Why Notre Dame’s Defensive End Unit Might Still Remain A Strength
At most college campuses, the graduation at the same position of a third-round NFL selection (Julian Okwara), the Defensive MVP and fifth-round choice (Khalid Kareem) and a highly reliable reserve (Jamir Jones, who had 26 tackles last season, 6.5 for loss with 4.5 sacks) would devastate the unit and put it on red alert.
Add in a probable season-ending injury on Aug. 4 to developing sophomore NaNa Osafo-Mensah (lateral meniscus), and the panic heightens.
In many years past, freshmen such as Jordan Botelho at the vyper position and Alexander Ehrensberger at strong side end would have been second team by default the minute they stepped on campus.
Today, even amidst such attrition, they are in a battle to crack even the third unit. Under defensive line coach Mike Elston, who has been on head coach Brian Kelly’s staff since 2004, the talent identification, recruiting, development and quality depth has become one of the constants internally.
It showed last year too when then senior Daelin Hayes — who had been playing the best football of his career — had to be medically redshirted after the fourth game while Okwara suffered a leg fracture Nov. 9 that shelved him the final five contests. The overall defense didn’t miss a beat while permitting 13.3 points per game during a 6-0 finish.
Hayes and classmate Ade Ogundeji return as graduate students and legitimate NFL prospects after having combined for 134 tackles in their Notre Dame careers, 24.5 for loss and 12 quarterback sacks.
That’s somewhat in line with what the Okwara/Kareem tandem had last year — 122 tackles, 33 for loss, 18 sacks — entering their senior campaigns.
What has Kelly just as optimistic is the growth of 6-3, 232-pound Ovie Oghoufo (three years of eligibility remaining) and 6-5, 255-pound sophomore Isaiah Foskey (four years of eligibility).
Similar to Hayes and Jones back in 2016, Oghoufo arrived in 2018 as an outside linebacker prospect, although with not nearly the fanfare of a five-star rating that Hayes had. Redshirting as a freshman while later downshifting to the line, Oghoufo began to flash his skills during the 2019 spring when his appetite for contact was showcased on several occasions in one-on-one or special teams drills, although he did not play on the latter.
Oghoufo did see action at end in nine games, particularly excelling against Navy’s triple-option while totaling 38 snaps that included three tackles, half of a sack, two quarterback hurries and a deflected pass.
Pro Football Focus gave him an above-average defensive grade for the year, and his 80 score in run defense was the fourth-highest on the team behind reserve tackle Howard Cross, current junior corner TaRiq Bracy and graduated linebacker Asmar Bilal.
Yet while still not quite possessing prototype size to be a regular along the line, Oghoufo’s quick-twitch explosiveness off the edge has resulted in many a comparison by the coaching staff and teammates to a young and fledgling Okwara.
Through five practices this month, Kelly noted that Oghoufo has been “arguably as good as anyone we’ve had out there.”
That hardly comes as a surprise to 2007-10 Notre Dame outside/linebacker/end Kerry Neal, who currently is CEO of Win Performance and has personally trained Oghoufo.
“He’s a super explosive kid based on watching his first step,” Neal told Blueandgold.com this spring, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down spring drills after just one practice. “He’s soft-spoken and excited. You can tell he loves working out. He was really into it.
“It was great having him at the gym. He made the gym better, just having him around with the energy he brought. He’s going to have a great season this year if we can get back to football and get over this crazy virus.”
Meanwhile, outside of safety and Freshman All-American Kyle Hamilton, nobody in the 22-man 2019 recruiting haul has passed the proverbial eye test better than Foskey.
“There’s four guys right there that coming off the edge are going to be impactful,” said Kelly, including Oghoufo and Foskey with the two grad students. “Not a lot of college football teams can talk about four guys that can get to the quarterback that we can feel good about.”
In certain passing situations, it would not be a surprise if three are on the field at the same time, if not all four.
Because of the quality depth at defensive end last season, Kelly, defensive coordinator Clark Lea and Elston didn’t believe it necessary to burn a year of eligibility on Foskey in 2019 — even though the likelihood of him staying a fifth season in college is remote.
However, the staff did have the foresight to preserve his fourth and final game action (without using up a year) for the regular-season finale at Stanford in his native California.
That proved prescient in the second quarter when with Notre Dame scuffling mightily while falling behind 17-7, Foskey made one of the top game-changing plays of the year by blocking a punt that Justin Ademilola — yet another end projected to get more reps this season — recovered the loose ball at the Cardinal one-yard line. It was the play that propelled the 45-24 Notre Dame victory.
It’s part of why Notre Dame’s end game on defense is expected to remain among the strongest.
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