Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6. CB CODY RIGGS Notre Dame's biggest offseason pickup was Riggs, a fifth-year senior transfer student. The former Florida Gator easily makes the Irish secondary the most experienced unit on the field with his 26 career starts in the SEC. Riggs, the nephew of former Notre Dame wide receiver Bobby Brown, dropped seamlessly into the Irish locker room this offseason. Along with another mature voice, he brings a play- making attitude that fits the new Irish defensive mindset better than Notre Dame's returning starters, who have to unlearn the "bend but don't break" philosophy espoused by former coor- dinator Bob Diaco. Riggs can show his new teammates how to play untethered by the fear of making mistakes. "It's a pretty similar philosophy [to what Florida plays]," Riggs said. "Very aggressive, disrupt timing." He may also prove to be a remedy for the punt returning woes that have plagued the Irish special teams for the last several years. Riggs said he re- turned punts during practice as a Ga- tor and volunteered to take over that job almost immediately after arriving on campus in South Bend. 7. WR CHRIS BROWN Brown and his 17 career catches sud- denly found themselves as the senior statesmen of the wide receiver corps this spring. Senior DaVaris Daniels was absent on academic probation, which allowed Brown to assume the mentality of a No. 1 receiver. Now that Daniels is gone indefinitely again for academics, the Irish will need Brown to lead what is supposed to be a higher-octane offense this season. The junior was a deep-ball threat as a freshman, and he made 15 catches for 209 yards and one touchdown last season. His route running and his abil- ity to be more physical with defensive backs make him a more complete re- ceiver. Even when Daniels was still with the team this August, Kelly called Brown the team's top all-around wide receiver in the first two weeks of camp. "First he had a great mentor in TJ Jones. He saw the growth in TJ and kind of mirrored that," Kelly said. "He was put in a leadership position in the spring and really kind of took off." 8. C NICK MARTIN The offensive line lost two stalwarts this offseason in first-round draft pick Zack Martin and fifth-year se- nior Chris Watt. Their mantle of con- sistency will be passed on to Zack's younger brother, Nick. In his second year as a starter, the se- nior has emerged as the clear leader of an offensive line that has had to shuffle around to fill the gaps on its left side. He'll be in charge of making sure that starting group is all on the same page and providing the time Golson needs to get the ball to a promising group of skill position players. Notre Dame has options to replace Martin's physical presence if he goes down with an injury. Classmate Matt Hegarty filled in for him during the final two games of the 2013 season without a major drop-off. But until the rest of the line settles into its new alignment, Martin will be the glue that holds that group together.