Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 OCT. 17, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED J ust go. That was Notre Dame defensive line coach Char- lie Partridge's feedback for Armel Mukam when he in- formed the senior defensive tackle that after starting the first two games of the 2026 season, he would come off the bench for the third. The Irish rotate their interior defensive linemen liberally, so Mukam still played significant snaps. But someone has to go out first, and even in a heavy rotation, that still matters to the players. Mukam, who surged throughout the offsea- son and improbably earned a spot in the starting lineup, learned how quickly he could lose that spot if his perfor- mance in games didn't match his work in practice. Was Mukam disappointed? Probably, he told Blue & Gold Illustrated Oct. 7. But he also trusts Partridge with every- thing he has, and his focus doesn't tend to center on himself. "When he told me I wasn't going to start, I was like, 'Okay, I still get to play for the University of Notre Dame," Mu- kam said. "Notre Dame is bigger than me. I could have been, 'Oh, I'm not starting. I'm not giving my all and ev- erything.' But that's just not what we do around here." The thing about Mukam's rapid rise is, it came with a pretty significant adjustment that practice simply can't simulate. The La Prairie, Quebec, native played 34 snaps in Week 1 against Wis- consin after playing 69 snaps through- out all of 2025. Any athlete will tell you in the moment that they're not think- ing about it on the field, but a certain amount of pressure comes with an in- creased role. When Partridge watched Mukam's film against Wisconsin and Rice, he thought the pressure was getting to him. When he informed him that ju- nior Tionne Gray would step into the starting lineup in his place, he advised Mukam to strip all of that away. "I think his biggest thing was just go," Mukam said. "Just unleash. … He told me, 'Just go be yourself out there,' and he's allowed me to do just that. I think that has helped a lot." For Mukam, "just go" means less peeking, more block destructing. "Instead of just stopping and trying to locate the ball, literally just go vertical, shed blocks, decide to be unblockable," Mukam said. "And then go find the ball and make plays and be the football player that you think that you can be." You can certainly see that in his film from Weeks 4 and 5. Mukam often played too high and got pushed back earlier in the season, but recently, he's holding his ground — and then some. On Sept. 26 at Purdue, Mukam pro- duced his first 3 quarterback pressures of the season, as well as his first career sack. On the sack, he got extension on his blocker and easily shed him when Boilermakers quarterback Ryan Browne tried to scramble. Mukam met Browne in the B-gap and wres- tled him down. "It felt pretty good," Mukam said, smiling, "It was a long time coming, but when you play alongside guys like Fran- cis Brewu, Tionne Gray, Sean Sevillano, Boubacar Traore, Loghan Thomas, Keon Keeley and Bryce Young, it just makes my job that much easier." Mukam's performance at Purdue prompted Partridge to elevate him back to the start- ing lineup, and he delivered on Oct. 3 at North Carolina. Mu- kam totaled 3 defensive stops (tackles that result in a failure for the offense) and generally caused havoc from his defen- sive tackle position. If Mukam's journey this sea- son sounds familiar to you, it should. His teammate, sixth- year defensive tackle Jason Onye, went through pretty much the exact same thing in 2025. Onye started Notre Dame's season opener at Miami last year, which was surprising to people outside the pro- gram. He went back to the bench for Games 2, 3 and 4, before rejoining the starting lineup for Game 5. From that point on, he was one of the best defen- sive tackles in the country. Onye is out right now with an ankle injury, but his friendship helped Mukam bounce back from his slow start to the season. "His biggest advice was just put your head down and work," Mukam said. "When you put your best foot forward every single day, eventually something good is going to happen." Mukam did, and the fact that he did serves as a reminder for fans — and writers — that Week 1 does not neces- sarily represent what a player is or will become. One bad game does not a sea- son make. ✦ Senior defensive tackle Armel Mukam notched 9 total stops, 3 tackles for loss and 1 sack during Notre Dame's 5-0 start. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER One Bad Game Does Not A Season Make 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