Notre Dame's defensive line is, once again, battling some significant injuries along the interior. Senior Gabriel Rubio has officially been ruled out for the Boston College game and likely won't return until the end of the regular season with an elbow injury. The news is unfortunate, but there Notre Dame defensive line has some significant depth that will have to step up and perform at a high level while Rubio recovers. Head coach Marcus Freeman spoke yesterday around the confidence he has in Al Washington's unit to get the job done and continue ascending despite Rubio's injury.
"They definitely have," Freeman answered when asked if the defensive line has improved since the start of the season. "They’ve always been pretty good at stopping the run, I’m talking as a collective group. What you’re seeing is a more cohesive unit in terms of the pass rush and making sure that we play off of each other and not have open vertical lanes where the quarterback can escape and extend the play in the pass game. That’s where I’ve seen a lot of improvement. They’re doing a great job in stopping the run, but there’s a lot of improvement in terms of our pass rush lanes and keeping the quarterback in the pocket to letting other guys probably having success from that."
Rubio was a driving force in the overall success of the defensive line; he's played 173 snaps this season, racked up six total pressures, one sack and four stops. Rubio has been one of the more dominant interior players this season for the Irish.
"Gabe will be out this week," Freeman explained. "At some point we plan on getting him back before the season is over. I don’t have a great timeline for when that’s going to be, but we believe it will be before the season is over. I do believe the interior will continue to enhance. That has to be everybody in our program. That has to be the defensive tackles and that has to be the head coach. It’s a mindset; we have to continue to get better. To have that mindset is the first thing, but then you need the ability to find the answers to help you get better. You have to want to get better and believe you can get better, but then there’s answers out there to help you get better."
The Irish will need some key players to step up along the interior of the defensive line over the next couple of weeks. One of the prime candidates is senior Jason Onye who's had a very interesting journey getting to this point in his career. Onye has started the last three games at defensive tackle for Notre Dame and is on the verge of a major breakout.
"It's a progression," Freeman said about Onye's jounrey. "He had a really good fall camp and has done some good things for us defensively. Maybe not in the stat book in terms of production but he has really done a good job of getting his job done. Now you're starting to see some stats follow that. The stats are a reflection, at times, of just doing your job. But he has been a guy that has just gotten better. As you think about where it started even last year to where he is now, I'm proud of him. It's a credit to the work he's put in, the maturity of him as an individual and the relationship with him and Coach Washington continuing to grow and continuing to challenge him. He's an ascending player. It's similar to what I said about CJ [Carr], there's a lot more room for him to continue to improve. But credit to him for the work he's put into it."
Notre Dame plays in their third road game of the season this upcoming weekend against Boston College. Their offensive line has played subpar throughout the season, and the Irish are coming off of one of their better performances on the defensive line this season. I'd expect to see this group start to take off down the stretch and put themselves in a really good position for Rubio's return.
-------
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @TTrow5
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook