Notre Dame football: A look at the Defensive Tackle depth chart

An often undervalued position on the defensive side of the ball, who does Notre Dame have in the defensive tackle corps heading into this fall?

After losing Jerry Tillery to the NFL in 2018, there were question marks at the defensive tackle position for Notre Dame last season. Largely, those questions were answered by the emergence of then-junior Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa.

No one expected Tagovailoa-Amosa to walk in and be Jerry Tillery 2.0 because of the sheer level of production Tillery provided at the DT position. That is not a knock on Tagovailoa-Amosa in the slightest, but more-so praise for Tillery.

In Tillery’s senior season in 2018, he had 29 tackles (18 solo), 9.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks and three forced fumbles. Tillery’s 2018 season will be long remembered as one of the best seasons from a Notre Dame defensive tackle ever.

There was no one realistically expecting Tagovailoa-Amosa to have that sort of production in his first year starting with the Irish. He was solid, not great, but solid and was especially good against the run.

In 12 games played last season, ‘MTA’ tallied 22 tackles (13 solo), 0.5 sacks and a fumble recovery.

Looking past ‘MTA’, however, there are question marks.

Jayson Ademilola, through his three years at Notre Dame, has been solid in his time at Notre Dame. He has not worked himself into a starting role but he is getting there.

Howard Cross III is just a redshirt-freshman and has not gotten to play hardly at all.

Rylie Mills has just entered Notre Dame a few weeks back as an early enrollee freshman.

All in all, the position is in a good spot. Tagovailoa-Amosa and Ademilola will take the majority of the snaps this fall, with Cross and Mills competing for the third spot.

Now, let’s dive into detail on each of the players competing for playing time at the defensive tackle position.