No position on the Notre Dame roster has been hit harder by departures than the linebacker spot. Notre Dame must replace a pair of veteran starters in Te’von Coney and Drue Tranquill.
Replacing this talented duo is going to be extremely difficult for a number of reasons. There is talent and depth on the roster, but Notre Dame is going to field a young and inexperienced linebacking corps next season.
WHAT NOTRE DAME LOSES
The duo of Tranquill and Coney combined for 410 tackles, 41.5 tackles for loss, 12 sacks and 11 passes broken up the last two seasons. Tranquill was also a two-time captain for the Irish.
Tranquill moved to Buck linebacker after thriving as a rover in 2017, and Coney emerged as the Mike linebacker after playing mostly Buck in 2017. The duo was outstanding, and was arguably Notre Dame’s best one-two punch inside at linebacker during the tenure of head coach Brian Kelly in South Bend.
