Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS tackle. It didn't matter what happens in front of him. Jaylon made up for a lot of things. He was productive. "Jaylon wasn't an excellent leader like Joe. He led in a different way, but when you say Jaylon to me I'm thinking how are we going to replace his production? That's where [sopho- more] Asmar [Bilal] and Te'von need to make up for that. There needs to be production there." Coney and Martini sat out all of spring practice, which was a much larger hit to the former's 2016 pros- pects than it was for Martini. Coney learned behind Smith last season as a freshman and is competing with Bilal for the starting Will position, but miss- ing out on 15 practices certainly didn't help his chances. Martini, meanwhile, played each of the last two seasons and remains an option at all three line- backer positions with his versatility. At Mike linebacker, Notre Dame will usher in a new starter in junior Nyles Morgan. Regardless of the criti- cism Schmidt drew for his play last season outside the walls of the Gug- lielmino Athletics Complex, the Irish coaches — who saw him and Mor- gan every day in practice — opted to stick with the veteran throughout the season. Now that he is a junior and has the position to himself, Morgan is likely to star in the middle of the Notre Dame defense. "Once Nyles became the guy and Joe left the campus and he was done, and Nyles wasn't looking over his shoulder when he was out there, that's when I saw a different de- meanor from him and a different con- fidence and different swag," Elston said. "He knew this is my time and I'm going to take it. I'm not going to relinquish it anymore." Although no single player will come close to replacing Smith's im- pact in 2016, it is possible that the Irish have an overall better lineback- ing corps this season. First, Morgan must be as talented as he has looked in practice this spring. Second, the starter at Will in either Coney or Bilal must not be a liability in his first season as starter. One factor to keep in mind mov- ing toward fall camp is the versatil- ity of this group. Notre Dame didn't have the benefit of taking advantage of cross-training in games last sea- son because Smith and Schmidt were never going to be taken off the field. While Morgan is expected to be an every-down player, Notre Dame can mix and match to play to the strengths of Martini, Bilal, Coney, se- nior James Onwualu and others. When defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder arrived two years ago, we heard a lot about sub packages, versatility and cross-training. Now could be the time Irish fans finally see it come to fruition, especially with the linebackers. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com