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That's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. So, as we've been doing with our positional breakdowns and, you know, our positional previews, our next section here, and section number two is what we know and what we don't know. And, you know, there's obviously a lot of what we do know based on the guys that are coming back, the guys that have decided to come back. I mean, you have got some absolute stars in Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts. Those are your only two returning starters in the secondary. And thank goodness, Xavier Watts decided to come back. I will just say that because he otherwise Notre Dame would be looking at four out of the five new faces in the secondary. And I love the fact that the reigning defensive player of the year nationally decided to come back to Notre Dame and really hone in his craft. And so, you know, we know who Benjamin Morrison is. We know who Xavier Watts is. They're preseason all Americans. These are the guys that are the leaders on this defense in the secondary, on this team, frankly, as well. And I mentioned it in our practice report yesterday, just watching Xavier Watts go through, you know, even just drills and things like that. He just has an ease about him. You know, you can just tell mentally he's in a good place. You can just tell that physically he knows where he's supposed to be. He's doing what he's supposed to do. I mean, this, this is, I mean, I don't want to say this is his victory lap at Notre Dame, because that's not really the right connotation that I want to make, you know, that I want to spin on it. But this is the, the first time really in his career that he is the most settled and the most just, hey, this is who I am. This is where I'm going to be. This is where I've excelled and I'm going to continue to excel in this position. And I'm a leader on this team. Like you can just see it in the way he carries himself. And that's just exciting to see. 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One of the things that you look at Xavier Watts too is, I mean, there was definitely a push for him to leave last year. The good news is Xavier had a supporting cast around him that forced him to look at pros and cons of the decision. Sure. And we're honest with him about, look, this is where you are, this is what they love about you, this is areas where your game needs to get better, and Xavier made a pretty quick decision. And from what I'm told, there were some people like, "Well, hold on now. Yes, we're good with you coming back, but let's just make sure you've really thought this through." And he was like, "Yeah, I've thought it through. I got a lot more I want to prove as a player and from a team standpoint." And that's why I just had zero doubt that he was going to come back with the right attitude. Because sometimes you wonder you have this all American breakout season, do you start thinking you're the man now and you can maybe not have to work as hard this day or this is going to get handed to you or, "Yeah, this is the entitlement thing that you think you deserve because you were an all American last year." Right. I've heard zero of that about Xavier Watts. And his whole process for making a decision to come back is kind of why you feel covered with that. Now, does that mean he's going to play as well as he did last year? It doesn't guarantee it. It just means if he doesn't, it's not going to be because of a lack of effort. Right. Now, when you look at Xavier Watts, we've talked about this before, Vince. I don't expect his numbers to be the same as last year when it comes to interceptions. It would be hard. It would be difficult. Yeah. So, type for the nation lead. You don't see that. I've pointed this out before. I made sure that the right people knew this during this decision-making process. But I've pointed this out before. But Todd Light, when he broke out in 1989 as a star player, Notre Dame, had eight interceptions. He was a unanimous All-American. Todd Light was. And obviously just a heck of a player. Comes back the next year at Notre Dame after being a unanimous All-American in 1989. And he has two interceptions. And he was a consensus All-American. Now, was Todd Light not as good that year because his numbers weren't as good? Or was it because teams didn't throw at him as much because they didn't want to get picked off all the time? He was excellent. He ended up being a top five NFL draft pick coming out after that next year. But the opportunities weren't there as much. Right. Benjamin Morrison had half the interceptions last year he had in 2022. Is that because he wasn't thrown at as much? Well, ensure numbers? No, it doesn't mean that. He was thrown at almost as much last year as he was the year before. But it was the type of throws. It was a quick game. It was stuff that he can't pick off. You know, it was not the same. Let's attack him down the field and put him in those situations. They didn't throw crossers against him like they did the year before. And Xavier's going to go through a little bit of that where it's like, look, the interceptions might not be there as much because teams aren't just going to throw at him the way that they had in the past. What Xavier's is about is, look, make more of the regular plays. That's what's needed. Like, he's going to be a playmaker, Vince. He was a playmaker last year. He may not have as many interceptions, but Benjamin Morrison went from six interceptions to three in year two. But he went from four pass breakups in year one to 10 in year two, right? It's just he's not getting as many of those pick the pass off opportunities as you want opportunities. You're not throwing late into the boundary in 2023, like you might have in 2022, which got a couple of his interceptions. You know what I mean? And so, but you're still plenty of chance of him to make plays in the football. And he made a lot of plays in the football. And Xavier's going to get plenty of chances to make those type of plays. So have that big hit that knocks the ball out the pass breakup, you know, jumping a crossing route that takes away what a quarterback wants to do. He then has to go to his next read and all of a sudden somebody else gets an interception where in reality, Xavier forced that by jumping the quarterbacks number one option, right, and throwing somewhere else. And then, of course, the last thing is going to be tackling. That's the biggest thing for Xavier Watts this year, Vince, that he's going to have to prove upon his tackling. He tied for the team lead last year and missed tackles. And that's something that I want and need to see him get better at this season is is be a more sure tackler. And