Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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coverage in there. We like his ability to play man," head coach Brian Kelly said. "Very smart player, instinctive player. I think you have to have a real good sense of the field. "Corners play out by the numbers and they've got a friend with them called the sideline. The guy that plays inside has got to understand the field a lot better, has got to have an instinct to play inside. And he has a natural instinct of playing inside a lot better. A guy that can play inside is a little bit more unique in the sense that he's got to have really good speed because he's got to cover guys coming across the field, going vertical, and he possesses that speed and instinct." Crawford is vying for a starting cornerback spot, but at the very least he is expected to handle the nickel back duties. Notre Dame is also comfortable with senior start- ing cornerback Cole Luke at nickel, Kelly explained. "That's a priority for us and we're working Cole Luke a lot at that posi- tion as well. We don't want to be in a position where we feel like we can't even go to our [No.] 2," he said. "We feel good about Cole and getting him over. We're getting him a ton of work at that position as well. "We want to feel like we're going to go into the season with two very good nickels and not put ourselves in a po- sition where we can't take the Sam off the field to get the matchups we need. We felt like at times we were in some unfavorable matchups with the slot receiver on our Sam." Lyght said the incoming freshman Love will likely be the No. 3 nickel back. After Crawford went down in 2015, no player truly emerged as the team's nickel back. On third down packages, the Irish relied a bit on Butler early in the season with mixed results, but for the most part kept senior Sam line- backer James Onwualu on the field on passing downs. One wild card in the 2016 Irish de- fense is junior Drue Tranquill, who returns after a second consecutive sea- son-ending ACL tear. He is projected to start at strong safety, but Notre Dame likes how many roles he can play in the makeup of the unit. "Drue Tranquill is such an inter- esting athlete because of his size and strength and his power and his speed combination," Lyght said. "We can move him around a lot, plus with his football intelligence, he's the type of guy we can put him at strong safety, we can put him at free safety, we can put him at outside linebacker, we can put him in the Joker [hybrid] position. "When you move a guy around with that position versatility, it really strengthens your defense and that's what we look to do with Drue this year." ✦ "THE OPEN COMPETITION IS GREAT. EVERYBODY IS STILL CHALLENGING FOR THE STARTING SPOTS AND WE KNOW THAT WE'RE PROBABLY GOING TO HAVE TO PLAY EIGHT GUYS DEEP ACROSS THE BOARD, ESPECIALLY WITH OUR NICKEL AND DIME PACKAGES." DEFENSIVE BACKS COACH TODD LYGHT