Notre Dame Football: Three defensive story lines during fall camp
By Ben Belden
The Notre Dame football team officially begins fall camp this week, when the team will take the field for the first time at Culver Academy.
Another year means another fall camp for the Notre Dame football and more questions need answered before the Irish take the field in week one against Louisville. For the Irish, the time has come to continue showing the growth of the program. Without a doubt, the upcoming season will be a challenging and telling season for Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish.
On defense, Notre Dame is replacing some important cogs. Most of them are up the middle of the Irish defense at nose guard, defensive tackle, and both interior linebacker positions. Those question marks have to be at the forefront of the minds of the Irish coaching staff.
The question marks for the Irish defense can actually be boiled down to one general thought: Have the Irish developed into the type of team that can plug players in and not experience a significant drop-off? Or are the Irish going to have significant holes they need to cover due to a lack of experience at key positions?
The key to Notre Dame’s success on defense will likely rely on depth. Can the Irish withstand injuries? Do the Irish have enough talent on the defensive line to be able to rotate players in and out, keeping the defense fresh? Will the Irish defense be able to have the same impact on game that they had a season ago?
Those questions are important and the answers likely lie in the three general questions outlined in the next slides. Let’s take a look: