News broke earlier in the week that walk-on special teams ace Chris Salvi was being rewarded with a scholarship. Now Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune has the list of fifth-year candidates that will go before the Faculty Board on Athletics for approval to return for next season.
Hansen reports that six seniors are in the final process of returning for next season: center Braxston Cave, center Mike Golic Jr., wide receiver John Goodman, defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore, safety Dan McCarthy, and safety Jamoris Slaughter.
Cave, Lewis-Moore and Slaughter all spent significant time in the starting lineup last season, and their return was all but assumed. Sean Cwynar, who shared starting duties at nose guard with Louis Nix, had already decided not to return for a fifth season, though he would’ve likely been welcomed back. Goodman and Golic had also long been rumored to be returning, with Goodman providing senior depth at wide receiver while Golic has the opportunity to play the super-sub role Andrew Nuss filed last year as a graduate student.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the return of McCarthy. In mid-November, it appeared that McCarthy was preparing himself for life after football, with the finance major ready to tackle the job market in his senior profile by the university’s school newspaper The Observer. But with the Irish recruiting class coming up short on a few targets, McCarthy will add veteran depth in the secondary, a position grouping that’s losing three of four starters and needs to replace captain Harrison Smith.
It’s been mentioned before and bears mentioning again that McCarthy’s older brother Kyle, now with the Kansas City Chiefs, was a near anonymous special teams player until his senior season, when he ascended into a starting role and then captained the squad during his fifth year. With new safeties coach Bobby Elliott getting his first look at the depth chart, there’s a chance McCarthy could battle for the nickel job and capitalize on the athleticism that made him the high school player of the year in Ohio his senior season.
Here’s a look at the projected 2012 Irish scholarship roster, broken down by class:
Graduate Students (7)
Braxston Cave
Mike Golic Jr.
John Goodman
Kapron Lewis-Moore
Dan McCarthy
Chris Salvi
Jamoris Slaughter
Seniors (15)
Carlo Calabrese
Jordan Cowart
Tyler Eifert
Dan Fox
Jake Golic
Zack Martin
Zeke Motta
Theo Riddick
Tyler Stockton
Nick Tausch
Manti Te’o
Robby Toma
Ben Turk
Chris Watt
Cierre Wood
Juniors (19)
Austin Collinsworth
Bruce Heggie
Andrew Hendrix
Bennett Jackson
TJ Jones
Christian Lombard
Luke Massa
Kendall Moore
Tate Nichols
Louis Nix III
Tommy Rees
Cameron Roberson
Kona Schwenke
Prince Shembo
Daniel Smith
Danny Spond
Justin Utupo
Alex Welch
Lo Wood
Sophomores (26)
George Atkinson III
Josh Atkinson
Chris Badger
Kyle Brindza
Jalen Brown
Amir Carlisle
Brad Carrico
Ben Councell
DaVaris Daniels
Matthias Farley
Everett Golson
Jarrett Grace
Conor Hanratty
Eilar Hardy
Matt Hegarty
Chase Hounshell
Ben Koyack
Aaron Lynch
Nick Martin
Cam McDaniel
Troy Niklas
Jordan Prestwood
Anthony Rabasa
Tony Springmann
Stephon Tuitt
Ishaq Williams
Freshman (17)
Nick Baratti
Chris Brown
Scott Daly
Sheldon Day
Justin Ferguson
Mark Harrell
Jarron Jones
Gunner Kiel
William Mahone
Davonte Neal
Romeo Okwara
CJ Prosise
KeiVarae Russell
Tee Shepard
Elijah Shumate
Ronnie Stanley
John Turner