Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 8, 2025 15 Notre Dame. That includes players who have won All-America honors and who have NFL careers. But when the season started, by his own admission, Onye slid back onto "the bumpy road to better." "It's a progression," Freeman offered of Onye's journey. "He had a really, re- ally good fall camp and has done some good things for us defensively. Maybe not in the stat book in terms of produc- tion, but has really done a good job of getting his job done. "And now you're starting to see some stats follow that. The stats are a reflec- tion at times of just doing your job. But he has been a guy that has just got- ten better. As you think about where it started even last year to where he is now, I'm proud of him. It's a credit to the work he's put in, the maturity of him as an individual and the relationship with him and [defensive line] coach [Al Washington] continuing to grow and continuing to challenge him. "He's an ascending player. He is. Probably similar to what I said about CJ [Carr] — there's a lot more room for him to continue to improve. But credit to him for the work he's put into it." Onye was able to get his degree by putting in the work and is working to- ward a master's and even has hopes there might be some wiggle room to petition for a sixth year from the NCAA. "If they want me to, yeah, I would," he said. "I would love to be here. I love the guys here. I love the young guys coming in, the old guys who are going to be here still. I would love to be here. This place is like a second home to me." But Onye is careful to not get too far ahead of the moment he's in or look back with regret. Only with gratitude. And that starts with people like Ru- bio, and his sister, Lauren — a junior at Notre Dame and his "second rock." And Al Washington. And former Irish defen- sive lineman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, a teammate of Onye's at the start of his career, who came back to Notre Dame in March as Freeman's director of recruit- ing advancement. "He's another rock as well," Onye said. "He was a six-year captain and now he's just like a GA basically. It's cool to have that relationship with him. It's kind of funny. I'm playing and starting, doing all the things that I wanted to do when he was here. "It's just great having that relation- ship with people. That's why I love this place, to be honest. It's just great being around people that you know so well." And then he started rattling off more names, including team physician Dr. Matt Leiszler. And Freeman, especially Freeman, who was Onye's defensive co- ordinator in 2021, Onye's freshman year, and his head coach the next four. "He's the father of six kids," Freeman said. "He's a teacher. He's a motivator. He just — he has so many roles, and we all see that. … Everything he talks about in the team meeting, from being able to elevate your process, what truly mat- ters, how to be a man. "Just to give you a little message about last year, when I didn't have all that, like when I didn't have football, I was kind of going crazy in a sense. Like, 'Wow, no football. What am I really doing?' And then just crashing out basically. "Now this year, when I'm back on the team, just realizing how Coach Free- man's meetings and all he says about choosing hard and process and elevat- ing, all those life lessons that he tells you. All those messages that you think are just 'coach talk' isn't really 'coach talk.' "It's real-life stuff. That's the one thing when I rejoined the team, I told him, 'Thank you, basically. Like, all you're saying is really real life.' Yeah, I'm more intentional about it. I tell all the young guys about it — don't take these moments for granted." And keep grinding and keep dream- ing. And until Rubio comes back, Onye will play for the both of them. "The one thing about Gabe is he's very optimistic," Onye said. "He doesn't let things really get to him. So, right now he's probably laughing, joking around, to be honest, knowing that he's going to be back very soon. "And then when he gets back, we're going to pick up where we left off and just get back to work." ✦ "Just showed me that the people here really care about you more than football. I feel like if something happened like that to any other player across the country, they probably wouldn't be on the team anymore." ONYE Onye's 87.2 score in PFF's nuanced grading system was the highest of any player in the Southern Cal-Notre Dame game on either side of the ball, in 38 snaps on defense. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER