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CHARTING THE IRISH
TACKLERS FOR LOSS
Three of Notre Dame's top four tacklers from the 2013 defense are no longer on campus. Five players
who made significant contributions dragging down opposing ball carriers have moved on this season,
leaving the Irish with the largest gap in the tackles column that they've had to fill since before Brian
Kelly arrived.
Graduated seniors and junior Stephon Tuitt combined to make 44.1 percent of the team's stops last
season (415 out of 941) and 41.6 percent (205 out of 493) of the solo tackles. In comparison, last year's
defense lost All-American linebacker Manti Te'o and team leaders Zeke Motta and Kapron Lewis-Moore,
but only a third of its tackles.
Only the 2011 defense graduated a comparable amount of depth to this year's group. That team
returned its leading tackler, Te'o, but lost Nos. 2-5 on the stat sheet — Harrison Smith, Robert Blanton,
Gary Gray and Darius Fleming. Of course, they coped pretty well, finishing the following year as the
second-best defense in the country. Perhaps a changing of the guard isn't a bad sign for the new Notre
Dame defense.
Tackles Total
Year Lost Tackles Pct.
2013 Total 415 941 44.1
Solo 205 493 41.6
2012 Total 293 873 33.6
Solo 142 439 32.3
2011 Total 376 955 39.4
Solo 217 493 44.0
2010 Total 183 964 19.0
Solo 91 501 18.2
2009 Total 245 777 31.5
Solo 151 449 33.6