that's one of those things that does come with experience because he's not he's not a guy that's played a ton of safety in college. He was a guy that played receiver his first two years then played both positions in 2021. And even even I think it was early in 2022, they were still cross training him because of the lack of depth that at receiver, even in 2022, he was still having to play both ways. So that's going to be the big thing for Xavier, but at the very minimum, you know, he's going to be an excellent player once again. And you just, you need to see, you know, you just you need to see him continue to improve his game and build on the things that that he's going to be asked to do and thrive at. And then with Benjamin Morrison, same thing, it's like, look, teams aren't going to go at you as a whole lot. You've got to be patient, you've got to be consistent, you've got to trust yourself better. Don't get grabby like you did times last year. And then when the time comes for you to make a play, you got to go make a play, but you're just not going to get as many of those opportunities assuming he's healthy. So when you talk about the knowns, Vince, there aren't a lot of teams. I mean, Ohio State can say this, that's about it that I think you can say you've got a guy that is in the debate for the best safety in college football on your team. And you've got a conversation for the guy that's the best corner back in the game on your team. And I, you know, because Ohio State's got Caleb Downs and Denzel Burke, Notre Dame's got Xavier Watson, Benjamin Morrison. I really think those, you know, now George has gotten a debate for the best safety in the game and Malachi Starks and I was got, you know, debate about the best corner in the game with the kid they have and Michigan's got one of the best corners in the game in Will Johnson, but with especially with Rod Moore being hurt, they don't have the safety that you can look at and say, Hey, that's, you know, so that's what I'm saying is there's not, there's nobody else outside of Ohio State that you can look at and say, you've got two of the very best in the, in the business, one, it's safety, one, a corner back. And when you talk about what we know, that's a pretty great flip in place to start, Vince, when you can, when you can have that. Heck yeah, it is. There's no doubt about it. And I just, I, I love sitting here and being excited about those two guys because it, you know, just like in college football, but, you know, that we've been following forever, right? You only get to enjoy certain players for a certain amount of time. So live in the moment and enjoy them while they're here. You know what I mean? Because there's a really good chance that both of these guys are going to be off in the NFL next year. And, you know, that's great for them. That's awesome. And then the next set of guys get to do their thing at Notre Dame. And that's what one of the things I love about college football, but live in the now and enjoy having these guys on your team right now and what they're going to be able to do for this team, both on the field and then in leadership positions and, and all of that. So it's just going to be a fun season when it comes to those two guys. There's no doubt about that. Now, another thing that we know about this secondary is when we're talking about Ben Morrison, we're talking about Xavier Watts, you know, that's your experience. Those are your guys. And then you bring in a couple of guys from the transfer portal who also have a ton of experience. And then you've got a bit of a youth movement. So you've kind of got the best of all worlds. If you want to put it that way, you've got a combination of youth and experience and athleticism that I think if everything goes well, it's going to just mesh very, very nicely. Yeah, because you're like Notre Dame at linebackers in a situation where they've got one veteran. Right. That's everybody else is young. That's it. You know, and then the defensive line, you've got a little bit of that nice blend, but you almost kind of have too many veterans for the young players to making it not not too many. Like it's a problem, but there's too many for the young players to kind of make the kind of impact they're going to be needed to make in the secondary because that's the one concern about the safety or the secondary position is there. There are some young sophomores that have to play this year. Like Christian Gray has to play, whether it's a starters a backup, but he's going to have to play it. Don Schuller is going to have to play. Luke Towson is going to have to play. They don't have anybody else. That's a concern. But in this situation, Vince, to your point, you've got Zit Benjamin Morrison as a leader by example at the corner position. You've got Jordan Clark, who's a sixth year player that's been a captain. You've got Rod Herd, who's a fifth year player, and I'm going to look this up, Vince, but I thought I could be wrong. I know Jordan Clark was a captain, but I thought Rod Herd was also a captain at Northwestern. Really? Yes. He was a team captain at Northwestern last year. I just looked it up. Wow. And then save your watch, obviously, as a leader. So you've got two new guys coming into your lineup, a fifth year guy and a sixth year guy. And they both served as team captains on their football teams. I'm pretty sure Jordan Clark was as well. I'm just going to look that up real quick because I could be mistaken on that one as well. But that's a good place to be, Vince, because now you're not asking those young guys, like with Drake Bowen, for example, middle linebacker. Drake Bowen is a guy that you look at and say, "Hey, man, you're in a situation, Vince, where dude, you're the mic." I know we got Jack as a team leader, but you're the mic. You've got to be a leader. You've got to do this. You've got to do that. We need you to do more than just your job. You've got to do the job of what a quarterback just can't do his job. He's got to set protections. He's got to get the guys lined up. He's got to make sure that the the boundary receivers, that the proper depth outside the tackle, he's got to make sure that the guys outside are both on the line. You've got to do all that stuff because I've felt this is a quarterback. When I coach, obviously, when I coach receivers, it was different. I would get on my guys for making mistakes. I wasn't like, "Well, the quarterback was supposed to..." No, but when I was a quarterback and a quarterback's coach, it was absolutely if they're lined up wrong, that's on you because you determine when the ball snapped. Literally, no one else determines when the ball snapped because the center's not going to snap until you tell them to. So if guys aren't