Notre Dame football experiencing an important roster shift that Irish fans have been begging for several years heading into 2025
It wasn’t too far in the distant past that a majority of Notre Dame fans had the same complaints about the Fighting Irish defensive line. There was an urge, and a want, to get a lot bigger on the interior. While the defensive tackles for the team had been good the last couple of seasons, […]
It wasn’t too far in the distant past that a majority of Notre Dame fans had the same complaints about the Fighting Irish defensive line. There was an urge, and a want, to get a lot bigger on the interior. While the defensive tackles for the team had been good the last couple of seasons, everyone still knew that this group struggled a bit against bigger opposing offensive lines.
Based on the recently released spring roster for the Irish, those days seem to be long behind us. At one point, you would have been lucky to find a couple of 300-pounders in that group. Now the projected top seven interior defensive linemen each average over 306 pounds as a group.
While there is still an outlier from a size perspective with Donovan Hinish at 280 pounds, we are going to see a ton of beef up front. That includes Gabriel Rubio (319 pounds), Jared Dawson (300 pounds), Armel Mukam (305 pounds), and Jason Onye (308 pounds), all of which are expected to play a lot in 2025. You can also throw in Sean Sevillano, who is the biggest of the group at 341 pounds.
Even after the top seven projected defensive tackles, Brenan Vernon (293 pounds), Davion Dixon (323 pounds), and Elijah Hughes (290 pounds) all bring good weight to the table. We seek to be passed the day of size outliers, which could help take the run defense up a couple of notches.
The naysayers wanted Notre Dame to get bigger, and they certainly have. Some have questions about just how impactful this defensive tackle group can be in 2025, but that sheer size should at worst improve the overall floor of the front. That has been something that has lacked in some years, consistency and a fear about the level of dropoff after the starters.
When you combine this improved size with the talent in the linebacker corp and on the edge, this Irish defense might be even faster this fall. There are a ton of questions surrounding new defensive coordinator Chris Ash, but he will certainly have a lot of talent to work with.
Notre Dame football has a position switch to consider that could turn the offense from good to elite heading into the 2025 season
This move can unleash the upside for the Notre Dame offensive line.
