Notre Dame is set to open the season on Labor Day evening live from Louisville. As usual, it’s been a long off-season and yet a pretty quiet one until August camp began and more news items started hitting the Irish landscape. Before the ball kicks off I wanted to recap some of the things going on with the depth chart as a mini-primer to the 2019 season.
The New Starters
We’ll start here with a very basic overview.
LB Drew White – The third year player is expected to start at Mike linebacker although Shayne Simon (and to a lesser extent Bo Bauer) are expected to see the field, as well. We might also see Asmar Bilal (moving from Rover to Buck linebacker so not really a true new starter) get some work at Mike, too.
LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah – Some believe this would’ve been Wu’s second year starting had he not broken his foot last year. He had as good of a camp as anyone–surely qualifying for a stock way, way up–and should be a very good Rover straight out of the gate in 2019.
CB Donte Vaughn – The consensus seems to be that Vaughn, if healthy enough, will get the nod against Louisville with a couple other corners being shuffled in throughout the game. This isn’t typical at Notre Dame but it feels like a rotation for this corner spot will take a while to shake itself out. Fall camp just wasn’t enough.
DT Myron Tagavaiola-Amosa – The broad-shouldered Hawaiian has to replace Jerry Tillery in the middle of the defense. I’ve said in the past MTA could have a wide variation of an impact this year, he’s a lot more of a mystery in terms of being a reliable starter than most realize.
NT Kurt Hinish – This position being vacated by Jonathan Bonner wasn’t much of an impact last year and could take a step forward if Hinish can hold up physically. He’s much more athletic than his predecessor.
WR Lawrence Keys – Obviously, Michael Young would be listed here if he didn’t break his collarbone. It will be interesting to see if Keys gets thrown right in from game one as a real starter with 60+ snaps.
C Jarrett Patterson – The redshirt freshman has been the starter at center for so long stretching back to early spring workouts that it doesn’t even feel like he’s new to the position anymore.
TE Brock Wright – The broken collarbone to Cole Kmet thrusts this Texan into the spotlight. It’s possible Wright plays more against Louisville than he did all of last season.
RB Jafar Armstrong – It’s been a quiet fall camp for Armstrong as he looks to replace Dexter Williams in the Irish backfield. Some even think he’s fallen back to the backup position as Tony Jones, Jr. ascends the depth chart.
PK Jonathan Doerer – Notre Dame’s all-time scoring leader needs to be replaced. Doerer looked shaky to open and finish the media portions of fall camp. He’s noted to have confidence issues so let’s just prepare ourselves right now.
P Jay Bramblett – Notre Dame hopes it checked the box of having a Solid Punter who won’t buckle during games.
Depth Chart Notes
We sometimes don’t list players exactly as they are released on Notre Dame’s official depth chart. We like to think we’re providing a little more context that actually plays a role in how the athletes are deployed in game situations. Something to keep in mind while reading!
*The official depth chart has Ruhland at left guard and walk-on Colin Grunhard as the backup center. If Patterson went down we should expect Ruhland to play first. Also, Gibbons is listed at right guard while John Dirksen (who never played anywhere but right guard during camp to our knowledge) is listed as the backup at right tackle. Some of this is odd but this is what happens when players like Lugg and Ruhland would play at multiple positions.
*Notre Dame listed Bo Bauer as the backup at Buck (never practiced there during camp) and one of 3 backups at Mike. Jack Lamb–working exclusively at Buck–is listed as a backup at Mike. It’s expected to be a fluid situation but still this is pretty weird. Bauer might be listed twice as they think a more physical presence could be needed against Louisville. I don’t know what to make of Lamb, previously noted for being less physical and more athletic than the others, being at Mike. We just need more info on how snap counts are going to be allocated and it will take a few games to get a better read on things.
*We’re keeping Shaun Crawford listed with the safeties as we expect him to be used more as a hybrid safety/nickel corner than anything else. Although he is listed as a starting corner for Louisville opposite Troy Pride. Our depth chart basically breaks the two outside corners into the more physical players and the speed players. Like linebacker, once we see more on snap counts we will adjust accordingly. For what its worth, all 5 corners (including Crawford) were listed as “OR” and should be in the mix.