lined up, that's on you. That's what certain positions are asked to do. With the young players in the secondary, there's not as much of that. You don't need Christian Gray to be vocal or be elite. You just do go do your job. You don't need a Don Shuler and Luke Talich to be that guy. Now, what we've seen from a Don in practice is that Don is just that guy anyway, but you don't need him to be that. Meaning, if he's going to be that, it's just natural for him. Because when you force a guy to have to do more than he's maybe ready to do, that only adds pressure to him. When a guy's just naturally that way, Don's just naturally that kind of way, then it's not an extra burden on him. It's a Don being a Don. Right. That was a little bit of what the issue was for Luke Talich last year, is Luke wasn't ready yet, but they needed him to be ready. So they pushed things on him, and I think it overwhelmed him a little bit early as he's gotten more experience. He's better now. And now you look at him and I'm watching drills yesterday and I'm watching Luke go up to, I think it was Tabor on Benny Powell in practice yesterday, and Luke's going up to him and saying like, Hey, you got to do this, you got to think. And now Luke's coaching the young guys up. He's now, you know, he's just a sophomore. All right, he's only broken up for a year because that's the difference between when you've got things thrust on you, but even still within that Luke still doesn't have to be that guy. He has chosen to kind of take on a more vocal role, good for him, but it's not needed in the way that it is for Drake, or the way that it would be for for Kenny or CJ if they were thrust into the quarterback role. So that's a little bit of the difference because you do have those veterans. You've got Xavier Watts, who I think will be a captain this year, just a prediction. Yeah, I think I heard you've got Jordan Clark and I'm reading this article now and I believe that Jordan Clark was in fact also a captain for them last year. Yes, he was a team captain this past season. So you've got two guys that have been team captains and another guy that I think will be a team captain in your secondary. That takes a lot of the pressure off of Christian Gray and a Don Schuler and guys like that. It's a lot different where, you know, like, let's say you lose Jack Kaiser for some reason or let's say Jack Kaiser's off the field. Now you got a lot of guys that are being asked to be leaders in this like, are they ready for that? In the secondary, what are the odds that that Jordan Clark, Rod Hurd, and Xavier Watts are all off the field at the same time and a low out situation? It's going to say zero, right? You know, there's no way you have at least one. Yeah. And so I think that veteran experience is going to be huge for the younger players. And that's something that is a known about this team that makes you feel confident that they're not going to have as many of the mistakes that come from youthfulness that you would normally have when you're replacing departed starters. It's not often you replace a departed fifth year senior, departed sixth year senior with a fifth year senior and a sixth year senior. Right. And that's what they're doing. It's usually you replace a guy, you know, like corner Cam Hart's gone and you're going to replace him with a sophomore or a junior, you know what I mean? Maybe a sophomore, you know, you look at Joe Walt leaves and you were going to replace him with a red shirt freshman and took before Charles Jagneson got hurt. Like that's normally how it goes. You lose Audric Estimae and you're replacing him with a sophomore and a red shirt sophomore. That's normally how it goes. Where in Notre Dame's case, you know, they're losing a fifth year senior at nickel and they're replacing him with a six year senior. They're losing a six year senior safety and they're replacing him with a fifth year senior. Like, okay, like, youth won't be an excuse for why Notre Dame isn't good in the secondary this year. No, not at all. And you know who's not going to take any of those excuses? The other nikens the other known screaming is going to say the other known that we have is that they've got arguably and maybe not even an argument one of the best secondary coaches in the country in Mike Mickens. And he has proved himself not only a Notre Dame, but also his previous stops and who he's been able to identify in the recruiting world, you know, bringing them in and then coaching them up to be who they are. And again, we kind of dove into it a little bit, so I don't want to rehash it completely, you know, in the first segment. But Mike Mickens now is in charge of the entire secondary, not just a cornerback group. And my opinion and I believe you share the same opinion is that he is going to raise the level of play across the board. And now that his Midas touch is not just on the corners, but on the entire secondary. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with Multi View, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/BS device and content restrictions apply local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. I don't want to say that he's definitely going to raise the level of play. Okay, because I feel like that comes across as a slap at Chris O'Leary. And that is not in my attention that I know it's not. I know it's not. That's why I'm being clear. I appreciate that. I think Chris O'Leary did a heck of a job to coaching the safeties last year as a big fan. However, there were times when there was communication that wasn't quite what it needed to be, especially in the run game. And with some adjustments, some post snap adjustments, because you have Chris O'Leary coaching him one way, Mike Mickens coach him another way. Now that's eliminated. You know, one of the things I had in the big summer Intel piece of this was there's a lot more camaraderie within the entire secondary than there was last year, like last year, the safeties hung out together and the corners hung out together by and large. Now they were all friends, but like, I mean, hang out together. I mean, in football terms, like, you know, when they would go to the coach's house, the safeties go to Chris O'Leary's house, the corners would go to Mike Mickens house. When they were in meetings together, the safeties went with the Chris O'Leary and the corners went with separate Mike Mickens. So again, I'm not saying like they didn't hang out and they weren't friends off the field. I'm just saying like in a football sense, they weren't together a whole lot, except when they got out on the field. Now, they're together all the time when they went to a coach's house this summer, the whole secondary went over to Mike Mickens house. Right. When they're