Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME "Jarron Jones just needs to put together a healthy season coming off the injury," Wright said. "There have been games where he's been down- right dominant. At Florida State, he was a man on a mission. He had a great game. "He's got a huge frame. He's athletic. He offers some versatility. I think the biggest thing he needs to do is have a healthy senior campaign. It sounds like it's oversimplifying it, but that's really the No. 1 thing for him." COLE LUKE, CB Like Rochell, Luke will be a three-year starter by the time he exits the program next winter. He has been battle-tested against some of the nation's top receivers, but has typically flown under the radar compared to former teammate KeiVarae Russell and his boisterous personality. "There's not one thing I look at him and say he's awful at or he does this really well," Wright said. "He does everything pretty well from what I've seen. … Physically, he looks the part. He's a big cor- ner. He seems to be able to run down the field with receivers. He's going to be in the mix to be among the top senior cornerbacks going into next year." While it's difficult to envision Luke as a first-round pick, his senior season could pull him toward the top few rounds of the draft, like Russell. MAX REDFIELD, S It seems silly to even speculate on Redfield's NFL future considering an early enrollee freshman (Devin Studstill) arrived this spring and took some of the first-team reps away from the Mission Viejo, Calif., native, but Redfield did enter Notre Dame as a five- star prospect with elite athletic skills. At this point, there's no guarantee that Redfield's career enjoys a happy conclusion at Notre Dame, but he will need to start this fall if an NFL team is going to draft him. "I remember seeing last year people were touting him as a highly rated pro prospect," Wright said. "He's got that type of talent, but he's got a long way to go before he's highly regarded by the league. I think he's more of a late-round possibility." JAMES ONWUALU, LB Onwualu is a special teams standout and his top value at the next level might come in that depart- ment. He is a bit undersized at the Sam linebacker, but enters his third year as a starter in 2016. There's a good chance Onwualu will be named a captain this fall, and he does everything coaches look for in a player, but the Saint Paul, Minn., na- tive is probably looking at a late-round selection or undrafted free agent status. ✦ FORMER NOTRE DAME TEAM DOCTOR WILL YERGLER DIES Dr. Willard Yergler, a Notre Dame team physician for nearly four decades and past director of sports medicine at the school for 27 years, died May 12 in hospice after an illness. He was 73. The Valparaiso, Ind., native attended Purdue University before graduating from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1967. In 1971, he joined South Bend Orthopaedics run by longtime Notre Dame team physician Les Bodnar, and by 1974 he started his work with the football program coached by Ara Parseghian, who was in his final season. In addition, Yergler treated athletes from all the sports and eventually sponsored a senior student athletic trainer award each year. In 2001, he was inducted into the Notre Dame Monogram Club as an honorary member. He retired in 2010, and two of his sons, Michael and Jeffrey, also are surgeons for South Bend Ortho- paedics. — Lou Somogyi