*Kick return was one of the areas that wasn’t covered much during practices. Although Armstrong was a backup last year it’s a little intriguing to use your starting tailback in this role. Color me quite surprised to see the 5’9″ true freshman Kyren Williams as the backup, although they might like him more as the up-man who can make a couple defenders miss in space should he catch the ball. If Armstrong were injured I bet someone else would move ahead of Williams for the starting role.
Stock Up
S Kyle Hamilton – This stock is currently trading at such a high number only the wealthiest of fans can afford to buy. There have been serious discussions about a stock split here. We talked about Hamilton being the biggest impact true freshman defender since Jaylon Smith and he appears fully on track. For the record, Smith tallied 67 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and 1 interception in 2013.
LB Drew White – There were whispers that Clark Lea & Co. really liked White a lot but injuries have ravaged him for the greater part of his career so far. The fact that he came out without spring football to add experience and appears to be the starting Mike linebacker is a huge win.
WR Javon McKinley – This is a very lukewarm stock rise based on injuries as much as anything. However, we weren’t sure McKinley would even be on the team following a struggling on-field career and an off-season arrest. I’d still take the under on 5 catches the whole season but he’s nominally the backup behind Claypool and could conceivably see the field a little bit this year.
QB Phil Jurkovec – If we don’t see Jurkovec for more than some garbage time on Monday we will likely see some extended action from him in the second game of the season as New Mexico comes to town. He really made strides during fall camp and will now await his audition during real games this season.
Stock Down
CB Houston Griffith – This is a situation where a corner went from being a possible starter (especially in the spring) to possibly playing less than what he did as a true freshman.
LB Jordan Genmark Heath – The junior might have made a late charge during August practices but was largely super quiet after spending most of spring in a position to be a co-starter at worst.
TE George Takacs – He’s still young and has dealt with injuries. Still, this is Notre Dame and tight ends are usually expected to contribute early in their careers.
WR Kevin Austin – Irish Illustrated recently reported Austin has been suspended for the entire season. Brian Kelly as per usual was coy about the situation in his Wednesday press conference. There are some other reports that Austin won an appeal and could only serve 4 games but we’ll see.
ND sent out a revised depth chart later today.
Dirksen at RG as expected. Kristofic at backup right tackle.
Buck: Bilal, JGH, Lamb
Mike: White, Simon, Bauer
So that makes more sense.
Good stuff E. Minor nit (if I’m reading your comments right): Pride and Crawford don’t have an “OR” – they’re both straight-up starters. Both backup spots do though; backup boundary is Griffith or Vaughn, backup field is Bracy or Davis, who was added to the corrected depth chart. I wouldn’t put much stock in the “OR Davis”; he was invisible in late camp practice reports while Bracy at least made the occasional appearance.
Remember when the coaches intimated Avery Davis had NFL potential as a cornerback out of nowhere? That was weird.
Did you refer to Eric as E. Minor ?
On O Line, would Kraemer and Banks kick outside if there were an injury to an OT, with a backup then slotting in at Guard? Or would they stay put on the inside, with the backup coming in straight at OT? Or unclear at this point?
From the sounds of it, it’s Lugg going in if an OT goes down and Ruhland as the top sub for the interior spots. I don’t think they’ll change more than they have for guys jumping around and completely going to new spots or making multiple position changes for just 1 injury.
I think that’s right. Maybe if Eichenberg went down they’d move Hainsey over to LT and play Lugg at RT. I think they also might consider Lugg or Gibbons at the guard spots before Ruhland, especially if we’re facing a more physical DL.
Ah makes sense. Also, I didn’t realize Ruhland was truly all the way back healthy. That’s great news for him.
From reading a couple sources and hearing Kelly’s comments he sounds very pleased with what Ruhland’s done. I think surprised too. They obviously don’t want him to play every week or all the snaps but I think they’re comfortable with him in a pinch if necessary, which is a big change from 6-8 months ago when they weren’t sure if he was going to be able to compete any more.
I wish they would just cut bait and move Griffith back to safety. We’re going to need him there in 2020 in a pretty bad way, which would seem to trump the likelihood that he makes a major, positive contribution at corner in the short term.