in meetings together, summer, fall, spring, whatever, they're with Mike Mickens. So there's more unity of a voice, which to me means, okay, you're at least going to raise, you're going to raise the level of communication and hopefully continue the excellence that was true of the two position coaches. And so I just want to, and I know that's where you're coming from, because we've talked about that, but I don't want it to seem like, well, they're better off without Chris O'Leary, you know, as a coach. I guess the reason Jim Harbaugh hired him, Jim Harbaugh likes teachers and Chris O'Leary is a good football coach. But if you're going to make this, you know, move to replace him, this is a good smart move to replace him in my opinion, because there are some advantages to having one coach in the secondary as long as the structure is in place. And one thing that I know about Mike Mickens Vince is Mike Mickens has a plan. He is a very, like, he's like a chess player in football. He's always kind of thinking a couple moves ahead. And I'm doing this because I want to get to here. And so he's going to have a plan in place. And from what I also know of Mike Mickens, he's not one of those coaches that cares about, you know, like getting the glory, you know, so he's not going to care that like, he's going to, hey, Marty, I need you to do this and help me out. Hey, coach Golden here, what's our plan for this? Let's work together on this. And he's someone who's going to give responsibility to people and then demand that they do the job the way that he would do it. He's not someone that's going to be like, no, no, no, I got all this. I got all this. I'm going to handle this. I got all this, because I need to get all the glory. Because this thing is, if we win, this is one thing I respect about Mike Mickens and Al Golden and guys like that, like Al Golden has never tried to hog the spotlight for himself from his other assistants. Whenever it's about, he says, well, the staff, well, the staff, you ever notice that in interviews, Vince, he's always talking about, well, the staff has done this. Yeah, because he understands at the end of the day, I'm going to get credit. If we're good, and I'm going to get blame if we're bad, you know, so I need to go leave a ship. Exactly. I need to make sure that we're in the position to be the best we can be. And then the credit will come and Mike Mickens is that way as well as a coach is that, look, I'm counting on you. I'm depending on you. I'm going to give you this responsibility at the end of the day. You answered to me in this regard, but, you know, we're going to we're going to be involved here. So I think that's the plans there. And a veteran like Mike Mickens is you feel like, okay, you feel like you're in a good position there to thrive because there is a voice. I mean, yes, Chris, who is their coach, but these kids know who Mike Mickens is. There's a respect level for Mike. Oh my God. It's not some guy from the outside that doesn't know who they are, they're family situations or, you know, Ned never met him before he came to this. It's like, look, you know who I am, you know what I can do. Now you're going to be part of what we're doing here at cornerback because trust me, everybody on the team notices what was going on a corner back the last couple of years. And so there's a level of respect there. So that's that's kind of that's kind of where when you talk about what we know, having that foundation is important. And again, the fact that our goal is not going to not going to allow that to be a problem. They're going to have a plan early on to say, hey, look, let's make sure that coach Mickens has the support he needs, which is why he's at his hand in at times during practice as well. I mean, he's more more so than we've seen in the past being involved with the second at safety's, right? Yeah, because in the past, you have, you know, Coach O'Leary and you had Coach Mickens in the second there. It's like, you know, Al Golden didn't have to and he would he would be around at times. Sure. Well, and because you do at least on him at the one practice, I mean, he was there for like five minutes. I'm watching him coach up the safeties in an individual drill one while Mike Mickens had the corners down there. Right. So they're aware of the challenge of having one position coach in certain periods of the press pressure and they're taking steps to to figure it out, especially what we're saying here. So let's transition to kind of the what we don't know or what we need to find out about this group. And we talked about the fact that there's a nice mix of experience and youth and how, you know, they're replacing the nickel with from a fifth year senior to a sixth year senior and they're, you know, got another fifth year senior, I believe as safety. Well, those guys are transfers, right? And what we don't we don't necessarily know is how those transfers are going to adapt, not only to the defense itself as a whole, but also to this secondary and to this team. I mean, that's that's still an unknown. I mean, we can feel confident about it, but it's still an unknown going in. And that's why we're very clear. It won't be an issue because of a lack of experience. Correct. Grasp of the defense. That's a different conversation. Right. Because this is a complex defense. And for Jordan Clark, I'm less worried about it because he's literally playing the same position. Now he's learning a lot of new things schematically and technique-wise, but it's still the same eye discipline, the same level of he's still a level two player. Like he was at Arizona State. He's still a guy that has to, you know, play certain parts of the field. He's a guy that's in the slot. He, you know, all those things are the same. So now it's just, okay, I got to learn a new defense. Look, this is a six year senior team captain whose dad played the NFL. And his dad was not a freaky athlete. His dad was successful because he was smart. And Jordan's successful, not because he's tall, because he's short. It's not because he's fast, because he isn't. He's a good athlete, but he's not an elite athlete. He's a good football player and a guy that Notre Dame coveted because he's smart. And he's, so I think he's going to pick the defense up well. Thomas Harper picked it up just fine. So I think Jordan Clark will pick it up fine as well. And, and there were some, there were some, the one position where there was some weirdness with the coaches last year was kind of like, who's in charge of the nickels? Because like, sometimes it would be a safety, sometimes it'd be a linebacker. And then like a guy like comes in like Thomas Harper and he's like, well, what is he? Yeah, you know, and where now it's