Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/998819
92 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW A January decision deadline on whether to stay in college or go to the NFL was fast approaching for Notre Dame defensive star Jerry Tillery, and he needed to find a way to clear his head. So the Irish junior decided the best course to make his tough choice would be to travel far from his college home and decide there if he would ever return. "There's no better place to make that decision than on a beach in Hawai'i," Tillery later explained of the setting where he chose to come back to Notre Dame for a final season of football and another year of personal growth. Tillery's announcement to return went down to the wire. In fact, just three days before the start of the spring semester, Tillery said he hadn't fully made up his mind. "There was great opportunity ahead of me," Tillery said of the temptation to leave school early for the riches of the NFL. "To defer that and to commit this next year to being the best defensive lineman in the country is the decision that I came to. It was no one thing. There were so many factors involved." Not the least of which was a proposal from the Irish coaches that Tillery be moved from nose guard to the three-technique slot this year along the defen- sive line, a position switch that will free up the 6-7, 299-pounder from endless double-teams, allow him to play in more space, better showcase his athletic abilities, and boost his NFL stock for next year. Even after suffering a concussion during the opening weeks of spring practice, Tillery said he has no second thoughts about returning to school. "I see myself making a lot more plays," Tillery said of sliding a couple gaps down the line. "I'll be in a lot more one-on-one situations with tackles and guards." Brian Kelly called Tillery "virtually unblockable" at the three-technique. "I think we've put him in a great position from a football standpoint," the Irish head coach said. "He's a very difficult player to play against." Mike Elston went even further. "A more natural position for him, it's going to serve him well," Notre Dame's defensive line coach explained of the motivation for having Tillery and expe- rienced senior Jonathan Bonner swap positions. "And in our third-down stuff, [Tillery] is going to move out even farther to like a five-technique, get him a little more on the edge. "He's a really good pass rusher. But he's not a really good pass rusher zeroed up on the center." Despite being bottled up in the middle against double teams last season, Tillery still easily paced all Irish linemen with 56 tackles (no one else had more than 30), and he led the team with 11 quarterback hurries and 4.5 sacks — a statistical anomaly for a nose guard to lead a defense in those two categories — while he was third with nine tackles for loss. Notre Dame showed vast defensive improvement in nearly every area in 2017, but still finished only 58th in the country in tackles for loss (6.1) and 83rd in sacks (1.85). "In a lot of ways, the three-technique position is where you want to have your more disruptive and athletic player," explained first-year Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea. "[Tillery] is a guy that in pass rush can have an impact from that spot, not always drawing the double team." Even with the solid statistics as a junior, Tillery still received a "Stay In School" grade from the NFL committee that advises underclassmen, another factor in returning to Notre Dame to build on his pattern of vast improvement during his time here. A co-starter as a freshman in 2015 at nose guard with Daniel Cage, Tillery fin- ished with a modest but adequate 12 total tackles (two for loss and one sack). As a sophomore in 2016, Tillery tripled his production, finishing with 37 stops and three for loss, though no sacks, before his breakout junior year. The move to three-technique is designed to provide another statistical jump in 2018. A total of 10 defensive tackles were selected in the first three rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft, a clear indication that the demand will be there again in 2019 if Tillery reaches his potential and produces a strong senior season. "It's not that [Tillery] didn't play the nose position well," Lea said. "It's that the skill for the three-technique is unique and we identified the things that he does well as being conducive to having success in that role. "He's already made his presence felt there." "It's just focusing on my technique," Tillery said when asked about the top priority to mastering his new position. "It's more technique based instead of just going out and playing, and running around. It's more intentional about everything that I am working on. "That's why I am having the success that I have seen. How much better have I gotten? I've gotten a lot better. I've never played this well." — Todd D. Burlage Will The Three-Technique Be A Charm? Tillery will be making the switch from nose guard to three-technique tackle this fall, which is expected to free up the 6-7, 299-pounder from the endless double-teams he faced while playing his previous position. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL