Notre Dame Football: 5 breakout players to watch in Spring Practice

Notre Dame returns an absolutely loaded group of defensive talent in 2018. There’s a chance that the Irish fields a top defense in the nation this year. A lot of that responsibility falls on the shoulders of the few new faces we will see on the Notre Dame defense.

One of those new faces, that could even start for most of the 2018 campaign, is rising sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. Much like Young Jr. Owusu-Koramoah was a three-star prospect in the 2017 recruiting class for the Irish. He’s an underrated possible impact player for 2018.

As a linebacker that has a great nose for the football, Owusu-Koramoah could be a valuable piece of the Notre Dame run defense. He’s the type of player that could reach the mark of 120 total tackles in a single season.

In regards to the path to contention for Notre Dame in 2018, it goes through the play of the defense. The offense needs to step up, but that’s where the strength of the depth chart lies. Watch out for incoming freshman four-star linebacker Shayne Simon to also get some early playing time, but he does not arrive in South Bend until the fall.