like, okay, they're all part of the same group anyway. Yeah. And that's true. And so there's a little bit more continuity there. But what we don't know, however, is are they going to adjust to the complexity, what Algoldnassen to do? And then while I, I, I'm more confident that Jordan Clark is going to make a smooth transition because of, of what he's coming from, Rod Hertz, a little bit of a different story events, because he's not playing the same position in Notre Dame that he played at Northwestern. Very different. He's playing, he was a nickel for Notre Dame or for Northwestern last year. He was his level two player. He basically played the same position that Jordan Clark did. Now, he played it differently. And the way that they use their nickel was kind of like a lot of the things he was asked to do are going to be very similar to what he's going to be asked to do as a safety at Notre Dame. It's just from a completely different spot in the field. Right. That's the difference. Right. Now the good news is, is he has played a little bit of safety in his career. He's got 74 starts or 74 snaps according to pro football focus as a safety and his first two years in the lineup at Northwestern, he was a corner. So like he's played other things that should help him see the, that position better, but it is still new. It's a different level of communication. It's a different line of sight type of situation. How's he going to handle it? And I think that's a fair thing to say is a, as a what we don't know, Vince. Now, based on what you and I have seen so far, I think he's going to be fine. Agreed. But being fine in a practice period in the first five periods is like, if you can't figure it out, then you're really in trouble. But how does he look when Notre Dame's running high low concepts and you know, running post snap switches and things like that. And, and you know, when, when teams are running two guys deep and bringing another guy under or, you know, running trail routes or follow routes or all these type of things, that's a whole different animal than what we've seen from him so far. And we don't know, we have, we just haven't seen it. Right. I mean, he almost picked off CJ Carr the one day we did see some seven on seven stuff. So that was okay. But it's, you know, there's, there's a ways to go there, because he was not here in the spring. He was with the team like Bo Collins, but he wasn't taking practice reps. He was in meetings, he was in drills, he was watching film. And I think he was actually still living in Illinois, too. He was commuting back and forth. I thought it was the, I thought it was the other way around. Okay. I could be, but, but point it, he was commuting. Yes, he was there. Right. And look, Evanston isn't that far away. You know, it's not, you know, and you can bunk on a couch. And there was times he wasn't around Notre Dame because he had a class or a test or whatever. But right, the way that his, his, his class schedule set up, he wasn't there five days a week. Correct. Correct. So I was on the impression events he lived here and was finishing school there. But I, I could be wrong either way stays the same. It's the same drive. Exactly. You know what I mean? Yes. It's just where he put his head down a night might be. And it's, and it doesn't matter one way or the other, but the point, however, is that there was a lot of that back and forth. Yeah. Which is a lot to juggle. Bo was able to do some things like from distance. Correct. Rod had to be in person, because Bo was working on undergrad. Rod was working on a master's. That's the difference. Yeah. And there's a difference there. And it's a little easier to kind of finish up some of your credits online when you're finishing up your degree, undergrad degree, than it is getting a master's. Right. So anyway, so that that is one of the unknowns that we don't, we don't have. Now I'll say this. Here's a, here's a bit of good news when you talk about Rod heard and, and, and what he asked the defense. One of the things that Notre Dame is going to have to improve upon this year, Vince, is tackling. This team is going to have to do a better job when it comes to tackling. They were not a good tackling team last year, as we've talked about. Jordan Clark obviously is a guy that, that needs to improve in that regard as well from what we saw on him on film. But Rod heard was a very good tackler at Northwestern. So here's an exit. Here's some numbers for you, Vince. You know, I love numbers. I know you do. Pro football focus, right? Last year, they had Rod heard down is playing 853 snaps. Xavier Watts played 708 snaps. So that is what 50 different. Yeah, 145. Yeah, I'm doing the math correctly. Xavier Watts had 13 missed tackles last year. Rod heard had 10. So if you look at his missed tackle percentage, and pro football focus does a percentage of what your missed tackle percentages, missed tackles compared to opportunities. Xavier Watts is an 18.8% missed tackle percentage, and obviously the lower the better, right? And let's see what DJ Brown last year had a 13% missed tackle percentage. And Ramon Henderson was a 17.6. Rod heard was a 10% last year, missed tackle percentage. So he had a much lower missed tackle rate last year than he then he had in previous seasons, but then also compared to what Notre Dame had. Here's another little little note for you, Vince. He had 34 run stops last year in that defense. And Notre Dame starting Rover last year had 17. And so like that that's obviously very productive. And if you kind of like to see that now, that's Thomas Harper played a lot less snaps. But my point is he had a lot of opportunities to make a lot of tackles, which means you also have opportunities and missed tackles, right? And he didn't. He was a very steady tackler last season. Now you hope he can continue that and take that into this season. He's a better athlete than what they had last year in the starting lineup. And he's a lot smarter than what they had coming off the bench. I don't mean Ramon wasn't a smart play human being, but Ramon just wasn't a real smart instinctive football player. I mean, you and I both know Vince. I've met some wicked smart people as human being, great kids, great people, very book smart. Football is not their thing. Just like you and I have both met some people that can just be harsh about it. Not very intelligent in any other area, but they are wicked smart when it comes to when it comes to exes and owes and things like that. They can barely tie their own shoes, but they're really smart when it comes out. Believe me, we've all met those kinds of people and it blows my mind. Right. But it's I mean, it's not surprising. I mean, just like some people are great at math, but they're not great