What we know is that presumed starting field cornerback Lo Wood is out for the season after rupturing his achilles tendon in a non-contact drill. What we don’t know is who’ll replace him in the starting lineup.
But maybe Brian Kelly does.
“I’m absolutely sure who’s going to replace him,” Kelly said yesterday when he addressed the media. “It’s just a matter of where and when that decision is going to be made. We know we’ve got four corners outside of Bennett that are going to compete, and we know all of them can play that position.
“Now they’re on stage, they get an opportunity over the next 10 days to determine who that’s going to be.”
For those just getting up-to-speed on Notre Dame football this August, the candidates for the job are sophomores Josh Atkinson and Jalen Brown, and freshmen KeiVarae Russell and Elijah Shumate. Combined, they’ve played a total of three defensive snaps. Three. All taken by Atkinson in mop-up time against Air Force.
The loss of Wood undoubtedly hurts the Irish and weakens a position that already had a magnifying glass on it. But before we clear the deck chairs, it bears mentioning that Wood only played 11 percent of the snaps last season and only saw more than 10 in comfortable wins against Purdue, Air Force, Navy and Maryland, before playing 19 snaps in the defensive slugfest against Boston College.
Still, Kerry Cooks’ cornerbacks now have little margin for error. Even if Cam McDaniel stays full-time at cornerback, the Irish have little depth and none of it is tested.
How’d we get there? Glad you asked. Let’s turn back the clock and check out the defensive back recruiting classes:
2008 (fifth-year players): Three DBs recruited.
Robert Blanton -- Played four years. Drafted by the Minnesota Vikings to play safety.
Dan McCarthy -- Fifth-year reserve safety. Looked as if his career was finished until surprise 5th year.
Jamoris Slaughter -- Hybrid player, multi-year starter for Irish at safety.
2009 (seniors): Two DBs recruited.
E.J. Banks -- Left Notre Dame after one season. Now a walk-on DB at Pitt.
Zeke Motta -- Starting safety for Irish.
2010 (juniors): Five DBs recruited
Chris Badger -- Left on Mormon mission. Now a freshman safety.
Spencer Boyd -- Academic and personal issues had Boyd depart before ever taking a snap.
Austin Collinsworth -- Torn labrum will likely cost him 2012 season.
Lo Wood -- Torn achilles tendon will cost him 2012 season.
Bennett Jackson -- Former WR. First year starting cornerback.
2011 (sophomores): Four DBs recruited
Matthias Farley -- Spent 2011 as WR. Fighting for time at safety.
Josh Atkinson -- Spent 2011 on special teams. Fighting for starting CB job.
Jalen Brown -- Redshirted freshman season. Fighting for CB job.
Eilar Hardy -- Knee injury cost him freshman season.
2012 (freshman): Six DBs recruited
Nicky Baratti -- Getting strong reviews at safety.
KeiVarae Russell -- Moved to CB first day of practice.
CJ Prosise -- Playing safety and outside linebacker.
Tee Shepard -- Left school in spring after early enrolling.
Elijah Shumate -- Shifted from safety to cornerback.
John Turner -- Developmental safety prospect.
How the Irish got to where they are is a product injuries, Brian Kelly’s recruiting choices, and the roster management of Charlie Weis. Holes in the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes, where the Irish only signed five total defensive backs and zero true corners, have come back to bite Notre Dame, with the situation only exacerbated by Banks and Boyd leaving the program and a rash of injuries.
While missing out or losing key cornerback recruits like Ronald Darby, Tee Shepard, Yuri Wright, Bennett Okotcha (now transferring from Oklahoma after a redshirt season) and a handful of others, the shuffling of the roster -- and recruitment of versatile players like Farley, Russell, and McDaniel (who will also spend more time in the defensive backfield) -- has helped the Irish weather the storm as well as they can while they’ve put their focus on filling other noticeable roster holes (defensive end, outside linebacker, and wide receiver, to name a few.)
If you expected Brian Kelly to cry poor in preseason because of his untested depth chart, you don’t know anything about the third-year Irish coach. But if you listen carefully, you get the sense that Kelly knows what he has in his defensive backfield. After expressing how terrible he feels for Wood, who had an incredible offseason and put himself in a position to perform well this season, Kelly spoke of his confidence in the untested depth behind the injured junior.
“I feel really good about the other five corners that we have as well,” Kelly said. “We’ve got five scholarship corners that we believe can play the kind of football necessary for us to be successful. So we’ll move forward at that position. I think we have enough depth there to play very good football.”
In the past Kelly has talked about how he evaluates his roster. There’s a three-pronged rating system that he uses to evaluate players on his roster. If a player receives a three, he’s capable of playing championship football. If a player receives a two, he’s capable of playing winning football. If a player receives a one, he’s not ready to play.
Digging deeper into that quote, you get the feeling that the five cornerbacks might not garner many threes, but their ability to “play the kind of football necessary for us to be successful,” lets you behind the curtain on the internal evaluation process, and gives you a clue of what to expect out of the Irish defense as they protect their liabilities, something defensive coordinator Bob Diaco talked about on Media Day.
“The biggest thing that’s going to impact the style of defense that we play is the secondary and who’s in there,” Diaco told Jack Nolan at UND.com. “If particular guys are in there, we may need to manage the game which will create a different pattern of calls.”
Diaco made these comments before the loss of Wood, giving you an insight into the thought process even before the junior went down. But with one less hand on deck, it’ll be the defense’s ability to protect the secondary not just by coverage choices but by pressure in the front seven, that’ll determine whether the Irish defense can withstand its difficult 2012 schedule.
Until then, Diaco, Cooks and safeties coach Bob Elliott have some work to do.