Two big pieces of news hit the Notre Dame football team on Thursday afternoon. While neither was particularly surprising, it does mean a significant shift in what the Fighting Irish defense will look like against Purdue on Saturday.
Safety Luke Talich, who was already playing due to an injury to Brauntae Johnson, suffered his own injury last Saturday against Michigan State. While the Irish coaches hoped he might be able to play in a cast, he’s been officially ruled out. His exit means true freshman Joey O’Brien will enter the starting lineup.
O’Brien has been impressing Notre Dame coaches since he got to campus. He had such a good spring practice session that reports said Chris Ash and Marcus Freeman were talking about getting O’Brien into the rotation. That talk continued when camp opened, and he returned from an injury he suffered in the Blue-Gold Game.
During his weekly Zoom call with reporters on Thursday, Freeman said that O’Brien has been practicing really well. With Talich stepping in for injured Brauntae Johnson, the true freshman was very close to playing in last week's game against Michigan State.
Marcus Freeman expresses confidence in Joey O'Brien ahead of first Notre Dame football start
“Joey O’Brien’s really done a great job in practice,” Freeman said. “He’s a guy that we knew at any moment could go into the game last week [against Michigan State]. He was the backup, and he’s done a great job in the starting role this week. We have a lot of confidence in what he can do.”
So far, O’Brien has logged 22 snaps at safety and 24 on special teams. He has been credited with three tackles. Saturday will be a chance to show that he can make the most of his opportunity.
It will be especially interesting considering it could be a singular opportunity to start. Talich is expected back for Notre Dame’s October 3 game against North Carolina. Even if Talich isn’t ready to go, Johnson may be.
When Johnson went down in the first game of the season with an injury, Freeman said he’d be out for “a couple of weeks.” A couple of weeks have come and gone, and it doesn’t look like he’s close to returning to the field, but he could work himself back quickly once he gets cleared. Johnson has, after all, become one of the best safeties in the country over the last few years.
Even if this weekend’s game is Joey O'Brien's first and only start of the season, he can do a lot to make sure he sees the field more off the bench than he has so far. His profile coming out of high school showed a guy destined to play early in his college career.
O'Brien was a 5-star safety in the 2026 recruiting class. The 6-foot-5, 203-pound defensive back attended La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, before enrolling at Notre Dame. O'Brien committed to the Fighting Irish on June 20, 2025, after a recruiting battle that included Clemson, Oregon, and his home state, Penn State.
The talented defender finished as the No. 31 player in the 2026 class, the No. 2 safety, and the No. 1 player in Pennsylvania, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.
As a senior in 2025, O'Brien was a weapon on both sides of the ball. He caught 85 passes for 1,250 yards and 18 touchdowns while recording 49 tackles, four interceptions, 12 passes defended, one sack, and one fumble recovery. He helped La Salle College win the Pennsylvania Class 6A state championship, recording 10 receptions for 99 yards and three interceptions, including a touchdown return, in the championship game.
The budding Notre Dame defensive backfield star earned Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year, MaxPreps Pennsylvania Player of the Year, and Under Armor All-American honors. Now Irish fans can see whether he can start working toward all sorts of accolades at the college level.
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