season. I don’t think we could ever understate how versatile Tranquill was for the Irish. Equal parts inside linebacker strength with terrific pass defending instincts.
#3 Jaylon Smith
3 Seasons
284 Tackles
23.5 TFL
4.5 Sacks
1 INT
The Godbacker, easily talented enough to be in our top spot. His greatest achievement being overcoming poor coaching and still winning the Butkus Award as a true junior. Of course, Smith’s career also contains many “what if” scenarios regarding his position, coaching, injury, and ultimately not coming back for a senior season that would’ve cemented a statistical legacy that maybe no other Notre Dame linebacker could catch in the future.
#2 Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
2 Seasons
136 Tackles
24.5 TFL
7 Sacks
1 INT
This has been the best 2-year run for a Notre Dame linebacker in the Kelly era. It’s expected that Owusu-Koramoah will leave for the greener pastures of the NFL next year and if so he’ll be remembered like a white-hot comet that came through South Bend and gave us an incredible but brief career. His athleticism has been on par with the likes of Jaylon Smith while also punching way above his weight as a tackler. If he were to play another year for the Irish, he’d have a strong case as the best linebacker maybe of my lifetime.
#1 Manti Te’o
3 Seasons
374 Tackles
28.5 TFL
7.5 Sacks
7 INT
We’re starting to get to the point where the career of Te’o is getting further and further away in our rear-view mirror. We can’t let that obstruct our view that he was utterly sensational for such a long time and that his 2012 season stands alone among pretty much any other single campaign in Notre Dame history, maybe even at any position. I wish we could see JOK come back and challenge Te’o for this top spot, if only we were that lucky.
Te’o was also such an emotional leader. He is still the background of my computer.
Might be time to get a new computer. Just sayin’.
Am I imagining this, or was our depth so terrible at one point that Calabrese was taking DT snaps in at least one game on passing downs?
Manti Te’o….where screen passes go to die.
Manti Te’o had as many interceptions in 2012, as a linebacker, as the entire 2020 roster has. That’s absurd.
Crazy stat, he had a magnet on him. Special player. It felt like every one of those interceptions was in the 4th quarter of a close game too, big time plays in the moment.
Jaylon not being 2 is a bit of a hot take to me. More about how rich the position has been but IMO Smith as a junior > Wu as a senior.
“Smith’s career also contains many “what if” scenarios regarding his position, coaching, injury, and ultimately not coming back for a senior season that would’ve cemented a statistical legacy”
Well, I mean there was that whole ruining his leg in a bowl game thing that wouldn’t have allowed his senior season anyways….
I think that Jaylon was a tremendous talent, probably more talented than anyone else on the list. However, I think he drops purely because of BVG’s defense and how it did not raise Jaylon up to his full potential.
In contrast, Wu is not quite as talented as Jaylon (don’t get me wrong, he’s talented, just not as high as Jaylon), but Lea’s defense put Wu in perfect roles to accentuate his strengths.
So, if we are going based on talent, Jaylon > Wu. But if we go by who made a bigger impact on the ND defense, I can see the case for Wu > Jaylon (because of BVG). If Jaylon had a better d-coordinator, he might have been better than Manti.
Agree, if they had all played for Lea, I think this list ends up Jaylon then Manti then Wu. Probably. Maybe.
I think so too.
It’s true that BVG squandered Smith’s talents but just my opinion I think that narrative is a bit overplayed. Jaylon still had 111 tackles as a sophomore and 115 as a junior. He was cleaning up everything over the middle of the field and not attacking as much as he should have been, but he was still super-productive. Wu has 136 tackles…in the last 2 seasons combined. Different players and usages but Jaylon still had a spectacular career regardless of coaching constraints.
Curious as to what you all think of how the talent around the top 3 affected their performance and stats? What does playing with a better front or secondary do to career numbers?
You forgot an INT for Joe Schmidt. Picked off Jameis in 2014. Hate that game
He actually had 3 in his career! Fixed.
Thanks! I don’t remember the other 2.
Thanks for another super thread. I have loved ND linebackers since Nick Buonaconti.
Yes on recent Top 3 as Manti, Jaylon, and JOK.
Now, in my Eric-directed state of No Illusions/expecting only awfulness on Jan 1st, I have regressed to the seminal awfulness of flying into the 2012 Orange Bowl, and watching those first two Tide drives, when Manti missed every fit. Then he kept missing them. As it turned out, not only had the Death Star’s 30+ analysts perfectly diagnosed the simplistic tendencies of Diaco’s defense — but poor Manti was living through the catfishing affair. Can’t tell you what a shock that was. Like a couple of you expressed below, Manti in the regular season was absolutely incredible, I still feel badly it had to end that way, and for Jaylon’s finish as well, of course. As for JOK — may the Force of ND be with him among the swarm of TIE Fighters he must face!
I remember a Tide player being interviewed after the NC and saying something to the effect of We knew we would win because we saw the defense, how simple it is and we could exploit that. It made me wonder if they had only a week to prepare if it would have been the same outcome or if it would have been a lower scoring blowout. Something like 21-3 instead of 42-3.
Yes, indeed, there were several indicators of the analytical power Saban had assembled, but that interview was the clearest. It was a Bama O-line guy, maybe one of their captains, and he said, ND’s defense was very simple, so, good in principle, but it was VERY simple, and so, capable of being exploited. Plus of course that O-line and that running back, oh my…
Good memory!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the second time this decade that both the High School and College Butkus winners were ND guys. Manti won in 12/13 while at ND and Jaylon won the HS award before signing with ND in February.
As good as these guys were, and they were great, I’d trade them for a Heisman winning QB. It’s sick to realize Oklahoma had Mayfield and Murray back to back, Burrow was in another galaxy last year, and Trevor Lawrence in a rational world will win it this year.
I think it will take getting one of those to get us where we want to be. We’d still need a couple burner WRs and a great RB to go with, but the QB is the hardest to land.
I believe it is spelled GREER MARTINI.
Destroyer of option offenses
Miss that guy. So few ELITE posters these days.
My picking order is
1. Manti
2. Jaylen
3. JOK
As always with these things, it’s a question of “best player” vs. “best career”. If you’re having a best player draft, it’s easily Jaylon. He and Quenton Nelson are easily #1 and #2 in some order of the best players of the Kelly era.
Best career, though: obviously Manti.
That said, not sure how to go with JOK over Jaylon based on either criteria. Seems like that is to some degree giving JOK extra credit for playing on better-coordinated defenses. But, even so, Jaylon doubled up JOK on tackles over his career!
Hoo boy, I don’t know. Our writers discussed and it was JOK over Jaylon and that’s kind of the way I feel, too.
I think JOK is objectively better at being disruptive and playing in coverage. Not super surprising since he’s quite a bit lighter than Jaylon. He’s quicker, and maybe just as physical. I think Jaylon had better sideline to sideline speed but he was awfully stiff which impacted his big-play ability at times.
Jaylon also played 2 years in the middle which impacted his tackling numbers in comparison to JOK. I think JOK could have 100 tackles in a season playing inside but who knows.
Big thing for me is do you reward excellence or project that Jaylon could’ve been 30% more productive with a different DC? We’re only going to get 2 years of JOK but if he played all 4 years he’s been on pace to break Ross Browner’s career TFL record which is insane to me.