Could true freshman safety Joey O’Brien get his first start for Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon? With Luke Talich’s prognosis still pending, it’s certainly not out of the question.
Talich played his best game of the season on Saturday night against the Michigan State Spartans, recording a sack, an interception, and 3 tackles. However, he departed the 27-10 win early with an injury. The nature of that injury wasn’t made public until head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media in his weekly press conference on Monday.
“With Luke, we'll find out more today,” stated Freeman. “It's a hand injury. We'll probably find out this afternoon how serious it is. Can we just tape it up, cast it up, and get him out there? Or are we going to need a week or so? No matter what the MRI says, it's not going to be as long as Tae-Tae. Luke will be either back this week for the game, or he might miss a week or so.”
Freeman was referring to the man Talich had stepped in for. The former walk-on entered the season as a backup, but was elevated to starter when Brauntae Johnson went down with a leg injury in Notre Dame’s first game of the year. Freeman later said Johnson would be out for a couple of weeks, and he’s still officially out for the Week 4 tilt against Purdue.
Notre Dame football should be ready to lean on Joey O’Brien if Luke Talich is unavailable
If Talich can’t go this week, the Irish will have to turn to a safety who hasn’t gotten much playing time. Sophomore Ethan Long has played 15 snaps this season (all against Rice) and had just 23 snaps in 2025. O’Brien also got 15 snaps against the Owls, and his playing time has been spread out a bit more across all three games so far this season.
O’Brien has impressed coaches since showing up for spring practice earlier this year, but he suffered an injury in the Blue-Gold game that forced him to miss some summer workouts. Despite being back for the start of fall camp, the young safety still hasn’t gotten quite as much playing time as it looked like he might get earlier this year.
Even if Talich can go, the injury could still mean O’Brien gets more snaps against the Boilermakers.
Of course, the biggest reason Notre Dame would like to break O’Brien in against someone else is that Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne is a veteran signal caller who is off to a very nice start to the 2026 season.
Browne had some success last year in his team’s 56-30 loss to Notre Dame, completing 21-of-34 passes for 250 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Even with that outing, Freeman believes he’s looked like a more mature quarterback so far this year: “What you've seen is him kind of honestly learn how to keep it in the kitchen. He is being really patient in the pocket. He's not using his legs as much as we saw on film last year going into our game. He's not taking sacks. He's just making good decisions. I think that's just your natural progression.”
Add us as a preferred source on Google