Another rookie, another young player who took charge as an early enrollee. Devin Studstill went from high school to pushing Max Redfield for starting reps this spring. Quite a jump for a guy who was supposed to be at prom, not running with the first string.
While fall camp looks like Redfield is back with the ones, Studstill quickly earned the praise of his defensive coaching staff—a group that needs to develop the talented young safety who projects to get on the field early.
DEVIN STUDSTILL
6'0", 198 lbs.
Freshman, No. 19, S
RECRUITING PROFILE
A consensus three-star recruit, Studstill earned All-State honors and was the Florida Sentinel’s large school defensive player of the year. While his physical traits didn’t wow any of the recruiting services, he had offers from Miami, Texas and a handful of other big programs, picking Notre Dame over West Virginia, where his father played quarterback before being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys.
FUTURE POTENTIAL
Another early target by Notre Dame’s staff, who got to see Studstill at Irish Invasion camp and followed his development during their recruitment of Te’von Coney. Studstill showed that a young player could figure out Brian VanGorder’s system, bringing a high-IQ safety onto campus and ahead of a few players on the depth chart.
He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he can play downhill, is physical and has free safety skills. His ceiling may top out because he’s not going to stand out as a physical freak, but Autry Denson paid him the ultimate compliment when he said “he was a young man that God created to play football.”
CRYSTAL BALL
Redfield may be the starter, but Notre Dame is going to need another safety who can play in the open field. And Studstill seems to have earned enough trust to get the staff to believe he’s the guy—though they don’t exactly have a ton of options.
With depth not making a redshirt logical, getting Studstill experience on special teams is a good start. And then he’ll likely be the next guy in behind Redfield, who has done a nice job of convincing the staff he’s ready to play consistent football, but has yet to show that he can actually do it.
2016’s Irish A-to-Z
Josh Adams
Josh Barajas
Alex Bars
Asmar Bilal
Hunter Bivin
Grant Blankenship
Jonathan Bonner
Ian Book
Parker Boudreaux
Miles Boykin
Justin Brent
Devin Butler
Jimmy Byrne
Daniel Cage
Chase Claypool
Nick Coleman
Te’von Coney
Shaun Crawford
Scott Daly
Micah Dew-Treadway
Liam Eichenberg
Jalen Elliott
Nicco Feritta
Tarean Folston
Mark Harrell
Daelin Hayes
Jay Hayes
Tristen Hoge
Corey Holmes
Torii Hunter Jr.
Alizé Jones
Jamir Jones
Jarron Jones
Jonathan Jones
Tony Jones Jr.
Khalid Kareem
DeShone Kizer
Julian Love
Tyler Luatua
Cole Luke
Greer Martini
Jacob Matuska
Mike McGlinchey
Colin McGovern
Deon McIntosh
Javon McKinley
Pete Mokwuqh
John Montelus
D.J. Morgan
Nyles Morgan
Sam Mustipher
Quenton Nelson
Tyler Newsome
Adetokunbo Ogundeji
Julian Okwara
James Onwualu
Spencer Perry
Troy Pride Jr.
Max Redfield
Isaac Rochell
Trevor Ruhland
CJ Sanders
Avery Sebastian
John Shannon
Durham Smythe
Equanimeous St. Brown
Kevin Stepherson