The depth Notre Dame believes can push it into contention for the College Football Playoff has already been tested over the last month. So far, Notre Dame’s passed the test.
Since the beginning of August, Notre Dame lost junior running back Greg Bryant (ineligibility/transfer), redshirt junior nose guard Jarron Jones (knee injury), freshman cornerback Shaun Crawford (knee injury), junior running back Tarean Folston (knee injury) and graduate student safety Avery Sebastian (foot injury).
That kind of attrition isn’t out of the ordinary for a college team. How a program handles those losses often determines how successful a season it’ll have.
Filling in for Jones against Texas, sophomore Daniel Cage was a tough assignment for the Longhorns' inexperienced offensive line and freshman Jerry Tillery notched a sack in his first career game. Without Bryant and Folston, Notre Dame’s running back depth chart lost all three of its members from 2014 — but redshirt junior C.J. Prosise carried 20 times for 98 yards and freshman Josh Adams sliced his way into the end zone twice. Crawford’s injury pushed KeiVarae Russell inside in nickel packages, where he contributed to Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard combining to complete an embarrassing eight of 23 passes for 103 yards.
Coach Brian Kelly, though, said his team’s depth is even better than it showed against Texas.
“We have some young guys that we think are still capable of playing for us that are down on the depth chart a little bit,” Kelly said. “They kind of have that look like, well, I may never get out of this position that I'm in.
“I told our coaches: It's important that you go to these guys on Monday and let them know, they are probably going to get an opportunity to play this year. And to continue to work with them and continue to build their confidence that when we call on you, be ready, because we think we have some depth that they may have to play for us and they are quality players.”
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Notre Dame didn’t have that kind of depth last year, when a defense collapsed after linebacker Joe Schmidt’s season-ending injury. Perhaps no position is more indicative of Notre Dame’s improved depth than now Mike (middle) linebacker, with Schmidt being backed up by graduate student Jarrett Grace and sophomore Nyles Morgan.
Defensive tackle Sheldon Day said in August Notre Dame’s depth extends beyond talent. After Schmidt’s injury last year, there was a leadership vacuum, which contributed to the demise of the Irish defense. This year, there are four captains on that side of the ball (Schmidt, Day, Jaylon Smith, Matthias Farley).
The real test will come over the next 11 games, when first-year players like Tillery, Adams and running back Dexter Williams will be called upon plenty. Prosise is in his first year as a running back and hasn’t handled a significant workload in back-to-back weeks yet. And, as is the nature of a sport as violent as football, there will be more injuries.
But Kelly is confident his team’s depth can handle any hurdles that emerge between now and December.
“It's the best depth we've had,” Kelly said. “I’d rather not call on it continuously, but every football team is going to have to deal with some injuries, and we know we are going to have some after this game as well.”