Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season project meant to resurrect discussion about the 2022 Notre Dame freshmen who retained a year of eligibility and discuss their possible impact in 2023 and beyond. The Fighting Irish were able to redshirt 17 players this past season while 1 player medically retired (Joey Tanona) and another player has transferred already to Syracuse (Jayden Bellamy).
Today we’ll take a look at a versatile edge rusher looking to find a place on the depth chart.
DE Aiden Gobaira
Hometown: Fairfax, Virginia
Height: 6-4 5/8
Weight: 241
247Sports Composite Ranking: 4-star, No. 16 Edge, No. 5 VA, No. 168 National, 0.9332 score
18 Stripes Grade: 92.7
Murtaugh’s Blurb from the Class Grade:
Near prototypical defensive end size for college, just missing a bit of height. Looks taller than his listed size with really long arms. His frame is getting bigger but still lean. Excellent burst out of his stance. Mixes tremendous speed with surprising strength. He reminds me a lot of the throwback players Notre Dame would sign in the 1960’s and 1970’s with a big motor and mean streak. Massive upside. A less raw version of Isaiah Foskey coming out of high school which I think bodes really well for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame had zeroed in on Gobaira really early in the process while handing him an offer way back in May 2020. He would take an unofficial visit in February 2021 and ended up committing to the Irish just a few days later.
It’s difficult to believe now, but back in high school Isaiah Foskey played a lot of tight end and not everyone (at least outside Notre Dame) was convinced he would stick to defense. In comparison, Gobaira while certainly raw in his own right but was always seen as an edge rusher and developing very quickly in high school down that road.
Need at Position: Medium-to-High
The first line of order for Gobaira is which side of the line he will be playing at in 2023. As a high school player he was really thin but continued to show good physical development by the time he enrolled at Notre Dame. It’s believed Gobaira packed on as much as 60 pounds from the end of his sophomore year in high school to his first roster update at Notre Dame.
Coming in at 241 certainly isn’t small. From the little bit of practice time the media saw during 2022 I believe Gobaira was working with the strong-side defensive ends. I thought his explosiveness and burst in high school marked him as an excellent Vyper prospect with the Irish but at his size and frame it’s possible he’s quickly out-growing that option.
Expected Spot on the 2023 Depth Chart: 3rd String
It’ll be interesting to see how much more weight Gobaira will have added for this spring. As we discussed in the defensive line depth chart preview there are equal needs at both ends of the line, depending on how a couple players are set to be used in 2023.
If he’s going to settle in at 265 pounds for his career I still really like Gobaira’s potential on the weak-side. He will be someone to watch this spring and see if he’s still packing that explosiveness he flashed in high school while carrying all this extra new weight.
Either way, I’ll echo the same thing that I said in the Josh Burnham article in this series. Notre Dame needs these blue-chip redshirt freshmen to take the next steps as future leaders and defensive line is a huge need for 2023.
