Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 NOV. 13, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY PATRICK ENGEL D J Brown squared his body, chest facing forward and knees bent, as Florida State running back Jashaun Corbin charged toward him one-on-one in the open field. The Notre Dame senior safety lunged at him, smelling a stop to force a Florida State third-and-medium deep in the Semi- noles' own territory. Brown came up with two armfuls of muggy Florida air and a helmet full of grass instead. Corbin, having passed the last line of defense, chugged un- touched the rest of the way for an 89- yard touchdown. Brown's mistake was one of 14 tackles Notre Dame missed that game, per Pro Football Focus. It was also the most pivotal. "We have to make that tackle," head coach Brian Kelly said the next day. "These are matters of fundamentals more so than we lack personnel or the ability to make that play." Struggle with fundamentals, then, and you might struggle to see the field. Brown was case in point. He played zero defensive snaps the following week against Toledo. These situations often have the same ending. A younger player earns an op- portunity because of a veteran's bumpy play, impresses and stays in the role — sending the usurped elder to the bench or even to the transfer portal. This is where Brown's story diverges. Eight weeks after that critical whiff and subsequent benching, he's in Notre Dame's starting lineup while junior All- American Kyle Hamilton recovers from a knee injury. Brown is not just making tackles. He's one of Notre Dame's best at it. His newfound reliability has soft- ened the blow of Hamilton's absence. Brown arrived here by, quite literally, tackling his weakness. "Part of this is understanding the areas you have to work on," Kelly said. "His first area was he needed to be a great tackler. He is now a solid tackler, whether it's on kickoff teams or getting the ball on the ground. "He has done a great job shoring up that part of his game." Heading into the Navy game, Brown ranked ninth on Notre Dame in tackles (29) despite playing the 14th-most de- fensive snaps (241) and making just one start. PFF grades him as Notre Dame's second-best tackler. The recent film backs it up. Brown has not missed a tackle since that flail at Corbin. He has made at least five tackles in three of the last four games, including seven versus USC after replacing Hamilton in the first quarter. He has added a tackle for loss, two in- terceptions and one pass broken up to boot. "I've learned a lot of tackling is con- fidence," Brown said. "I feel like I'm big enough, at 200 pounds. It wasn't a strength issue, but a confidence issue. I feel like I've gotten over that." The confidence rebuild project started right after those ominous first two games. The first step of it is adhering to a core principle of playing defensive back. "You have to have a short memory," Brown said. Tackling, though, is harder to im- prove in-season. There's not as much 11-on-11 hitting during the week, espe- cially as the year goes on and contact is even more limited in practice. Tackling wheels and crashing into dummies can only do so much for a senior who has long understood tackling fundamentals but needs to build confidence executing them at live speed. Still, Brown took anything he could get. It wasn't about finding a creative new solution as much as simply immers- ing in basics to reaffirm he could do them well enough to help the Irish defense. "In practice, especially with [defen- sive coordinator Marcus] Freeman and the defensive staff, whenever we're do- ing scout team stuff, they really focus on TACKLING THE TASK Senior safety DJ Brown's in-season growth as a tackler turned a sour start into a starter's role Brown (center) has made 12 tackles and one interception in his first two games filling in for the injured Kyle Hamilton. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER