Notre Dame Football: Can Julian Love become nation’s best cornerback?
Some of the nation’s best defensive players could reside in South Bend this year. Notre Dame football’s star corner Julian Love fits into that category.
Notre Dame football has a lot to be excited about on the defensive side of the ball entering the 2018 regular season. They still have yet to put on a show for the college football world to take notice of, as they’ll take to Notre Dame Stadium on April 21 for the Blue-Gold Spring Game.
Few teams are going to have as heavily viewed of a spring football game than the Fighting Irish. One reason for that is an emerging superstar in the secondary in Julian Love. In 2017, Love was one of three Notre Dame players that was named a Sports Illustrated All-American.
As a rising junior, Love is entering the point of his college career where his valuable experience can really start to shine through. He’s gotten significantly better during the course of the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Now, he’s ready to compete for a First-Team AP All American nod in 2018.
In 2017, Love led the Irish in interceptions, with three. Fellow cornerback Shaun Crawford was the only other Notre Dame defender that managed more than just a single interception last year. Love also led the way in pass deflections, by far, with 20 on the season.
Moreover, two of Love’s three interceptions were returned for touchdowns. He totaled 153 return yards on those three picks last season. If all those accolades are not enough for Love to be proud of his body of work in 2017, he also led all Notre Dame defensive backs in total tackles, with 68.
Love has proven that he can sit among the top 10 cornerbacks in the nation. Now, he needs to prove that he can actually be one of the two or three best overall. He has the skill set and ball hawking ability required to be a big time game-changing defensive back.
He’ll also have the support around him necessary to elevate to another level. No defense across the country brings back more production to a program than the Irish do in 2018, at least up to this point in spring drills. Notre Dame returns 96 percent of their 2017 defensive production.
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Love is in great position to establish himself as a premier cornerback, and also elevate his NFL Draft stock as he could declare in either 2019 or 2020. Since his height falls under six feet, he’ll have to make up in other portions of his game. That’s something most believe he can do in 2018.