at science. I mean, it's just like this is your passion. This is the gift that you were given and you are going to maximize it and you prioritized it. Maybe you should have prioritized some other things or whatever. But you and I have met this where some kids just don't have that feel for the game. I mean, I coached a receiver at when I was at Christopher Newport that was our best athlete. He was a dynamic athlete. I mean, legit four or five at that level. Like borderline four point oh student. The hardest kid I had to coach. Not just not just because he was stubborn, but he just it just didn't he didn't have that natural feel for football. Doing what you're asking them to do. Right. Right. Now, you know, half the team's probably asking the right, you know, papers for him, you know what I mean? But right, you know, when it comes to the the board, he's not the guy I'm going to ask to lead my group in a board meeting, you know, right. And so that's just kind of how it goes. You know, and totally get it. Yeah. Yeah. Totally get it. So as we move forward with some of the things that we need to find out about or things that we don't know coming in, you know, and we talked about the fact that there are three open positions essentially in the secondary, you know, they had to replace three guys that were starting last year and we kind of talked about two of those spots just now. Well, the third spot is huge shoes to fill, frankly, biggest of all of the massive shoes to fill, absolutely. And it's cam heart and they're going to have to replace cam heart and can they replace cam heart in the aggregate, you know, using some moneyball terms can they can they, you know, can two guys replace what cam heart was able to do from a productivity standpoint? Is there one guy that's going to be able to do it? Can they do it at all? I think that's a really, really good question and something we're going to have to find out about because cam heart for the past two years was just really, really good. But Cam, Cam had a bit of a hamstring injury at the beginning of 2022. And he wasn't great early. But when he got healthy around the, you know, week after the Carolina game by the end of the year, he was brilliant. I mean, he was amazing down the stretch. And then, of course, last year was just excellent. Right. He to me is the hardest guy to replace in the secondary, if not the entire defense. The only other guy that to me is even the conversation is JD Bertrand. Absolutely. Just because of all the different things that JD brought to the table, like those are the two biggest shoes to fill on defense with all due respect. And that then part of that's because, you know, at some of those positions, you're bringing in veterans. I mean, you're bringing an RJ open to replace, you know, Javante, John Baptiste. Now, if Josh Burnham also steps up, that's great. But, you know, that's your insurance policy, same with Rod Hurd, same with Jordan Clark. And here now, it's like, okay, you feel like, but what I will say about this position is I do feel like there's a good floor here. Now, will they be as good as as good as Cam? Don't know the answer to that. Sure. But I don't think it's going to be a huge drop off. Because I think these are good football. Jaden Mickey's a good football player. Christian Gray is a good football player right now. Are they top level football players like Cam was last year? That's more up for debate. But it's not going to go from like, you know, like when, when Julian Love got hurt in 2018, it's like, go, go on the attack. Like they can't, you know, but the question is, okay, but how good can they be? I think that's really the question mark. And I think Jaden Mickey has a higher floor than Christian Gray. Christian Gray has a significantly higher ceiling. But is Christian going to be ready to show that this year? Is he going to be ready to show? Is he just going to be good this year and becomes a star next year? You know, that's going to be the question. Christian's got to be locked in. He's got to put in the work, you know, he's got to, you know, work on perfecting his craft. All the things that young players need to focus on to turn their talent into production. And that's not specific to Christian, like he doesn't do those things. That's just true of all talented young players. Can he, can he, can he do as a sophomore, kind of what Benjamin did as a sophomore? Right. That's really the question. And I think he physically and talent wise, he's capable of it. The difference is, is Benjamin was thrust into the spotlight day one at Notre Dame. And part of because he earned it, but partly because the cornerback depth chart wasn't very good. Right. Exactly. Well, now Christian steps into situations where you do have Cameron Benjamin and Jaden all coming back. He didn't have to play last year. But guess what? He still did. Game one, because it was like this kid's got to play. So to a degree, Christian forced himself into that role. But here's the question, Vince. And you and I always talk about this. Just because you were good as a backup doesn't mean you're going to be good as a starter because it's a whole different level of expectation. Yep. And, and, and so that's going to be the question is, I love the talent at this position, especially with Christian grand. I mean, look, I love J. Mickey's toughness and his strength and his demeanor. And the story is amazing. Absolutely. And he's going to be a part of this defense. He's going to be an incredible defense. But at the same time, this team, and we've said it before, I'll say it again, they need the light to go on for Christian Gray. This is a much different secondary if Christian Gray forces his way into the starting lineup. Much different secondary. Now, there's a chance they both may start the opener if Benjamin Morrison can't go. My expectation and right from what I'm hearing is Benjamin's going to play and he's already in his practice. And he's not doing tackling and things like that. So I would, I would assume so. Right. But agreed. Look, and I love Jaden. But again, what are we talking about, Vince? We're talking about competing for a championship. And Jaden Mickey can help you win a championship as your third corner. Christian Gray helps you win a championship as your number one or number two. That's really what it comes down to for me is can can the light go on for Christian? I believe Vince, they're going to have a very good secondary this year. Whether or not they can kind of answer the next question is going to largely be determined by how good Chris Gray is this season. Yeah, that's the end. I know the talent. What I don't know is is the talent ready to turn into production is the potential ready to be is is is Christian