Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2026 97 F rancis Brewu spent an extra hour in Charlie Partridge's office when he visited Pitt as a high school recruit. Partridge, then the Panthers' defen- sive line coach and now in the same role at Notre Dame, made quite the im- pression on the young defensive tackle. When he left the building, Mike Picetti, his head coach at Worthington (Ohio) Thomas Worthington High, picked him up. Brewu sat in Picetti's truck and told him that he wanted to commit on the spot. "He said to me, 'Coach, I feel like I need to commit because I want to play for this man,'" Picetti said. Brewu called his defensive line coach, Nate Gay, shortly after and told him the same thing. He knew what Partridge had done with similarly undersized defensive tackles, such as unanimous All-Ameri- can and eventual first-round pick Calijah Kancey at 6-foot-1, 280 pounds — simi- lar dimensions to Brewu (6-1, 277). "He said, 'When we were in there with him, he had every pass rush move from the NFL the prior year, and he was showing me how he was going to be ef- fective using me,'" Gay said. "It goes back to that whole relationship thing. If Francis feels like he can trust you, then he's going to lay it all out for you." Both Gay and Picetti told Blue & Gold Illustrated that Brewu was devastated when Partridge left Pitt for the India- napolis Colts shortly after he signed. So much so that he considered transferring before he played a game in a Panthers uniform. But Brewu stayed, became a Pro Football Focus Freshman All-Amer- ican and earned honorable mention All- ACC honors as a sophomore. Brewu will spend his junior season at Notre Dame. That would not be hap- pening with a different position coach in South Bend. "That connection probably is what got him to commit to us," Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He had a strong relationship with Coach Partridge." Officially, Notre Dame hired Par- tridge Jan. 7. He's off to a fantastic start, bringing Brewu to South Bend and later moving quickly to secure Oregon trans- fer defensive tackle Tionne Gray. Also deserving of credit is ex-defensive line coach Al Washington, whose close re- lationship with Jason Onye helped him develop into a force. With the news that Onye's petition for a sixth season of eligibility was suc- cessful, Notre Dame's transformation at defensive tackle is complete. The Irish have flipped the position from a glaring weakness to a bona fide strength. UNPRECEDENTED TURNAROUND When Notre Dame's offseason began, defensive tackle stuck out like a sore thumb. At every other position, the Irish had enough returning starters and/or bud- ding young players to feel somewhere between good and ecstatic about where they stood. Not defensive tackle, with Gabriel Rubio and Jared Dawson gradu- ated, Donovan Hinish medically retired and Onye's status up in the air. The only regular contributor set to return was Elijah Hughes, who made 21 tack- les in 264 snaps after transferring from Southern Cal in 2025. Hughes is a good player but would not be nearly enough. Notre Dame entered the transfer por- tal window Jan. 2 needing two addi- tions on its interior defensive line: One instant starter and one rotational piece with upside. Brewu is the former, and Gray is the latter. A 6-foot-5, 333-pound nose tackle, Gray played 232 snaps as a redshirt freshman on a loaded Oregon front. He provides little pass-rush value, but it's easy to see him becoming a two-down menace against the run. Meanwhile, Brewu is a two-time member of Bruce Feldman's Freaks List, a quality starter with room to grow into something more. Notre Dame saw Brewu up close when it visited Pitt Nov. 15, and Freeman was impressed then. "The thing I like about him is how hard he plays the game," Freeman said. "When I see big people play really hard, that excites me. Not all big people play really hard, but he does." The Irish also shored up their depth by convincing Armel Mukam, who played 69 snaps as a redshirt sopho- more in 2025, to return to South Bend after entering the portal himself. At this point, Notre Dame can con- ceivably go six or seven players deep on the interior defensive line. Redshirt sophomores Cole Mullins and Sean Se- villano Jr., as well as redshirt freshman Christopher Burgess Jr., could be factors as well. The key to all this was the uncertainty surrounding Onye's situation. Because the Irish were unsure whether he could return throughout the transfer portal window, they had to put themselves in a position where they would be fine at defensive tackle without him. By adding Brewu, adding Gray and retaining Mukam, they did that. As a result, Onye — PFF's highest-graded Power Four defensive tackle from Weeks 8-14 in 2025 — completes the most im- pressive one-offseason positional turn- around of the Freeman era. Only one other instance comes close: The wide receiver overhaul of 2024, in which Notre Dame brought in Beaux Collins from Clemson, Kris Mitchell from Florida International and Jayden Harrison from Marshall. But while the Irish certainly plugged their biggest hole with those additions, the upside at defensive tackle in 2026 is greater. ✦ From Glaring Weakness To Bona Fide Strength Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE Jason Onye getting granted a sixth season of eli- gibility by the NCAA was a big boost for the Irish defensive line. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER