What we know about the Notre Dame defense prior to fall camp

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish begin preseason practices this week with just a month remaining until the season-opener vs. Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 26. This is what we know about the Irish defense heading into fall camp.

Graduate student linebackers have long leashes

Notre Dame has three graduate student linebackers, and they will have a stranglehold on the three linebacker positions from the start of fall camp — just as they did back in the spring.

Marist Liufau is the projected starter at weak-side linebacker. JD Bertrand is firmly entrenched as the middle linebacker starter. Jack Kiser is ahead of a pair of younger players, sophomore Jaylen Sneed and freshman Jaiden Ausberry, at Rover.

Liufau played more defensive snaps than anyone on the Notre Dame roster in 2022, and with those reps came a considerable amount of criticism. Not just from fans, either. Former Notre Dame linebacker Prince Kollie bluntly said in the spring he felt like he should have been a starter by the end of last season. He wasn’t, and he seemingly wasn’t getting any closer to that status in the spring, so he transferred to Vanderbilt to play for former Notre Dame defensive coordinator and current Commodores head coach Clark Lea.

Let Kollie’s departure serve as a reminder: the Notre Dame coaching staff likes what it has in Liufau, Bertrand and Kiser, and it is going to take a lot for the likes of Sneed, Ausberry, Drayk Bowen, Preston Zinter and Nolan Ziegler to usurp their elder statesmen. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but don’t be surprised if it’s not. That’s just the way it is with the current construct of this Notre Dame linebacker contingent.

Benjamin Morrison is Notre Dame’s best defensive player

It was a common consensus Isaiah Foskey was the best player on the Notre Dame defense in 2022. Opponents’ scouting reports started with him. They probably finished with him, too. He recorded 11 sacks in back-to-back seasons the last two years and finished his career with a program-best 26.5.

Now he’s gone, and Notre Dame’s best defensive player is an entirely different animal.

It’s sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison, five inches shorter and 80 pounds lighter than Foskey. He plays just as big. Morrison had six interceptions as a true freshman. The FBS leaders had seven. Half a dozen will be a tough number to match for Morrison as a sophomore, but he doesn’t need to get there. Opposing offenses now have to account for Morrison in their game plans like they did with Foskey, and Morrison’s mere presence could be disruptive.

A sophomore setback isn’t impossible, but Morrison’s moxie and playmaking ability he displayed in the second half of the 2022 season seems sustainable. On a Notre Dame team that is missing a bona fide star along the defensive line — and in a linebacking corps led by solid but not elite veterans, for that matter — Morrison is the player that will make opposing offensive coordinators lose sleep on Friday nights.

Continuity is key

Every on-field defensive assistant from the 2022 Notre Dame coach staff stayed for 2023. Al Golden is in his second season as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Al Washington is in his second season as the defensive line coach, Chris O’Leary is in his third season as the safeties coach and Mike Mickens is in his fourth season as the cornerbacks coach.

Golden sticking could elevate the performance level of Liufau, Bertrand and Kiser in their graduate seasons. There is an element of comfort and confidence that stems from playing in the same defensive schemes from one year to the next. Every returning player will feel the same effects.

Golden will be heavily aided by graduate assistant Max Bullough. Last year, Golden’s right-hand man was James Laurinaitis. He returned to his alma mater, Ohio State. Bullough is in the same class as Laurinaitis in the sense that they’re both relatively young coaches who played at the highest levels in college and the NFL.

At 31, Bullough has a voice that will resonate with current Notre Dame players. On the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel called Bullough the smartest player he’s ever coached.

“He didn’t take a rep and he could play like seven positions,” Vrabel said. “Didn’t take a practice rep but he could play Mike, he could play Will. He played literally every position possible and didn’t take one rep in the middle of the week. We’d just rep everybody else.”

As much as a potential superstar Laurinaitis is in coaching, Notre Dame did not lose much, if anything, in replacing him with Bullough, an Alabama graduate for three seasons before arriving in South Bend. From his addition to the staff to the retention of Golden, Washington, O’Leary and Mickens, Notre Dame is in a comfortable position with its defensive coaching staff.

Comfortable isn’t always successful, though. Washington and O’Leary have big seasons ahead of them with scrutiny mounting. The beauty is they can lean on stability provided by the others, including head coach Marcus Freeman, in times of unrest.

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