Gray ready to put the work potential in the rearview mirror with him? And now it's about who I am. The now. Yeah. Or is it going to be? I know he's not great now, but right. Must be patient. He's going to be good. He's got potential. All those words. You want to have those in the rearview mirror. You want it to be I am this guy now. And that might be the biggest question on the entire secondary and like individual player. Sure. In the entire secondary. Well, and like you said, that rolls into our final question of the unknowns is that can this 24 version of the Notre Dame secondary be as good? Or dare I say better? It'd be tough than the 23 version. And again, like you kind of talked about in the open in that is 23 going to be the allude, you know, the the the difference basically the, you know, the the aberration, if you will, in that they were really good in 23 or they're going to go and then they're going to take another dip down. So is that like, you know, the the high point or is this now going to become the norm? You know, what they did in 23, can they repeat it in 24 and then repeat it in 25, et cetera, and get on the same level as an Ohio State, a Georgia, you know, et cetera, et cetera, when it comes to really good secondaries year in and year out. As long as they can hold on to Mike Vickens, I like their chances, but it's still an unknown whether they can match the performance of of 2023. So you look at it, Vincent, and you say this, I'm going to say a statement, you tell me if you agree with it or not. Notre Dame is going to have a very good top 10 secondary this season. Like, I really that's not a debate. Right. It's kind of like the D line. Are they going to have the eighth best secondary or the second best secondary or the best secondary? Right. That's the difference. That's the question. One of you get you to the play off and helps you win a game. Another one helps you go compete for championship. Yeah. And it's those two kind of together, right? But just right now, the focus on the secondary, I have no doubt they're going to be good again. No doubt. The question is, can they be elite again? And I think by and large, the secondary was elite last season. Yeah, there was a play here, play there. Everybody has those. Notre Dame is not the only team in America that had a safety drop in interception. Right. You know, but you look at it and say, okay, but can they be that again, if not better? I think this secondary has a chance to be better than it was last season. Because I think there's a chance they could be better at five spots, four or five spots. I I have a hard time believing they're going to be better at field corner. That's going to be tough. That's going to be tough. I mean, now they could be better at certain things. No, you didn't always have cam. You didn't want cam to be a guy that's just going to go out and line up and play cover one all day. You know, they'd use them on different things. Maybe they're better in certain things, but I have a hard time believing that they're going to be better than what cam was 100%. Now, could Christian Gray in 2025 be better than what cam was in 2023? It's possible. It's hard for me to envision them being better. The question is just still be good there. Don't take that like don't take a step back to where you're not as you're just like it's a way worse than we were like just still be good. That's all. That's all I ask of Jayden making Christian Gray just be good. You don't need to be a star like they need to play to their ability. They don't have to play. They don't have to be cam heart, right? And I think that that is, you know, I don't know if you directly say that, but it's like, look, man, just be you. You guys have talent. There's no doubt about it. They just have to be different, right? And that's more like Cam was and how you use them. Christian is more like Benjamin and how you can use him. So how do they pair those together? That's a question, but just be good. Benjamin has a chance to be better than he was last year. Xavier has a chance to be better than he was last year. I think Jordan Clark has a chance to be better than Thomas Harper. That's not going to be easy because Thomas was a really good football player from Notre Dame last year. He's not as strong or as fast as Thomas Harper was. But he's a little bit more instinctive. A little bit, you know, short air quickness is a little bit better. You know, those are things that you look at. It's okay. They're there. He's going to be good. Is he going to be better? It's possible. Long way to go. The position where I'm most confident they're going to be better this year than I than they were last year, honestly, is the boundary safety spot. Like this is a pure projection on my apartments, but and that's why it's in an unknown because I don't know. I'm very confident, however, that the combination of Rod Hurd and Don Shuler, maybe Luke Talitz, depending on how they use all the safeties, is going to be better than DJ Brown and Ramon Henderson. And if Rod Hurd's as good as DJ Brown was, they're going to be better because I think if Don Shuler is going to be better than then Ramon Henderson. Ramon was not good. He was the one guy in the seconder that was just not a very good player last year. Like Clarence Lewis was good when they in the slot. He had some trouble at times and they had to play him outside, which is why he didn't play a lot of outside last year. It's why Christian and Jaden did it. But when you had him in the slot, Clarence was fine. He was a solid football player. Ramon was just not good. When they put Ramon Henderson in the game, he was just not good. And he regressed sadly last season. Like it was very weird, Vince. We don't see that happen with many guys, but you don't see many seniors regress the way the Ramon did last year. I thought Ramon Henderson had the he's been in the rotation now for three years. And I thought last year was his worst season. I really did. I really did. I mean, he just he made I don't remember him really making any plays. You know, I just he just he just wasn't a very good football player, in my opinion last year. So and then over the last two years, Ramon Henderson has given up almost he gave up. Let's see here. Actually, I'm going to do the math here, Vince is the corner pro football focus. His completion percentage allowed the last two years. He allowed completions on 34 of 44 attempts, just 77.3% completions. That's that's what he allowed last year. DJ Brown opponents were 38.5% against DJ. And again, Xavier, they were at 59.4, which is very good for safety against Ramon. There's 77% completion rate against him last year. It's not good. Yeah, that's not good. So good at all. I mean, you're talking about for a