Notre Dame signed three 2023 recruits — Ben Minich, Adon Shuler and Brandyn Hillman — who can help its safety depth chart next season, but the Irish might be light on experience.
Senior Brandon Joseph, a 10-game starter in 2022, declared Sunday for the NFL Draft. Graduate senior Houston Griffith exhausted his college football eligibility this past season by playing in a Notre Dame record 62 career games. Graduate senior DJ Brown, a 10-game starter in 2022, participated in Notre Dame’s Senior Day ceremony before the Boston College game, but he has not publicly announced if he will be returning for a sixth season.
If Brown leaves, the Irish will be left with just two safeties who have played meaningful snaps: juniors Xavier Watts and Ramon Henderson. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Irish are perusing the transfer portal for potential safeties.
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Former Oklahoma State safety Thomas Harper is one of those options. Harper, a graduate transfer in the portal, arrived at Notre Dame on Wednesday night for a mid-week visit. Notre Dame is the first program Harper has reported visiting since entering the portal in early December.
Harper played in 42 games in four seasons with the Cowboys. Harper worked his way into the starting lineup as a senior in 2022, but he was limited by undisclosed injuries. Harper started in all seven of the games he played, which came in the first eight games of the season for Oklahoma State, and missed five games before entering the portal ahead of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
Harper, a former two-star recruit out of Knoxville (Tenn.) Karns, totaled 30 tackles, three pass breakups, one interception and 1.5 tackles for a loss. His career included 93 tackles, eight pass breakups, five tackles for loss, two interceptions, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble.
Oklahoma State’s base defense included three safeties, so the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Harper often had slot cornerback responsibilities as well. According to Pro Football Focus, Harper allowed 19 receptions on 32 passes (59.4%) thrown to players he covered. Those pass catchers combined for 185 yards and one touchdown. Harper’s 65.0 defensive grade from PFF was slightly better in 2022 than Watts (64.9) and Griffith (63.1) and a decent amount better than Brown (57.9) and Henderson (52.4).
Harper didn’t play against Notre Dame in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl. His older brother, Devin Harper, had 10 tackles and one tackle for loss in the 37-35 victory over the Irish.
Following a recruiting dead period, FBS programs were allowed to start hosting mid-year transfer prospects on Wednesday.
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