Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Schmidt, who was rewarded with a scholarship this summer, Deeb and possibly current senior Kendall Moore on the inside. Other than Grace's six games this season, with three starts, no one else has had a taste of major minutes. Moore has never started at linebacker in his first four seasons and has been primarily a special teams regular, but he could get invited back for a fifth season because of the dearth of bodies at his position. However, head coach Brian Kelly disagrees about the numbers shortage and is confident defensive coordinator Bob Diaco will have plenty of options down the road, and that a number of people fill the body type for the inside positions. "We feel like there are enough guys on the roster that, if we needed to, we can get them ready to play those positions," Kelly said. "We're just not having those discussions at this point. I don't look at it and go, 'Oh, my God, there's nobody that can play at that position. We can't get it done.' "I'm confident that when it's time to roll out the ball next year, we'll be solid at those positions." One of those figures who could move to the inside is 6-2, 233-pound freshman Doug Randolph, who is taking a medical redshirt this season because of shoulder surgery. Randolph was recruited to play the hybrid Cat/ defensive end slot, but the lack of bodies might necessitate a move to the inside. Randolph's high school teammate at Woodberry Forest (Va.) High, Greer Martini (6-3, 232), will be enrolling at Notre Dame next season, but the odds of him playing as a freshman at inside linebacker as a composite 247Sports three-star prospect are generally remote. Over the past 15 years, the only inside linebacker recruit to play extensively, or start, as a freshman was five-star prospect and National Defensive Player of the Year Te'o in 2009. A distant second was Tyreo Harrison with 21 minutes and 27 seconds of action in 1998. Kelly's current attention is on developing a rotation on the inside to complement fifth-year seniors Fox and Calabrese, including not burning a year of eligibility on Deeb. Schmidt is behind Fox at Mike, while Moore is the back-up for Calabrese at Will. Deeb is the "swing man." "We'd like not to have to play him if we could, but if we have a situation there where a man goes down, he's got to be ready to play," Kelly said of Deeb. Star In Waiting With so little experience and proven commodities beyond Grace on the inside, there might be some temptation to move the dynamic Smith to the inside, where he could be a sideline-tosideline factor, a la Te'o. "I'll do whatever it takes to help my team," said Smith, who adds that he definitely made the right decision on which college to attend. But at 6-3, 230 pounds, Smith probably doesn't possess the prototype size to play inside in the 3-4 and consistently take on offensive guards moving out to the second level of blocking. Plus, his skill set seems ideal at his current role in drop coverage, or