Notre Dame's Kennedy Urlacher Earns High Honors for Purdue Performance

This player with a very familiar football name delivered the goods against Purdue

Notre Dame Fighting Irish tight end Cooper Flanagan (87) celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, during the NCAA football game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind. Notre Dame Fighting Irish won 66-7. / Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kennedy Urlacher lives up to last name and starts to create his own legacy

One of the nice things about the lopsided score of the Notre Dame vs Purdue game is that for the first time this season, the Irish felt comfortable having their depth and youth playing lots of snaps with a ton of time left on the clock.

One of the players who fit this description and saw action is freshman safety Kennedy Urlacher, who is a name bonanza for me given that I grew up in the Chicago area following the Bears and my last name is Kennedy. Yes, indeed, Kennedy's father is the one and only Brian Urlacher of Bear lore.

Highest Graded True Freshman Safety in Week 3:

☘️ Kennedy Urlacher, Notre Dame: 86.2@NDFootball pic.twitter.com/OVNnRHRwhe

— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 16, 2024

How good of a performance did Urlacher have?

Urlacher rated out as PFF's highest-graded true freshman safety with an 86.2 His day featured 3 tackles and a deflected pass. More impressively than the raw numbers,

Kennedy showed exceptional speed and decisiveness on the field that popped off the film. His quick burst was apparent and impressive.

Seeing young players like Urlacher and Bryce Young, who leveled a Purdue player on kick coverage, succeed with the early playing time they are getting is a great sign.

Not just for these players personally and for the team overall, but this is also a credit to the Notre Dame staff's evaluation process as it seems they may have hit on another target that has flown under the "star" radar.

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