Notre Dame Football: Julian Okwara was Defensive Player of the Game vs. Wake Forest

All the headlines this week will be about Ian Book, but some should be about Julian Okwara. He is my Notre Dame football Defensive Player of the Week.

A consistent performer that doesn’t seem to get the praise that he deserves, Julian Okwara has been a great player for Notre Dame football this season.

Okwara racked up five total tackles (three solo), including 3.5 tackles for loss, and a sack. Like I said, he may not always catch the headlines because of the stars on this year’s Irish defense, but I can assure you that none of what they do is possible without him.

Okwara is constantly flying around making plays, and it was never more evident than against Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon. While Okwara did have an impressive game statistically, the amount of times he disrupted plays or helped to make a play for someone else won’t show up on the stat sheet.

Wake Forest may have been Okwara’s coming out party, as he doubled his tackles for the season. Notre Dame’s defense has been the team’s strong point this season, and it will need Okwara to continue to have performances like he did against Wake if the Irish are to make a run at the College Football Playoff.

Notre Dame fans and the Okwara family alike would love nothing more than for Julian to follow in his brother Romeo’s footsteps and make it to the NFL. Both Okwara brothers have been standouts at Notre Dame. Romeo started Sunday night for the Lions in a win against the Patriots, and was easily one of the best players on the field.

Julian Okwara has the potential to be as good — if not better — than his older brother Romeo. Both are freak athletes who love causing the opposing offense problems, and I expect to see Julian continue to play well for the Notre Dame defense in 2018.