Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544783
22 SUMMER 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA C hris Ash offered a line after Notre Dame's Blue-Gold Game that sounded concerning on the surface, but he was joking. Laughter amongst reporters in the room confirmed as much. "I'm still trying to find that depth," Ash said. That's what he said in response to a question about how he plans on striking a balance between getting a bunch of bodies on the field in games versus rely- ing more on top-end guys, with the Irish returning so much talent from a defense that was a major reason for the season- closing 10-game winning streak in 2025. Here is why the quip about not being deep actually made sense in the moment. Ash's top two linebackers, team cap- tain Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Vil- iamu-Asa, weren't fully available in the spring because of offseason surgeries. The latter wasn't available at all. Bowen did some drills and light 11-on-11 work, but not enough to count him as an option during good-on-good team periods. Defensive tackle Jason Onye was even- tually out for the spring with an injury. So was nickel back Dallas Golden. All- America cornerback Leonard Moore couldn't play in the spring game because of a wrist injury. At every level of the Irish defense, key contributors were missing. When they all come back, though? Ash might be working with the most well- rounded and best Notre Dame defense of the Marcus Freeman era, and that's saying something. In Ash's first season in South Bend and in Al Golden's last two that preceded it, the Irish have had one of the best defenses in college football. "When everybody is healthy, we're go- ing to have some really good depth on this team," Ash said. "We still have some pieces that we have to develop to create some depth. We've just got to go get better. From the first team, second team, third team, however that depth chart sorts out after spring, we all have to go get better. "We made some improvement here this spring in a lot of areas. A lot of indi- viduals got better. We have to continue to work and grind and stay focused and get a lot better through training camp, not only with the guys that have played a lot but we've got to create some depth and bring some young guys along." CLARITY IN THE SECONDARY Notre Dame made it through the en- tire spring without giving up on Chris- tian Gray, a two-year starter at field corner, manning the nickel back spot. More and more, it seems like that's where Gray will start Sept. 6. "He's done a great job of just work- ing and grinding and trying to get better throughout the course of spring," Ash said. "The last few practices were probably his best practices of the spring, so he's coming out of spring on a positive note. We hope that carries into training camp as well." Gray said playing nickel has given him a recharged sense of purpose, and the Irish have leaned further into tap- ping the potential in Gray, a senior, by changing his position and giving him a final opportunity to be great on the back end of the Notre Dame defense, as he was so many times before at field corner. Ash said day by day he could see Gray picking up on coverages and techniques unique to playing nickel to a point of it feeling like that's where he'd been lining up all along. "We wanted to test him, and he's done a great job," Ash said. Gray moving away from the outside allows Colorado transfer DJ McKinney to come in and start there. It also makes Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders the next man up at either outside corner po- sition, which we saw when he started the Blue-Gold Game in Moore's usual place. There would have been a log jam that kept a useful player away from play- ing time had Gray stayed at field corner. Keeping him in the slot narrows the vi- sion for what the Notre Dame secondary RESHAPING AND REFINING Through position changes and broadening horizons, Notre Dame's defense got better during the 2026 spring season Christian Gray made a move from field corner to nickel back ahead of his final spring at Notre Dame, and he played the position so well in practices he looks to be the Irish's starter there come fall. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER