The challenge was to replace All-American Xavier Watts. The former Irish star fell to 96th overall in last year’s NFL Draft and just finished up an impressive rookie season that saw him make 96 tackles and intercept 5 passes. It wasn’t the smoothest transition in the world with the defense and the back end struggling out of the gate.
Stroman Struggles
A review of the season has to begin with graduate transfer Jalen Stroman coming over from Virginia Tech and winning a starting position coming out of camp. After the defense gave up nearly 900 passing yards over the first 3 games, there was a sense that changes needed to be made. As the team traveled for a road game at Arkansas, it was Stroman who lost his starting spot.
In Stroman’s absence stepped redshirt freshman Tae Johnson who would go on to have an impressive first season on the field, flashing playmaking ability and a good nose for the ball. However, the early struggles painted a dark picture for the defense that was unable to keep things in check with a new defensive coordinator–especially in the home loss to Texas A&M.
Getting Things Right
Adon Shuler was named a captain and even he looked a bit out of sorts early in the season, too. Things were just so weird in those early days of the Chris Ash defense. I had mentioned before the season I thought Shuler had the skillset to jump to the NFL with a great 2025 season and it’s unfortunate he wasn’t able to come out of the gate and build on the momentum from the prior season playing next to Watts.
Johnson is the future and the future is now.Â
The safeties did start to figure things out and round into form as the season progressed, though. The emergence of Johnson was a breath of fresh air and one of the best stories to come out of the season. He’ll be one of the top players to watch for 2026 and in line for a big jump in performance.
Snaps
Depth was a question mark heading into the season, even with bringing in a graduate transfer through the portal. This is where the emergence of Tae Johnson has to be one of the best storylines of the season. The unit also didn’t suffer long-term injuries to the top of the depth chart that might have created some problems. Johnson did end up breaking his hand during practice leading up to the Syracuse game and missed the final 2 games of the season. The reports were that he would’ve been fine for the playoffs, but of course we needed to see Alabama lose a 4th time and never got the chance to see Johnson on the field for 2025 again.
The Irish started out playing 4 safeties and essentially never wavered from that lineup.
| PLAYER | SNAPS |
|---|---|
| Adon Shuler | 661 |
| Tae Johnson | 573 |
| Jalen Stroman | 335 |
| Luke Talich | 205 |
| Ethan Long | 23 |
| JaDon Blair | 19 |
| Taebron Bennie-Powell | 13 |
Talich wasn’t exactly a revelation or breakout player, but he continues to make an impact in limited snaps for a regular defender. As a former preferred walk-on his contribution to the defense has been significant. He played 8 games as a freshman and only has one more year left, which is a bit unfortunate.
I’ll point out that even while missing the last 2 games the gap between Johnson and Stroman in snaps was pretty wide.
The last two players in snaps transferred out of the program recently. Both only saw action in the second half against Syracuse during a mega-blowout. Blair leaving after one year is a little bit of a surprise. But, this it the NIL era and if a big-time recruit doesn’t have a clear path to playing time heading into year 2 it’s understandable they might want to move to another situation.
Grade: B
The safeties were fine in 2025. I expected more from Shuler and it didn’t really come together to take his game to the next level. Plus, his extremely iffy targeting call against a turtling Marcell Reed running through the line of scrimmage in a close loss to the Aggies still stings.
The Stroman transfer was a miss, although he found some redemption late in the season with some key plays.
The safeties, like the defense as a whole, really beat up on mediocre to bad competition. It’s not like that’s a bad thing! Expectations are going to be much higher going into 2026. Shuler is back with 27 starts under his belt and Johnson’s ceiling looks incredibly high after he made his full debut. With Talich offering backup support this should be a rock solid trio heading into spring practice, while the coaching staff looks to build some depth behind them.
Shuler really needs to be allowed to be a downhill safety, who hits hard on crossing routes and runs. When playing alongside Watts he had that opportunity, as Watts was more of your traditional over the top free safety who could cover a ton of ground.
I don’t think Stroman ended up fitting that role well, and that was a huge part of the problem to open the year. Once they got comfortable with Johnson back there, things really seemed to click, and I do believe he’s the right guy for that FS role. In terms of learning to see the field, it’s probably the toughest position other than QB, so I do understand why the staff would have been more interested in going with the experience Stroman to open the year. Really happy they pivoted when the did to get Johnson on the field though. Should pay off in a major way this year.
I don’t know that there is a backup safety who I would fee comfortable covering for Johnson though at this point. I like Talich more as the backup to Shuler rather than the deep safety. I wonder if McKinney or Sanders might fit there at all.
I feel that Adon’s role as the defensive QB is understated:
I often wonder if there is pressure on the program to have the transfer start if they paid “starter” money to the player, even when it becomes clear that the #2 is the better option. I feel that this was the case with Stroman/Johnson. Tae seemed like a clear upgrade when he was on the field, maybe it wasn’t as obvious in practices?