Brian Kelly hinted that Notre Dame wasn’t finished adding players to the roster on Signing Day. And on Thursday night, Kelly and the Irish coaching staff shored up one of their major deficiencies by adding Cal graduate transfer Avery Sebastian.
Sebastian has a fifth-year of eligibility remaining after spending the past four years in Berkeley. An achilles injury cost him most of the 2013 season and he played just seven games in 2014 as well. But after graduating in December and spending the past few months at home in Georgia getting healthy, Sebastian is set to play out his eligibility in South Bend.
I have officially committed to the University of Notre Dame! Extremely blessed & excited to be apart of the Notre Dame family! GO IRISH🍀🏈🙏
— Avery Sebastian (@JimThqrpe4) February 13, 2015
He’ll immediately add veteran depth at a safety position that looks like the last remaining question mark on the Irish roster. A graduate of Eagle’s Landing Christian High School, where defensive end Isaac Rochell also matriculated from, Sebastian connected with the Irish coaching staff and chose to finish his career at Notre Dame, even without visiting campus.
“I’m extremely blessed to have this opportunity to become a part of the Notre Dame family,” Avery told me, via text. “I look forward to becoming a leader on the team and helping the team get to a national championship.”
That was likely the sales pitch from Brian Kelly, who is still looking to make another roster addition if we’re to take him at his word from last Wednesday. And after being busy reshuffling his coaching staff over the past week, he’ll give whoever is coaching the Irish secondary another safety to work with come June.
Here’s a game-highlight reel from one of Sebastian’s most productive Saturdays in his career, a 14-tackle effort against Arizona State in 2012.
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