Jason Onye hasn’t played a down for Notre Dame since the season opener against Wisconsin. That could change on Saturday against BYU, but before it does, defensive coordinator Chris Ash and the rest of the coaching staff need to work out a plan to bring him back into the defensive line rotation.
Ash said they're working through it ahead of the Top 10 clash this weekend during a Tuesday night press conference. So far, it appears the Irish are still working to get him cleared for game time.
“The first thing is we’ve got to get him out here to practice and see how he moves around,” Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator said. “If they clear him, we’ll just see how many reps that he can get. A lot of it’s going to be just conditioning and fundamentals. Conditioning will be a factor. Fundamentals, because he hasn’t been able to do a lot of them for a while.”
While Ash is still being very careful about whether Onye will play on Saturday, he added that the defensive lineman’s situation is a little different because he’s such a veteran. However, Ash is also about the idea that if Onye does return this weekend, he won’t overdo it.
Jason Onye could return against BYU as Notre Dame football targets full-go status for Miami
“It’s got to be a slow one here, because we don’t want to have any setbacks. We want him back for the rest of the season. We don’t want to do anything stupid and do too much too fast and have a setback.”
It helps that without Onye, the Notre Dame defensive line has been pretty good. While the Irish would love another veteran on the front, they’ve filled the void since his injury against the Badgers.
Onye got only 19 snaps in the season opener, where he recorded one tackle. He was clearly looking to follow up his career-best year at Notre Dame. In 2025, Onye recorded 26 tackles and 1.5 sacks.
There’s no doubt he’d love to return as soon as possible, since this is his fifth and final season with the Fighting Irish. With the new eligibility rules, the NCAA has cracked down on hardship redshirting, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to get a sixth year in 2027 without going to court.
If Jason Onye is cleared this week to play against BYU, he’s unlikely to get many snaps. The goal could be to get him ready to go full-go when Notre Dame faces Miami in South Bend on November 7.
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