I think our offence will be great this year. As good or better than last year. Kizer has experience and is proven as well as Zaire is fairly proven and would be a no-brainer starter for a lot of P5 teams. Our O Line has 3 new starters but like many others have stated, they should be very solid. I think McGlinchey isn't much of a drop off from Stanley. Nelson, Mustipher and Bivin/McGovern/???, in the interior should certainly be good. Bars is a stud on the other end from what I've seen. Our WR's should be great. I think Hunter emerges as a clear number one and put up big numbers this year. ESB should emerge as our number two but we have slew of talent other than him and I'm itching to see how Boykin plays as I love a big bodied WR like him. I wonder about the slot a little as there is a bit of a wonder of who will start etc. but there's solid athletes there that should produce, especially with great qb play. Our TE's are really exciting to me and expect Alize to start to truly emerge as the next great ND TE. He just looks so deadly out there and could be fantastic in the red zone with his size/ability. Weigher has looked pretty good as well in the time he's seen the field and Luatua is a great blocker and good to have back. Our RB's (barring the consistent injury bug) should be fantastic. Folston with the smooth, elusive stuff with Adams being the bigger back who has home-run threat....There really isn't much to not like about our offense.
Our defense worries me a little but at the same time I think they could end up being better than last year, even with the loss of some key players. Our D line has a lot of experienced and stout players. Rochell is gonna be the man up front if you ask me. He should be a 2nd round NFL pick (maybe better). Tillery, after another year with Longo and maturity, may turn into a dominant DT. He sure showed flashes last year as a true freshman. Jones is a monster and Cage seems immovable so they should be solid gap pluggers and mountains in the middle. I think a one-two punch of Hayes and Trumbetti on the other side should be decent, but we need one of them, or both of them, to really step it up to make our DL be truly threatening and something teams need to seriously plan around. Otherwise, there's nothing truly "spectacular" if you ask me on our D Line. Just a bunch of 'pretty good' players. At LB, you can't replace Jaylon, of course, but you can replace Schmidt...and thank god for that. Nice guy and great story but its time for some supreme athleticism from our Mack and we'll get that from Nyles and from what I've read he's made huge strides and the staff is super pumped about him. If I were to choose, I'd go Coney WLB and Martini SLB, but I think the coaches will go with what they did last year and keep Onowaulu (spelling Im sorry) in for passing downs/passing teams, and Martini in for run situations/option teams. Regardless, I'd say they'll start Coney at WLB and I think he's awesome. At corners I'd say we'll see Luke and Watkins 100% with Devin Butler in the wings. Crawford should be our guy at nickel and from what i read about him through his recruitment and training camp at ND he should be a huge player for us and I have a gut feeling he's gonna cause some turnovers and pass break-ups. At safety everyone seems to be worried. I'm not. I think Redfield eliminates the majority of the mistakes this year after being in the program a while and having his position seriously questioned with the whole Studstill thing in the spring. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being incredible this year. He is a phenomenal athlete and it has shown. If he eliminates the mental errors, he'll be a force. At SS, Drew is going to be our starter and I see him as a harder hitting but not as fast Harrison Smith. I watched his interview on Watch ND and he seems to have embraced his recovery from back to back knee injuries and has a great head on his shoulders. When I think of him, I think of him destroying the GT offence last year which was a very high octane offense.
Every year a freshman or two tear it up as well. Last year we didn't expect anything from Josh Adams right?? Who knows?? maybe someone kills it this year for us! Let's hope so!
This is my take....how things go in game situations....special teams....injuries....suspensions (i sure hope not)......freak things you can't foresee.....I dunno...but GO IRISH!!!
