Notre Dame Football: Kennedy Urlacher's Impressive Defensive Debut

In mop-up duty a Notre Dame freshman with a famous last named turned a lot of heads

Nick Shepkowski | Sep 14, 2024

Notre Dame safety Kennedy Urlacher (23) at Notre Dame spring football practice Thursday, March 7, 2024, at the Irish Athletics Center in South Bend. / GREG SWIERCZ / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame made quick work of Purdue on Saturday, doing pretty much whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted.

Holding a 42-0 halftime lead, Notre Dame came out for the second half with a solid amount of backups and underclassmen on the field to gain valuable playing experience.

While several lesser experienced players made plays, none showed out more than defensive back Kennedy Urlacher.

Urlacher was credited with three tackles, two of which were the solo variety and a pass defended. The true freshman was constantly around the ball and made his impact known early and often in the second half, despite playing in a reserve role. Check out a few of his highlight plays below.

Freshman Kennedy Urlacher out there making some plays against Purdue for @NDFootball.

You may have heard of his dad, Brian. @BUrlacher54 pic.twitter.com/T77h5Pj0fK
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) September 14, 2024

High Praise for Notre Dame's Kennedy Urlacher

It was impossible to not notice Urlacher in the second half of Saturday's game. He's a player that graduate transfer Jordan Clark thought very highly of early in fall camp.

As we're seeing Notre Dame's Kennedy Urlacher impersonate a heat seeking missile in this second half, a reminder that Jordan Clark had this say about him back in August pic.twitter.com/Rfw50KRBsd
— Jamie Uyeyama (@jamieuyeyama) September 14, 2024