Notre Dame Football: 3 position battles to watch for 2020

1. Cornerback

With the departures of Troy Pride Jr. and Donte Vaughn, the Irish are in desperate need for reliable depth at the cornerback position. Unfortunately for the Irish, depth isn’t the only concern at a position with only three upperclassmen. While Notre Dame experienced much success at the position over the last few years, the 2020 season may end up as a temporary talent buffer.

The situation that the Irish currently find themselves in dates back to their 2018 recruiting class. Of their four cornerback recruits, both Houston Griffith and DJ Brown are slated to move to safety after the losses of Alohi Gilman and Jalen Elliott while Noah Boykin ended up transferring to UMass. That leaves only one incoming junior at the position, TaRiq Bracy.

Bracy, who played all over the field in high school, started two of the 12 games he played in during the 2019 season. He was pretty active last season, recording 34 tackles, seven passes defensed, one forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries. At this point in time, it would be reasonable to presume that Bracy’s main competition at the position would be NC State transfer Nick McCloud.

We know that Shaun Crawford, in his sixth season with the team, will take one of the spots, but it’s yet to be seen whether he stays home at nickelback or makes a permanent move to outside corner. Regardless, the battles for whichever spots don’t go to Crawford will be must-watch content. For now, we continue to wait for our favorite team to get back out on the field.