Notre Dame Spring Depth Chart On Defense: Best Guess
Notre Dame is now two weeks away from the first spring of the Marcus Freeman era. Notre Dame returns a lot of talent, it also has a lot of questions that must be answered. Part of those questions are about the depth chart.
With that in mind let's look at the Notre Dame depth chart on defense heading into the spring. Notre Dame hasn't released a depth chart, and it likely won't release one all spring. So I'm going to take my best shot at predicting what the depth chart will look like this spring.
There is A LOT of projection here due to injuries and potential player shifts with other players returning from injury.
DEFENSIVE END
I'm not quite sure how much Foskey will play this spring as he heals up from some minor offseason procedures. I'm also not sure where Rylie Mills lines up, although I absolutely want to see him playing Big End instead of three-technique. Jason Onye was listed as an end last season but he could slide inside.
There are a few players who could move around quite a bit, including Justin Ademilola, who could easily slide over to Big End. Ekwonu was recruited as a linebacker before moving to end out of necessity Does he stay there or does he move back to linebacker?
DEFENSIVE TACKLE
Ademilola will likely be out this spring as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery, but it hasn't been made official so I am not putting him below the others at this point. That makes the three-technique spot a big question mark. Does that force Mills to stay there, or does Notre Dame do what I hope, which is to bump Mills outside and allow Cross to play there more, which should benefit his game.
That would also open up nose guard to bigger players like Lacey, Keanaaina and Rubio, assuming he doesn't stay at three technique. This is a really talented group of six players.
LINEBACKER
This is another who plays where situation. I have Liufau coming back and the emergence of Kollie resulting in Bertrand moving over to Mike. That would create a battle between he and Bauer, although the odds are they both play a ton.
Rover is an intriguing position, and I am not sure if Botelho stays there or moves inside. Of course the freshmen will also be a group to watch this spring.
SAFETY
Notre Dame would like to get into a situation where the safeties are interchangeable, which means the field and safety alignments don't mean as much. Joseph is likely to step into the starting lineup and Henderson will have to hold off Griffith and Watts to keep the top spot opposite Joseph.
There is a lot of experience returning at safety, so this battle could get very interesting in regard to determining who starts, who is in the rotation and who might need to look at transferring after the season.
CORNERBACK
I'm very curious of Hart stays on the field side or if he moves back to boundary, where he played early in 2021. That also assumes that Hart isn't limited this spring, which could happen.
If Hart plays the field that means Bracy will be more of the nickel. Keep an eye on Tucker this spring. On the boundary side this alignment would allow Barnes and Riley to challenge Lewis.
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