Notre Dame depth chart against Texas A&M brings intriguing defensive storylines

Notre Dame football is set to take on the Texas A&M Aggies this weekend, traveling to Kyle Field for the game Saturday night. In preparation, the Irish staff has released the depth chart for the first game. There were some obvious listings, and surprises as well.

Here is the defensive depth chart, which had some interesting listings. It’s projected to be a tremendous unit, with both proven and younger talent. This side of the ball is very exciting.

Defensive line

DE - RJ Oben

DE - Joshua Burnham or Bryce Young

NT - Howard Cross

NT - Donovan Hinish

DT - Rylie Mills

DT - Jason Onye

DT - Armel Mukam

VYPER - Jordan Botelho

VYPER - Boubacar Traore or Junior Tuihalamaka

At the big end position, there isn’t any surprise that Oben is listed as the starter. It also isn’t surprising that Burnham is listed behind him. One cool thing to see is Young making the ascension to the second team, lining him up for some playing time early on. That is one of the deeper units on the team.

Traore made a huge step this offseason. He’s set for a lot of playing time behind Botelho, and look for him to get more and more playing time as the season goes on. Being more impactful at vyper is very important, and will be worth monitoring.

Having Hinish and Onye behind the dynamic duo of Cross and Mills was not at all surprising. After the injury to Gabriel Rubio, that was very expected. One cool note was seeing Mukam, who has had a great offseason since returning from a shoulder injury. That was the only spot that listed a three-deep, which is very notable.

Linebacker

MLB - Drayk Bowen

MLB - Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa

WLB - Jack Kiser

WLB - Jaiden Ausberry

ROVER - Jaylen Sneed

ROVER - Jaiden Ausberry

Notre Dame made it very known that there are five linebackers that they like, and that will play. We saw that with the listing, and there were very few surprises. Ausberry is poised to play a lot as the top backup at two different spots. This is a young (sans Dr. Kiser) and an exciting group.

Secondary

BC - Benjamin Morrison

BC - Leonard Moore

FC - Christian Gray

FC - Jaden Mickey

BS - Adon Shuler

BS - Luke Talich or Kennedy Urlacher

FS - Xavier Watts

FS - Rod Heard

NICKEL - Jordan Clark

NICKEL - Karson Hobbs

This is another group that had very few surprises. We knew who the starting cornerbacks were going to be, and who the main backup would be as well. The depth did take a hit with the injury to Chance Tucker, but should be a tremendous group.

The safety group did have a slight surprise. After projecting Heard to start opposite Watts most of the offseason, he now seems settled in as his main backup. That means that Shuler made a huge move, and is now the listed starter. Heard will play but it was great to see Shuler, Talich, and Urlacher make a big move.