Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SUMMER 2026 23 will likely look like in the season opener; Gray at nickel, McKinney and Moore at outside corner, Adon Shuler and Brauntae Johnson at safety. Depth pieces like Sand- ers and many others fall in line as package players and at-the-ready backups. RUNNING IT BACK AT LINEBACKER Because Bowen and Viliamu-Asa were out for most (Bowen) or all (Viliamu-Asa) of the spring, Jaylen Sneed and Jaiden Ausberry were spring starters for all 15 practices. Despite the former being a fifth-year player and the latter going into his fourth season with the Irish, the duo developed in ways they never had before. "It was really the first time that those two guys played together," Ash said. "They really haven't played together a lot. So they had to work together on com- munication, setting the front, adjusting things, and they really haven't played the middle, Mike linebacker position. Both of them did a lot of that this spring. It was new for them. I know they've played a lot of snaps here at linebacker, but playing Mike and Will, it's different. "But it was great to see those two guys through the course of spring really work together, communicate together, and as we went through they got a lot better and more comfortable at just adjusting things out and playing off each other." Sneed and Ausberry feel as good as they ever have at Notre Dame. Bowen and Viliamu-Asa shouldn't miss a beat when they're back. Those are the four lineback- ers Notre Dame asked to do everything in the middle of the defense in the 2024 national championship game run, and they're all better versions of themselves in 2026. Then there's sophomore Madden Faraimo and a solid contingent of young reserves in the three-deep and beyond. If you want to see what an experi- enced, best-in-class linebacker lineup looks like, it's what Ash is working with. FINDING ANSWERS UP FRONT Notre Dame needs to figure out two things about its defensive line between now and September: who, in addition to Boubacar Traore, can win one-on-one edge battles, and which combination of tackles gives the Irish the best chance to be consistently disruptive in the interior? As for the former question, com- mon sense says Bryce Young and Keon Keeley, but spring performances indi- cate freshmen Rodney Dunham and/or Ebenezer Ewetade could have a say in the two-deep. Dunham and Ewetade both consis- tently made plays throughout the spring that signal they're can't-leave-off-the- field types. Ash just needs two or three reliable pass rushers to help Traore out. It doesn't matter what the combo is. A trio of players needs to step up for the sake of the Irish not having to rely on blitzes as a part of its normal proceed- ings on defense. "If you can't create pressure off the edge with your defensive ends and the four-man rush, then you're not going to be able to create pressure with five, six — I mean, you're going to put the rest of your defense in a negative position if you have to bring pressure to create pres- sure." Marcus Freeman said. "And so, we start with being able to create pressure with our defensive ends and a four-man rush in whatever way we do that." It's not all about the ends. The tackles have to play their part, too. The Irish have a lot of them, but a top four must emerge for consistency's sake. It's the same premise as what Ash is looking for on the outside. If it's Francis Brewu, Tionne Gray, Jason Onye and Elijah Hughes, and a player like Armel Mukam is the odd man out, so be it. Or maybe it's Mukam in for Hughes. Whatever it is, Ash must have more answers than question marks at tackle considering how many players he has to choose from to plug and play. "We have a lot of depth on the interior D-line," Ash said. "It's got to all sort out when we get through training camp." ✦ Here is Blue & Gold Illustrated's projection for how Notre Dame's 2026 scholarship depth chart on defense after the conclusion of spring practices. Right Defensive End 5 Boubacar Traore 6-5 253 R-Jr./2 44 Rodney Dunham 6-4 242 Fr./4 10 Loghan Thomas 6-3 215 Jr./2 40 Dominik Hulak 6-3 260 R-Fr./4 Defensive Tackle 47 Jason Onye 6-5 295 R-Sr./1 or 88 Armel Mukam 6-3 296 R-Jr./2 42 Cole Mullins 6-4 280 R-So./3 or 6 C. Burgess Jr. 6-4 300 R-Fr./4 90 Elijah Golden 6-4 292 Fr./4 91 Gordy Sulfsted 6-5 275 Fr./4 Nose Tackle 7 Francis Brewu 6-1 285 Jr./2 or 0 Tionne Gray 6-5 330 R-So./3 or 56 Elijah Hughes 6-3 295 Sr./1 59 Sean Sevillano Jr. 6-2 320 R-So./3 60 Davion Dixon 6-2 316 R-Fr./4 55 Tiki Hola 6-3 310 Fr./4 17 Brenan Vernon 6-5 300 R-Jr./2 Left Defensive End No. Player Ht. Wt. Cl./Elig. 95 Bryce Young 6-6 260 Jr./2 11 Keon Keeley 6-5 275 R-Jr./2 14 Ebenezer Ewetade 6-4 240 Fr./4 94 Joe Reiff 6-5 264 R-Fr./4 Mike Linebacker 34 Drayk Bowen 6-2 232 Sr./1 or 27 K. Viliamu-Asa 6-3 230 Jr./2 19 Madden Faraimo 6-2 235 So./3 43 Kahanu Kia 6-2 225 R-Jr./2 58 Thomas Davis Jr. 6-2 225 Fr./4 Will Linebacker 4 Jaiden Ausberry 6-1 226 R-Jr./2 3 Jaylen Sneed 6-1 227 R-Sr./1 16 Ko'o Kia 6-2 225 R-Fr./4 or 35 Teddy Rezac 6-3 226 R-So./3 23 Ja'Kobe Clapper 6-1 230 Fr./4 Boundary Cornerback 15 Leonard Moore 6-2 197 Jr./2 12 Jayden Sanders 6-0 195 So./3 13 Ayden Pouncey 6-3 180 Fr./4 Field Cornerback — DJ McKinney 6-2 180 R-Sr./1 24 Mark Zackery IV 5-10 184 So./3 21 Khary Adams 6-1 187 Fr./4 26 Chaz Smith 6-1 172 Fr./4 Slot Cornerback 29 Christian Gray 6-0 186 Sr./1 1 Dallas Golden 6-0 191 So./3 32 Nick Reddish 5-10 195 Fr./4 Boundary Safety 8 Adon Shuler 6-0 202 R-Jr./2 28 Luke Talich 6-4 204 Sr./1 25 Brandon Logan 5-11 197 R-Fr./4 Field Safety 9 Brauntae Johnson 6-2 200 R-So./3 22 Ethan Long 6-2 204 R-Fr./4 20 Joey O'Brien 6-5 203 Fr./4 SPECIAL TEAMS Placekicker 35 Spencer Porath 6-0 200 Jr./2 — Micah Drescher 6-3 198 Fr./4 Punter 18 Erik Schmidt 6-2 211 So./3 or 39 Jasper Scaife 6-6 215 Fr./4 BGI POST-SPRING 2026 NOTRE DAME SCHOLARSHIP DEPTH CHART