2020 All-American Candidates: Notre Dame Defense

There are four potential All-American candidates that could have a major impact on a Notre Dame playoff run

If Notre Dame wants to make a run at the College Football Playoff the Irish defense will need to combine the explosiveness of the 2019 unit with the consistency of the 2018 group.

It also needs multiple players to step up and perform at an elite level. Yesterday I broke down the All-American candidates on offense, and now we move onto the Fighting Irish defense.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Rover — There isn’t a more obvious All-American candidate on the roster than Owusu-Koramoah, who had outstanding production in his first season in the starting lineup. In fact, Owusu-Koramoah didn’t play a single defensive snap in his first two seasons, but in 2019 he tied for the team lead with 80 tackles and 5.5 sacks, and led the defense with 13.5 tackles for loss.

Beyond the first-year production, Owusu-Koramoah has outstanding physical skills. The Hampton, Va. native has tremendous athleticism, possessing excellent quickness and top-notch range. His length and speed makes him the perfect rover in Clark Lea’s defense. The only way to really beat him outside is when he makes a mistake, and I predict we’ll see that speed used even more as a blitzer in 2020.

Owusu-Koramoah is a highly disruptive player, and if he can clean up his technique and assignments his run game and perimeter screen game production should be excellent. The difference between Owusu-Koramoah between outstanding once again and being elite is if he can prove to be more productive in the pass game as both a cover player and pass rusher.

Adetokunbo Ogundeji, Defensive End — This is a major projection, but Ogundeji showed down the stretch of 2019 that he can be highly disruptive. In the final three games of the season, Ogundeji racked up 5.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Even more important, his disruptive plays were impactful beyond just forcing a punt or negative yards.

Ogundeji flashed this kind of playmaking ability for the previous season and a half. He had a huge forced fumble against Florida State in 2018, and had another in the playoff contest against Clemson. Ogundeji also had a huge sack early in that game that knocked the Tigers out of field goal range.

The question now is can Ogundeji take that strong finish and stretch it out over the course of a season. I’m not talking about the pure numbers, because I don’t expect Ogundeji to have 22 tackles for loss and 18 sacks in the regular season, which is what his late season numbers would project to if he did it over the whole season. I’m talking about the level of impact he had, meaning being able to be a force that offenses must contend with week after week.

If he does that, Ogundeji has the tools to become not only one of Notre Dame’s best players, he has a chance to become one of the best power ends in the country.

Kyle Hamilton, Safety — I’m hesitant to put Hamilton in this list simply because I’d like to avoid putting too much pressure too early on the rising sophomore, but Hamilton is just too talented and played too well as a true freshman not to include him.

Hamilton has all the tools to be a star in college, and the only question is will that happen in 2020 or in 2021. The Georgia native has truly elite length and his range is rare. You just don’t see 6-4 athletes that can move with the ease that we see from Hamilton. Even when he gets beat initially, or is a step late making a read or reacting to a route he’s still able to make plays on the ball because of his length and closing speed.

Despite being on the thin side as a true freshman, Hamilton showed the willingness to come downhill and strike. Now that he has a year of college weight room work under his belt I expect his run game production to only get better. His coverage skills are improving, and his ability to make even more plays on the ball will have an impact on his All-American push.

The one thing Hamilton has going for him over the rest of his teammates, at least in regards to All-American recognition, is that he enters the season with more hype surrounding him. I don’t mean that in any kind of negative way. What that means is being an All-American is even easier when you have a great season and already have eyes on you.

Daelin Hayes, Defensive End — Hayes needs to play at a level we haven’t seen from him thus far, and that makes him more of a projection than the others. Hayes has all the tools to be a dominant player, but can he stay healthy and finally turn his immense physical tools into production? That’s the great question surrounding Hayes.

His all-around game is outstanding, and if he’s healthy I expect Hayes to be one of Notre Dame’s best all-around players this season. But will he have the kind of impact production needed to be an All-American, meaning sacks and tackles for loss? That is what could hold Hayes back from being a nationally recognized player.

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