Notre Dame Football: Irish Reliance on Freshman Will Doom Season

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are going to live or die by the play of their freshman this season.

Unfortunately for them, I feel that they just aren’t ready to make the necessary contributions—especially on the defensive end—to lead the Irish back into contention.

The team already quickly fell from the national spotlight after losing their first two games, and it seems that playing all of these freshman isn’t helping the team.

According to Eric Hansen at the South Bend Tribute,

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“Kelly has played eight freshmen to date - defensive linemen Aaron Lynch and Stephon Tuitt, outside linebackers Troy Niklas and Ishaq Williams, special-teamers George Atkinson and Cam McDaniel, kicker Kyle Brindza and tight end Ben Koyack.”

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These kids, especially the former four mentioned, are going to have to get their acts together, and maintain focus and discipline throughout the long rigors of the season.

Unfortunately for the Irish and their fans, this is much easier said than done.

Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco acknowledges as much about his freshman defensive players.

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“They’re not used to going to school. They’re not used to midterm exams at college. They’re not used to being this long away from home.” Diaco said, “So there are moments that put trust in their bank account. There are moments that take trust out of their bank account.”

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These freshman are going to break the Irish bank account.

They have tough matches in the coming weeks against USC, Navy, Maryland, Boston College, and they finish the year at Stanford.

I see the Irish dropping, at the very minimum, two of these and possibly as many as four.

Don’t get me wrong, the experience is going to be great for these young kids, and it will help when they return them to start next year.

But the program simply isn’t prepared for this year, and they will get burned by inexperience and mental mistakes.