Editor’s note: this story appears in the 2020 Blue & Gold Illustrated Football Preview magazine.
The position label next to Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah on high school basketball rosters read guard, which upon sizing him up in warm-ups, seemed about right. He was not quite 6-2, but built and with an adequate jumper.
It is, though, veritably misleading.
A more appropriate one then — and certainly with hindsight now given his current occupation as one of Notre Dame football’s best defensive playmakers — would have been “rover.”
Yes, he was a guard, but his usage only loosely fit the description. Owusu-Koramoah’s job was to defend the opponent’s offensive focal point, whether he was a slippery water-bug lead guard, a lengthy wing player or a forward who operated near the basket. High school guards do not typically average a block per game either.
“Guys who thought they had a free layup, he’d come from nowhere and just erase that shot,” said Craig Brehon, Owusu-Koramoah’s coach at Hampton (Va.) Bethel High School.
Emerging from unseen to game changer is not just reserved for his basketball career. After two years on the bench and zero recorded statistics, Owusu-Koramoah nabbed the starting rover job after a strong 2019 offseason and led Notre Dame with 13.5 tackles for loss, the second most by an Irish defensive player since 2006. His 80 tackles and 5.5 sacks tied for the team lead.
In the span of just a couple months, Notre Dame’s linebackers went from massive training camp unknown to one of the team’s most stable units thanks to Owusu-Koramoah and Mike linebacker Drew White’s sudden ascent. Owusu-Koramoah is already getting NFL Draft attention as a possible early round pick in 2021. He is explosive and fast, playing with beautiful violence and hiccup quickness. He scoots to ball carriers as if he is a jet stream.
Perhaps most importantly to Notre Dame, he is versatile.
In modern college football, he is somewhat of a unicorn and the mold of player coaches and NFL teams covet. Rover is Notre Dame’s version of a hybrid linebacker/defensive back, a three-level position used with evolving frequency to help stop spread and up-tempo offenses. Ideally, he can stick with slot receivers and tight ends, is strong enough to play the run and an effective blitzer.
