Notre Dame Football: Projected pre-spring game 2018 depth chart
By Jacob Wilson
Defensive Backs
Starting cornerbacks: Julian Love, Troy Pride Jr.
Nickel corner: Shaun Crawford
Backups: Nick Watkins, Donte Vaughn
One of Notre Dame’s most exciting players on the defensive side of the ball, junior Julian Love will operate as the Irish’s lockdown corner after registering 68 tackles, three interceptions, and two touchdowns last season. Junior Troy Pride Jr. and fifth-year senior Nick Watkins will battle it out for the No. 2 role while senior Shaun Crawford should set up at nickelback once more.
This position is quite fluid, leaving a significant potential for change. As it stands right now, Pride has a legitimate shot at replacing Watkins as a starter. In addition, junior Donte Vaughn figures to offer some depth if needed. Vaughn has recorded 28 total tackles, one interception, and six passes defensed over two years at Notre Dame.
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Starting safeties: Alohi Gilman (FS), Jalen Elliott (SS)
Backups: Nick Coleman, Houston Griffith
At this point, it might be more rewarding to pull names out of a hat when it comes to predicting the landscape of this position. Either Kelly is playing his cards extremely close to the chest or he has about as much of an idea as we do when it comes to rounding out the safety position. For now, let’s go with the former.
As it stands right now, junior Alohi Gilman appears to be the most qualified as a free safety. He has the tackling and awareness you like in a free safety, but his coverage skills as a whole pose some questions. Junior Jalen Elliott showed flashes last season, but is still nowhere near a lock at the position. Nick Coleman is a more conservative pick, but he’s also been known to falter at times.
As if the posisiton’s current standing wasn’t confusing enough, Kelly recently announced that highly anticipated freshman Houston Griffith would be making a switch to safety. This complicates things even further, but it’s always better to have too much than too little. Needless to say, this position will be interesting to monitor over the course of the Blue-Gold game and on.