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Andrew Trumbetti Vital To Notre Dame's Junior Achievement

Juniors Andrew Trumbetti (middle) and Jay Hays (right) will share time at weak side defensive end. (Bill Panzica)

The junior year is when most college football players generally either start to blossom or reach their plateau — similar to third-year head coaches or even coordinators at Notre Dame.

That’s where weak side defensive end Andrew Trumbetti and his coordinator, Brian VanGorder, share a commonality. Both have displayed some that’s-what-I’m- talking-about moments their first two seasons with the Fighting Irish, but neither has established himself to where there is a fully confident trust level entering their respective junior years as a player or coach.

Trumbetti joins a handful of other Irish junior defenders — linemen Jay Hayes, Jonathan Bonner and Daniel Cage, starting linebackers Nyles Morgan and Greer Martini, starting strong safety Drue Tranquill and potential starting cornerback Nick Watkins — who arrived at Notre Dame in 2014 with VanGorder and have joined their leader as needing to take the next step individually in order to thrive collectively.

Like his aforementioned classmates, Trumbetti has provided a glimpse of his skills to reach the category or “winning football,” in the eyes of the staff, but is striving to establish a consistency to achieve that “championship football” level.

Trumbetti might be the prime exhibit in his class on defense. As a 2014 freshman, he recorded 21 tackles, highlighted by 5.5 for lost yardage, sixth best on the team. He started in the Music City Bowl win over LSU and excelled with three solo stops (one for loss) and a QB hurry.

Yet last year, despite taking the fourth-most snaps among the linemen with 368 (a whopping 81 of them in the Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State), Trumbetti’s numbers dropped to 16 tackles, 2.5 for loss, two of them in the finale versus the Buckeyes.

“I’m still waiting,” said VanGorder of Trumbetti — although the Irish fandom might be saying the same about his scheme coming to fruition. “His process has been a little bit slower than he would want it to be or I would want it to be, and I’m just waiting for a big jump from him. I’m seeing flashes of it, but everyday consistency is not quite there.

“It’s been a challenge for Andrew, but the vision I have for him as a player — he could be really good. He could be a production guy and he’s got some hurdles to keep jumping, and he’s just got to keep working at it ... We need his production.”

The primary hurdle, per head coach Brian Kelly, is on-field composure because there might not be a player on the roster who is harsher on himself than Trumbetti.

“The biggest thing for me is don’t focus on the last play,” Trumbetti agreed. “Just move on. If I'm thinking about the last play, that will ruin my whole practice. If I have just one bad play, I’ll be pissed off about it the entire practice. I just need to stop doing that.

“…Mental toughness. Be confident in what I do, learn the playbook and just get out there and play full speed.”


Along with freshman Daelin Hayes, who also plays his position, Trumbetti is one of the team’s two best speed rushers off the edge. In certain sub packages this August, both he and the rookie were lined up as ends while strong side ends Rochell and Bonner were on the inside.

Meanwhile, classmate Jay Hayes (no relation to Daelin) also has been expected to split snaps with Trumbetti based on the scheme the opposition is playing.

If it’s a physical running attack such as Michigan State, Stanford or USC, the elder Hayes with his 6-3, 285-pound frame is more likely to set the edge. If it’s a more up-tempo, spread passing team such as Duke, Syracuse, or maybe even a Miami with a highly rated future NFL quarterback in Brad Kaaya, then Trumbetti is likely to receive more snaps.

Against Texas in the opener, it might be some of both. On one hand, new Longhorns offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert is implementing a Baylor-like giddy-up, quick-passing offense, which would be tailored to Trumbetti’s game. On the other, Texas’ strength is its “Smash Brothers” running back tandem with 249-pound D’Onta Foreman and 252-pound Chris Warren III, which would be more in Jay Hayes’ wheelhouse.

Trumbetti is at his best lined up just outside the tight end’s shoulder (seven- or even nine-technique). Listed at 260 pounds during the spring, Trumbetti shed a few more pounds to enhance his quickness.

“I feel like when I’m at 252, that’s my optimum weight,” he said of what his standard number has been this August. “My athleticism is what really helps play a lot of different positions … I feel like when I’m too heavy it takes away some of my traits that I have — because I don’t have like many traits. I have a few.”

This will be a pivotal year for them to be more on display.

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