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With less than a week until Notre Dame spring practice opens, Ryan Roberts previews some of the key defensive position battles that will be taking place for the Fighting Irish.
*3 Defensive Position BATTLES To Watch In Notre Dame's Spring Practice...*
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Notre Dame football is just about back. Spring practice opens up on March 19th. Some defensive
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turnover, new defensive coordinator, and position battles that we need to keep a look at on this
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spring. Let's talk about those players, those key positions, and the outlook for the Fighting Irish
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in 2025. Ryan Roberts from A to Z Sports bringing down everything Notre Dame football, getting y'all
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ready for spring practice officially starting on March 19th for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
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Now, folks, I know that spring is losing its luster a little bit because of the long season
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Obviously, we're going to see a lot of players from Notre Dame after playing 16 games that are going to be kind of limited in spring or not participate at all
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But this is still a big opportunity for some players, younger in most cases, to be able to make their mark on this roster and be able to showcase that they are ready to take that next step in these key position battles
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Let's start here. Start up front and then work our way back. I want to start with nose tackle
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So interior defensive line, we can kind of have the full scope conversation of three technique versus no tackle
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But I really think nose tackle is an interesting one because first and foremost, I am extremely interested to see under new defensive coordinator Chris Ash
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if things change a little bit as far as the prototype that we see at both nose tackle and three technique Obviously we saw the last few years Notre Dame went to a smaller nose tackle which is kind of not a very traditional thing but they went with Howard Cross They went with Donovan
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Hynish, two guys that are below 290 pounds. In Donovan Hynish's case, he was below 280 pounds last
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season. So smaller nose tackles, more penetration style, and the three techniques were actually
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bigger in the Notre Dame system. I'm interested to see if that flips a little bit. I would actually
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like to see Donovan Hynish play more three technique, and I would like to see Gabriel
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Rubio potentially move inside the nose. So first and foremost, the formation of that
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But then what does the starting nose and snap share look like in the fall
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You know that if this is assuming that Gabriel Rubio is playing more of the nose at 300 plus
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pounds that he probably should be playing anyway. He will have the early, you're a veteran, you've been on the part of the program for
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a long time. You're going to get a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. So you're probably going to be the key starter inside to begin the spring
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But we have guys like Jared Dawson that are coming in, transfer from Louisville
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You also have Sean Savillano, who's now going to be in his second year with the program
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down around about 325 pounds now as he's lost a ton of weight since coming to Notre Dame
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Very interested to see, one, do they view Jared Dawson as a nose or a three technique in their system
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He played a lot of three at Louisville. But I personally think that nose tackle kind of fits him a little bit better, at least in the Notre Dame system
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So is this a Gabriel Rubio vs Jared Dawson vs Sean Savillano conversation or is this a Donovan Hynish vs Jared Dawson vs Sean Sevillano
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Regardless of what it looks like, I'm interested to see which guy takes that step forward
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and becomes that key nose tackle to replace the departed Howard Cross III
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Let's go to Will Linebacker, where this is a really fun one. Look, we know four linebackers that are definitely going to play in 2025
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We're going to know Drake Bowen at Mike Linebacker. You're going to know Kingston Villiamo Assa. You're going to talk about Jay Nosberry and then Jalen Sneed
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Now the battle for the will linebacker position, though, I think is going to eventually come down to Kingston Villiamo Assa
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versus Jayden Osberry. Now, if I had to be a betting man, I would bet on Kingston winning that starting job
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but then having Jay Nosberry kind of be a Swiss Army knife on the second level
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Play a little bit of will, play a little bit of Rover, play all over the place. I think they're going to mix and match, but I'm very interested
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I think that the best case scenario, because I feel like I know a lot of what Jay Nosbury is at this time as far as being a weapon for a defense
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But if Kingston takes the sophomore jump combined with Drake Bowen now going into year two as the starter
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we're talking about one of the best linebacker duos potentially in all of college football
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The last, and we'll stick right in the middle of the field, right behind them. It's funny that we went literally from the middle of the defensive line to the middle of the linebacker room
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and then we're going to work to the safety position. We know Adon Shuler is going to be starting safety Going into 2025 after the terrific season that he had 59 total tackles three interceptions He was very good for Notre Dame in 2024 The question is who starts next to him
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Most people would probably see Jalen Stroman, who's transferring in from Virginia Tech
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But we know that there's going to be some limitations on him coming back from the injury in spring
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That will open up potentially for some younger guys. We're going to see Bronte Johnson potentially moving back to safety
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after playing a little bit of corner last year as a true freshman. You're going to see Jadon Blair as an early enrollee safety
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You're going to see Kennedy Erlacher as a second-year player playing a lot of special teams and a little bit of mop-up duty in 2024
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You're also going to see Luke Talich, who is 6'4", 210 pounds, a very physically impressive-looking player
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Who starts opposite of Adon Shuler, first and foremost? And then second, what does a split share look like
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I'm very interested to see, let's say, hypothetically, a Jadon Blair wins this job as a true freshman
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actually we'll say hypothetically a Jalen Stroman wins the job as a veteran what does the role look
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like for a Jadon Blair what does it look like for a Bronte Johnson we need to figure out who the
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starter is next to a Don Shuler but then after that what does the safety room look like three
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safety alignments at times a lot of possibilities on the back end folks what position are you most
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excited about going into 2025 which one gives you a little bit of a little bit of worry put it in
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