Will the Injury to KeiVarae Russell Cost Notre Dame on Saturday?

The injury to KeiVarae Russell may be the straw that broke the camel’s back

Notre Dame has survived an inordinate amount of injuries this season. The plague of disfigurement began in fall camp with season-ending injuries to Defensive Tackle Jarron Jones and Nickel-back Shaun Crawford. It continued against Texas, Virginia and Georgia Tech when the Irish lost Running Back Tarean Folston, Quarterback Malik Zaire and Safety Drue Tranquill respectively. Notre Dame also lost Tight End Durham Smythe, Left Guard Alex Bars and Wide Receiver Equanimeous St. Brown. Now, the Fighting Irish could have lost the most important player on the team, Cornerback KeiVarae Russell.

He is not the most important player because he is the best player. He is important because the Irish are extremely shaky behind him.

On Saturday, three players may start for the Irish at Cornerback. All three have their pros and cons. This week’s depth chart lists Devin Butler or Nick Coleman or Nick Watkins as the starter for this week.

The most likely starter is Devin Butler who started two games last season. Unfortunately, those two games (Arizona State and USC) were two of Notre Dame’s worst Defensive performances in 2014. Butler was recruited to play in a different Defense where the Cornerbacks keep the ball in front of them and make the tackle. He just was not built to play in Brian VanGorder’s aggressive scheme.

Nick Watkins and Nick Coleman were recruited to play in VanGorder’s Defense. Coleman has played a few snaps at Cornerback this season. He really competes in one-on-one in passing situations. But, that is also a big negative in this game. Will Stanford throw the ball enough to justify having Coleman on the field?

In their victory against Cal, the Cardinal threw the ball only 12 times. So, it may be more important for Notre Dame to put their best tackler on the field. This is an area where KeiVarae Russell really excelled. He was tied for second on the team with 60 total tackles.

Head Coach Brian Kelly said during his weekly press conference, “Devin Butler started against Stanford last year. So Devin’s got some starting experience and has played a lot. But we’d like to see Nick Watkins. We’d like to see Coleman. We’d like to see all three of them in the game and contribute. We think all of them can contribute. And not necessarily have to rely on one guy. We think all three of them as a combination might be the best way to go.”

That combination will need to corral All-Purpose player Christian McCaffrey who has tallied 1962 total yards.