Notre Dame Football: Midweek Musings

Senior cornerback Troy Pride Jr. started 17 of the last 18 games at field cornerback, missing just the Pittsburgh game this past season with an injury. When he returned from that injury, Pride’s game took off, and for vast stretches of the final six games he was as good … and sometimes better … than All-American Julian Love.

When Pride moved into the starting line up to the field side back in 2017 it coincided with Love’s move to the boundary. Love began the 2017 as the field cornerback, but he moved to the boundary against USC. Prior to that move, Love had nine passes defensed in seven games. After he moved to the boundary, Love posted 31 passes defensed in 19 games.

The boundary cornerback gets more chances to make plays on the ball, and he’s often matched up against the best wide receiver on the opposing team. Notre Dame’s coaches also talked this spring about the desire to play more man coverage, especially in the boundary.

Pride spent almost all of the spring to the field, but he played in the boundary during the Blue-Gold Game, and it would make a lot of sense for Notre Dame to keep that alignment during the fall.