Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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first three years at Notre Dame. Now, though, it seems appropriate. The senior inside linebacker said to get himself ready in April he needed to be a little bit selfish. "For me, [it's] just being selfish on D an Fox used a dangerous word this spring. It's a word that he has no doubt been trained to avoid during his my game, working on my game and taking my game to the next level," he said. Fox's alignment at Will linebacker BY DAN MURPHY he's been great. He's corrected all my little mistakes and made sure I can identify them," Te'o said follow- ing his first practice of the spring. "I can improve on everything — as a leader, as a football player, just im- prove on everything in every facet of my game." Fox and Calabrese are scheduled to "He hasn't treated me bad, but was out there, we knew to communi- cate and that it was the most impor- tant thing out there. That's what I'm trying to do now. I've been around long enough to know the things I can help with." Junior Austin Collinsworth has is boring, delightfully boring for de- fensive coordinator Bob Diaco. There are no major personnel changes, no new position coaches to learn from and no new wrinkles that need to be ironed out before September. split time beside Te'o just as they did last season. Diaco said there's no race to separate one from the other as a starter. In his mind, both are starters and there are plenty of reps to keep both busy. Fox held the edge on paper last Strength At The Center season, wrapping up 48 tackles to Calabrese's 37. Calabrese has an ideal linebacker mentality and attacks the line of scrimmage like a wrecking ball. Fox excelled at reading plays Notre Dame's defense has voids to fill but a strong foundation in the middle on which to build Irish roster this season, gave the veteran linebackers a chance to fo- cus on themselves this spring. The group's senior mainstays — Fox, Carlo Calabrese and Manti Te'o — are the peaceful eye of a storm of uncertainty, with rising potential in front of them and frightening inex- perience behind. They had the lux- ury of focusing inward in their final spring session together, but that will change dramatically in September. The middle of Notre Dame's defense will have to be a strong anchor that holds together its flanks in 2012. Stability starts with Te'o. The sec- That consistency, a rarity on the and taking away the middle of the field in pass coverage. Most im- portantly, Diaco said both will help Te'o make adjustments at the line of scrimmage and drive the defensive front. said. "They've got a lot of reps under their belt, and they're ready to do it." ond-team All-American decided to pass up a potential spot in the first round of the NFL Draft to finish his final season at Notre Dame. He has played in every game since he set foot on campus. He'll almost cer- tainly be at the top of award watch lists for the country's best linebacker and defender again this year. And he wants to be treated like the worst player on Notre Dame's roster. When Te'o announced he was returning for his senior year, he told Diaco that he wanted the coach to ride him until he perfected every nuance he could. 28 MAY 2012 two more veteran leaders behind the wheel in fifth-year safety Jamoris Slaughter and senior Zeke Motta. De- spite losing a team captain and top draft pick in Harrison Smith, Notre Dame remains solid in the middle of its defensive backfield. Kelly said Slaughter "ticked all the In the secondary, the Irish have SAFETY NET "Those two are senior leaders," he defense's primary question marks. Last year, Slaughter lined up as the team's nickel back and outside linebacker against spread offenses, which gave the defense a much bet- ter chance to stop teams that like to load the field with speedy skill players. A competent Collinsworth will allow him to fit in those spots again in the fall if needed. Slaughter also spent his first two years at Notre Dame as a cornerback and briefly re- turned there in the spring. The coach- ing staff insisted that move was just a trial to see if he could play there in case injury hamstringed an already struggling depth chart. "Wherever we put him, he's going boxes" from a locker room leader- ship standpoint in replacing Smith. Motta, who had the best game of his career in December against Florida State, is also ready to step into more of a leadership role while directing the defense on his half of the field to help replace Smith. "[Smith] was loud out on the field and he would communicate well. I'm not the most talkative guy off the field," Motta said. "It's just when he to be great at it," cornerbacks coach and co-defensive coordinator Kerry Cooks said. "He's smart, so it's easy for him to line up at a lot of different positions because he's used to driv- ing it from the safety position." He'll need to be a field general in the fall to help assimilate a com- pletely green group of cornerbacks. Senior linebacker Manti Te'o provides leadership, knowledge and a proven track record as an All- American to help anchor Notre Dame's defensive strength up the middle. BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED also taken a big leap in being able to process what is going on in front of him in real time. His ability to get on the field opens up a much-needed emergency kit of options for Notre Dame's defensive jack-of-all-trades, Slaughter. Slaughter's knowledge of every position on the field is invaluable when it comes to orchestrating a de- fensive attack from his spot at safety. Possessing the physical skills to play just about all of those positions gives the Irish a human safety net to help ease the tension with many of the PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND