SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The potential for Luke Talich to earn a scholarship early in his Notre Dame football career was discussed even while he was being recruited as a preferred walk-on safety out of Cody (Wyo.) High.
That’s because Talich decided to enroll at Notre Dame last year despite reporting scholarship offers from the likes of Washington State, Oregon, State, Utah, Wyoming and a handful of other Division I programs.
After playing in eight games as a freshman primarily on special teams, Talich has already been promoted to a full-ride scholarship. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made the news public after Thursday's first spring football practice.
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"Our conversations were, ‘Hey, man, you come to Notre Dame, I can see you being a scholarship guy even after one year,’” Freeman recalled of Talich’s recruitment. “It was actually one semester, and we put him on scholarship. He’s earned that right.”
Talich came to Notre Dame with impressive height at 6-foot-4, but a little skinny at 198 pounds. Then-safeties coach Chris O’Leary, who left this offseason for a job with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, described Talich as a player with a bright future and really high ceiling just 11 practices into preseason training camp last year.
“He’s a freak," O'Leary said. "He’s 6-4, and he’s about as fast as you can get back there. He’s just learning the defense and figuring it all out right now. He’s getting stronger. But what he has in his skill set, he can be however good he wants.”
Rivals rated Talich as a three-star prospect in the 2023 class after a senior season in which he led Cody as a quarterback and defensive back. He threw for 1,682 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions and rushed 64 times for 582 yards and seven touchdowns. Defensively, he tallied 41.5 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one interception, one fumble recovery and two blocked kicks in 10 games.
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Talich, who is up to 210 pounds this spring, missed the last three Notre Dame games last season with a broken collarbone. He made his career debut in the home opener against Tennessee State, in which he played six defensive snaps for the only time all season long. He also made his debut on Notre Dame’s kickoff coverage team, a role he remained in until his injury. He finished the season with two tackles — one against Ohio State and another against Pittsburgh.
Talich found a role on punt return too. He made a critical block on Chris Tyree’s 82-yard punt return touchdown against Pitt.
A trio of sophomore safeties — Talich, Adon Shuler and Ben Minich — will try to take advantage of some opportunities this spring alongside unanimous All-America safety Xavier Watts. Notre Dame needs to replace starter DJ Brown from last season, and the leading candidate, Northwestern graduate transfer Rod Heard II, won’t join the program officially until later this year.
Shuler took most of the reps next to Watts in Thursday’s practice, but Talich should get some chances to audition for defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, whose role expanded following O’Leary’s departure.
“Those two guys will make each other better,” Freeman said. “For them, you lose a coach with Coach O’Leary and now you have to learn a new coach. It’s the same scheme, but a different coaching style. I’ve seen them in Coach Mickens’ office a lot. I’m excited for them.”
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