team that was literally the number two defense in the country in lowest completion percentage allowed. And you had a safety was given up 77 on 22 attempts. It wasn't like it's on, you know, seven out of 10. It's on 22 attempts. He just wasn't a great football player. Good athlete from everything I've been told. Really good kid. It just he you're not winning championships with him as part of your key part of your your first off the bench kind of guy. I have full confidence or a Don Schuler day one is going to be a better player than Ramon Henderson was last year day one agreed. So that's why I feel like that position is going to be better. Can Xavier be better? Can Benjamin be better? It's hard to be better than what they were last year, but they're both capable of it. Sure. It's going to be hard for Jordan Clark to be better than what Thomas Harper is, but was but he's capable of it. And then you just got to kind of, you know, hopefully be a little bit of a wash at the other spot. So, but the whole point is, but as a whole, they could end up playing better. And that's that's going to be the interesting part because I do believe this defense has more instinctive ball disrupters than they did last year. As great as Cam was, that was not a strength of his in this defense, getting his hands on thrown passes, forcing fumbles as good as any DB in the country, literally, statistically, and you know, all those things. I think the coverage has a chance to be better this year, just pure coverage with Christian. The tackling block destruction, that's where I'm a little concerned, right? Because that's where Cam excelled. You're so good at that. Yeah. Benjamin, I thought took a step back as a tackler last year. He's got a great, I agree. You know, I think he was much more of a willing tackler as a freshman. Yeah. Then he was. He got a little grabby last year. Yeah. Instead of trusting his technique. So those type of things need to need to improve as well. And so I do think there's room for Ben, like, I don't think Benjamin and Xavier maxed out. That's the point. I don't think either one of them are maxed out. Agreed. And they need them to take a step this year. Now they're not going to be astronomically better than they were. It's not possible. So then that's the question is, okay, are they as good as they were last year? As long as they're as good as they were last year, Vince, this is an elite secondary. Absolutely. Because last year, they were a top five secondary, in my opinion, last year. No, no question. This year, right now, floor is top 10. That's where you can comfortably say they are now. To be a top five unit, again, maybe top three, two, one, you're going to need some things to go well for you, right? They're not, they're normal things. It's like, you know, new guys stepping in that type of thing. But when you've got three new starters in your defensive lineup, it's not, you can't just say, no problem, they're going to be just as good if not better than they were last year. You can say that, but I don't think that's, as a fan, but sitting in our shoes, I think it'd be irresponsible for us to just assume that it's, they have the potential to be it. Now they just got to show it. And I think that they will. And they're going to get tested early. We're going to know game one, because the A&M doesn't have like an elite receiving core, but it's a good receiving core, in my opinion, better than what the numbers were last year. Okay. You know, with Moose, Muhammad and no one Thomas and a couple of kids like that, they've got some good, and they got some good size there too. So they're going to be tested early. And then, you know, they're going to be tested again against Louisville, just like they weren't last year. They had, they had four or five really good tests last year. And they answered every single one, you know, and like somebody said, you know, outside of Caleb Williams, are they playing elite quarterbacks? Well, like in the last two years, they played Caleb Williams, Drake May and C.J. Stroud, and they had, they played great against all of them. And from a coverage standpoint, the only time they really had success throwing on the, on the secondary was when Caleb did it a little bit, a little bit in 2022. But even in that game, you didn't have to eat bracy or cam heart. That was, and he still only threw for 232 yards. You know, I mean, they ran on Notre Dame. That was the, it was the stuff he was doing with his legs. That was the problem in that game. So, you know, but last year, okay, you only, only faced one elite receiver, but you, you, your past defense faced the number one and number four overall draft picks last year. Because not only did you shut down Caleb Williams, but you shut down Marvin Harrison Jr. as well. Let's not forget that. And USC had two guys get drafted, shut them down, pit had a guy get drafted, shut him down, Louisville had a guy get drafted, shut him down. Louisville only averaged a throw through like 150 yards in that game. They ran on Notre Dame. That was the question mark. And that is still the question mark, sure, in those big games, but past defense was legit. This isn't like Michigan and Iowa, where they played the big 10 pass game schedule. You're playing Caleb Williams. You're playing Ohio State. You're playing Louisville. You're playing plenty of teams that got receivers. Heck Clemson had a guy that Notre Dame thought so highly of that they went out and recruited them to come play for them. Right. He's playing for them now. Yeah. Right. So if that tells you anything, so, and they're going to be tested again this year, and they're going to have to answer the bell again. And we're going to see if they can be better. Well, we need to see if they can be as good and then as better. But even a step back venture still top 10. Absolutely. It's just it's got to be minimal. You're better at some things, not as good as others. That's where it has to be minimum, right? Ideally you want to be better. Stick around for the next section. But in the meantime, make sure you hit the like button, the subscribe button, that notification bell, share its family and friends, check out boards and boards at the boards. That I was breakdown.com. Like I said, Intel piece sitting right there on the front page, just waiting for you to read it if you're a member of the boards. And if you're not a member, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So we love you. Yeah, but you're missing out. But you're missing out. I mean, you're missing out. Borsed Irish Breakdown.com. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat, literally. But don't sweat it. Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. 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