Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JUNE/JULY 2021 41 3. SLOT QUESTIONS Among the pressing curiosities surrounding Freeman's schematic vi- sions is his nickel back deployment. Even a drive-by viewing of some 2019-20 Cincinnati tape would reveal the Bearcats' base defense primar- ily used five players in the second- ary. Arquon Bush, Cincinnati's main nickel defender and slot corner last season, played about two-thirds of his team's defensive snaps. Freeman is not, though, turning Notre Dame's defense completely away from the 4-3 front it ran the last four seasons into a 3-3-5. In turn, the nickel position is still cloaked in mystery. Like the fronts themselves, the nickel usage will be situational and may not have a game-by-game pattern. "It's going to be contingent on who we're playing," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "If we're playing Florida State and they come out four wides and 11 personnel, you'll see a lot more nickel on the field." Looking at the schedule, Florida State's spread and USC's and North Carolina's Air Raid offenses are logi- cal opponents to defend with five defensive backs. Navy's triple-option and Wisconsin's ground-based of- fense are more conducive to using seven-man boxes. But before playing games comes establishing trust in the player who mans the role. The primary slot corner contenders are senior TaRiq Bracy and junior KJ Wallace. The for- mer has plenty of experience but suf- fered through a wayward second half of 2020. The latter had little room to punch up the safety depth chart his first two years. "We're going to continue to find what the best rotation is for us at that position," Kelly said. Wallace is a former cornerback who moved to safety in 2020 and still is practicing there. He has 58 career defensive snaps, almost all of which were in mop-up duty. He was limited by a shoulder injury last year. Bracy, meanwhile, has played more than 250 snaps each of the last two seasons and mustered 106 as a fresh- man in 2018 — nearly all of them at field corner. His speed and fluidity make him a projectable slot defender, but technique troubles and some surrendered big plays sideswiped a solid first half of the 2020 season. ✦ Breakout Players JUNIOR CORNERBACK CAM HART An up-and-down spring from the can- didates to replace boundary cornerback Nick McCloud might have made Notre Dame go find another Nick McCloud. In 2020, the Irish staff brought in Mc- Cloud — a graduate transfer from North Carolina State — to solidify a position with loads of inexperience that sorely needed spring practice. Last year 's spring practice was, of course, canceled, so Notre Dame played it safe. McCloud started 11 games and had a team-high eight passes broken up. Exiting this spring, the odds of seek- ing transfer portal help feel low. Cam Hart is the main reason for it. The 6-2½, 207-pound converted receiver was Mc- Cloud's backup in 2020, but played only 88 snaps. Notre Dame threw him on the first-team defense to see what it had in him. He exits the spring as the frontrun- ner to start at boundary corner. "What we'll continue to build on is he will continue to get stronger, continue to work on technique and his mindset: 'Go get the ball. It's yours,'" Kelly said. "He's going to be in a plus matchup physically with a lot of guys he goes against. We're making great progress there." JUNIOR ROVER JACK KISER Jack Kiser arrived with a splash and disappeared in a flash last season. Less than 24 hours before Notre Dame hosted South Florida Sept. 19, Kiser was told he would start the game at Buck linebacker (now Will) due to sudden player unavailability (presumed to be COVID-19 issues). He slid in and delivered eight tackles (2.0 for loss) and earned the game ball. Then he vanished. He played 13 total snaps the next two games. In Notre Dame's games against Clemson (twice), North Carolina and Alabama, he played four total snaps. His one-hit wonder said plenty about his skill set, though. Defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman saw a fit at rover. Kiser moved there this spring and split first-team reps with fifth-year senior Isaiah Pryor. The reviews were strong. He may not have the speed to run one-on-one with slot receivers or fast tight ends, but he's an active run defender and can drop into zone coverage. "Jack is an extremely intelligent individual," Freeman said. "He works and works and works, and stud- ies. He's athletic. He's physical. He makes a lot of plays. We're trying to move him around." SENIOR SAFETY HOUSTON GRIFFITH Notre Dame has a known commodity in All-American junior safety Kyle Hamilton. It has a big unknown next to him. The spring, though, seems to have brought some level of clarity to it. Hamilton didn't practice this spring due to an ankle injury, but there was a bonus from it. Notre Dame could get the two contenders to start at the other safety spot on the field together and give them more work overall. The candidates are seniors DJ Brown and Houston Griffith, who had uneven seasons playing in sub packages last year. Griffith also started two games. The former top-50 recruit appears to have made real progress after three up-and-down years and a three-week January venture into the transfer portal. "At times, he was using a hammer when he needed a screwdriver on particular plays," Kelly said. "Where we're at now, I feel like he's playing the game with a high football IQ. To me, it's just coming easier to him." The Griffith vs. Brown competition will go into fall camp, but Notre Dame feels better about what it can get from the winner than it did when spring practice began. "I don't have any questions about either one of those guys and their ability to do the job we're ask- ing them to do." Junior Cam Hart didn't see much game action his first two years at Notre Dame, but has emerged as the favor- ite to start at boundary corner. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS