Why Notre Dame’s Strong Senior Class won’t Hurt the Team in 2019

Last Saturday was senior night at Notre Stadium against Florida State. I attended the game and was watching them honor the seniors. I then realized “Dang, this class is one of the best in a while.” With this much of talent in one class its no surprise the Irish are 10-0. It actually shook me up a little knowing most of these guys are leaving in the Spring (Guys like Brandon Wimbush who red-shirted are likely coming back). Some notable names the Irish are losing are Sam Mustipher (C), Alex Bars (Ol), emerged star Miles Boykin (WR), Dexter Williams (RB), Drue Tranquill (LB) and Notre Dame’s all time leading scorer, Justin Yoon (K). All these guys and the other seniors will be deeply missed, but the Irish are still left with some core pieces of their team. Starting with the defense, Jerry Tillery was one crucial senior who I had not mentioned. The kid who takes his spot has big shoes to fill, but I do not expect the elite D-line to miss a beat next year. Tillery is leading the Irish this year in sacks with 7, but fellow D-linemen, Khalid Kareem and Julian Okwara aren’t far behind with 4.5 and 5 sacks respectively. Okwara is also leading the team in QB hits with 21, 14 ahead of Kareem in 2nd. Daelin Hayes is a kid who has had a rough year this year with only 1 sack, but I can see him having a real breakthrough season next year helping to fill talent left by Tillery. Adetokunbo Ogundeji will most likely fill the 4th starting spot on the D-line. Maybe the biggest void next year will be at linebacker. The Irish are losing all 3 starting linebackers Asmar Bilal, Te’von Coney, and captain, Drue Tranquill. Coney and Tranquill are 1 and 2 in tackles with 87 and 59 respectively. Coney has really emerged as being one of the best defensive players at ND in the past few years. Jordan Genmark Heath who has been solid in the snaps he has gotten will likely fill one of the starting spots, but the other 2 spots are up for grabs. What I can see Brian Kelly doing is shifting a good tackling safety like stud, Navy transfer, Alohi Gillman to linebacker like he did with Tranquill a few years back. The line backing position may be the only group of players on the team who might struggle to begin 2019. Lastly on defense, the secondary should be back and strong again. Cornerbacks, Troy Pride Jr. and Julian Love who broke the all-time pass breakups record at Notre Dame as a junior are both expected to come back. Safeties, Alohi Gilman and Jalen Elliot who has become a good player for the Irish are currentley 3rd and 4th leading tacklers on the team. Both are expected to return. They also have some depth in secondary as Freshman, Bracy TaRiq and Houston Griffith are returning and Donte Vaughn will return for his senior year. If Kelly is able to fill the void left at linebacker, Notre Dame’s defense should return to one of the best in the country. Moving to offense, Ian Book will return to QB with a year of experience under his belt. Brandon Wimbush should return for his last year of eligibility to be a reliable back up to Book. At RB, the explosiveness of Dexter Williams will be missed, but Jafar Armstrong is a great candidate to fill his spot. Armstrong reminds me a lot of Williams a year ago. He is a guy who performed well when he got carries, but has been in the shadow of the phenomenal starter (Josh Adams for Williams). Tony Jones will also return for his senior year looking to make an impact. On the O-line Bars and Mustipher will certainly be missed. Both captains have been key to the tough O-line. However, the Irish have been without Bars since their 5th game against Stanford. They struggled in the first couple games without him, but in the last 3 have let up 0 combined sacks. This type of line will be nice to have next year if they continue to play this well as a unit. Lastly, the Irish are losing a number of WRs and TEs. Miles Boykin, Chris Finke, and Alize Mack are some mentionable ones. Throughout his time at Notre Dame, Boykin was somewhat quiet. This year though, he has exploded for 654 yards and 8 TDs. Contributing this was that the fact that Boykin has easily been the most targeted receiver. As Boykin leaves, Chase Claypool will likely be the new #1 reviver getting the same amount of balls thrown to him that Boykin has. I am predicting that Claypool who is very comparable to Boykin will have an even bigger year than him next year. Underclassmen, Kevin Austin and Michael Young have both shown flashes as future stud wide receivers who will be able to take on an influx of balls thrown to them in the coming years. The same thing is true at TE. Mack has been targeted this whole year stealing time from sophomore, Cole Kmet. When Kmet has played, he has performed well and showed he will be a good player to fill the starting TE spot. Clearly, this senior class will be missed, but the Irish should come back stronger than ever in 2019.