Notre Dame Football Practice Report - August 19 - Defense

News, notes and analysis about the Notre Dame defense from today's open practice

Notre Dame held its 12th practice of the 2021 season today inside Notre Dame Stadium, and the session was open to the media. Here are news, notes and analysis from the practice.

DEFENSIVE LINE

The defensive line had a tremendous practice today and dominated the offensive line during the team periods and OL vs. DL periods.

Sophomore DT Rylie Mills was one of the top standouts from today's practice. Mills had a dominant one-on-one rep when he destroyed guard Cain Madden off the ball. Mills and first-team DT Jayson Ademilola were extremely disruptive during the team periods, with both dominating the Irish guards and getting into the backfield on a consistent basis.

Ademilola's pass rush game has been strong all camp and that was no different today. His hand play was excellent and he also dominated Madden during one-on-ones and during team.

Getting veteran end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa back at practice was impactful. He was strong during the team periods as both a run stopper and pass rusher. Tagovailoa-Amosa and Ademilola met at the quarterback on a couple of snaps during team.

At times when Notre Dame went to a three-down look they had Ademilola playing inside.

End Justin Ademilola looked healthy during today's practice. He was looked quick and disruptive and got a lot of coverage reps today. On one particular play he ran step-for-step with Kyren Williams on a wheel route, something that he wouldn't have been able to do if he wasn't fully healthy after injuring his hamstring in week one.

Today we saw junior end Isaiah Foskey working a lot in space, so the Irish were working more on their three-down alignments. Foskey looked really good in coverage, showing quick decisions, open field speed and good change of direction.

Junior big end NaNa Osafo-Mensah had a really good push-pull win during one-on-ones against Michael Carmody.

We got to see freshman Gabriel Rubio today and he looked strong. Rubio still needs to work on his block destruction but he gets a really good push up the middle and eats up a lot of space. Sophomore Alexander Ehrensberger also had some impressive wins on the edge during the team periods as well.

LINEBACKER

Veteran Mike linebacker Drew White had a very strong practice, especially against the run. White was flying hard downhill and was around the ball all game long. He was playing assignment sound football and consistently was around the ball, including a pair of tackles for loss during team. 

Junior rover Jack Kiser had an excellent day in coverage. His athleticism allows him to play with ease and he's all over tight ends and backs in coverage.

Junior JD Bertrand was around the ball quite a bit today and you can see why he's getting more reps than Shayne Simon. Simon struggled today with many of the same things we saw last year, he's not quick enough diagnosing plays and he gets caught up in the wash way too much.

Senior Isaiah Pryor looked very good during today's practice. Working with the second defense, Pryor was around the ball a ton, showing off really impressive speed and playmaking ability.

SECONDARY

Senior safety Houston Griffith had a strong practice today, including having one of the top highlights of the day. Notre Dame ran a screen play to Chris Tyree and Griffith read it perfectly, flew downhill and blew up Tyree for no extra yards. That's the kind of instinctive, smart play that we saw from Griffith in the past and that showed itself several times today.

Junior safety Kyle Hamilton was a bit limited today even before he left with what Brian Kelly called a neck injury. Hamilton wasn't around the ball much when he was in there. DJ Brown got a lot of reps when Hamilton went out and was solid. As expected Brown was in the right place a lot.

Junior cornerback Cam Hart was very tight in coverage all day, but he continues to get out-played for the football by Kevin Austin. It's partly him needed to play the ball a touch better, but it's also partly because Austin makes just great catches and the quarterbacks put the ball where it needs to be.

Sophomore cornerback Clarence Lewis got beat more than you'd like today, he was often just a step late getting on routes.

Freshman cornerback JoJo Johnson had a pick during one-on-ones.

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