New talent electrifies Notre Dame's defensive line. Charlie Partridge highlights standout freshmen and transfers ready to make an immediate impact.
Notre Dame's defensive line boasts several key returners on the interior and on the edge. Defensive ends Boubacar Traore and Bryce Young both return to the starting lineup this fall. Along the interior, Jason Onye was granted a 6th year of eligibility and will return to South Bend for one final season and Elijah Hughes will also be back in the rotation like he was last fall. The talent in the trenches is outstanding, and the key returners are a strong foundation.
But it's been the performance of the newcomers along the defensive line, along with players like Traore, Young, Onye and Hughes, that will elevate this room to new heights. One true freshman in particular, defensive end Rodney Dunham, has made a strong first impression on new defensive line coach Charlie Partridge.
"For Rodney, the volume of the defense tends to slow young men down, and there's days where you can feel him thinking instead of attacking his keys," Partridge explained. "That's going to continue to improve as he continues to learn the system and get experience.
"Some things you only get better at through reps, but boy, I love his attitude," Partridge continued about the true freshman. "He plays physical. He plays hard. We'll see the film here in a few minutes, but I think he had a really good day today. He was aggressively attacking his keys through the call, through the system, and I'm excited honestly to go inside and watch the film."
Pitt transfer Francis Brewu has also turned some heads since his arrival on campus. The 6-1, 285-pound defensive tackle came to Notre Dame via the transfer portal this offseason and has multiple years of eligibility remaining. Partridge has familiarity with Brewu and he played a factor in Brewu's recruitment to the Panthers before departing for the NFL. Now, reunited in South Bend, Brewu looks to take the next steps under Partridge's tutelage.
"I think he relied a lot on his tools and his gifts," Partridge shared. "Now I think we're dialing it in a little more and detailing things out a little bit more. I think that's where we're helping him grow right now because he'll make some choices that you can tell he's gotten away with not because he wasn't being coached or anything like that. It’s just that, oftentimes he has more strength than the guy going against him. It's not always going to be the case.
"Now he's going against an offensive line every day at Notre Dame that's a heck of an offensive line," Partridge continued. "Joe Rudolph does a great job and I tell these guys all the time, we're trying to get you ready for the best on our schedule every day. So no matter what happens, I'm going to coach you to the nth degree. Right now, we're just leaning in on the finer details of when and how to use this technique."
Brewu isn't the only newcomer along the interior. Rising redshirt freshman Christopher Burgess Jr. made the switch to the defensive tackle position after spending his true freshman season along the edge. After putting on some good weight, Burgess is now a contender to crack the defensive tackle rotation, and he's putting in the work to do so.
"He's going through the adjustment," Partridge stated. "Things inside happen much faster. The run blocks are on you much quicker. Everything that happens from a pass rush standpoint happens after one step instead of three. He's going through some of those adjustments. Some reps look really good and some reps still need work. A lot of it right now is Burgess just learning how to fight pressure within different styles of double teams. He's working his tail off, he's doing a nice job and he's getting better."
By all accounts, this is an absolutely loaded defensive line unit made up of returning starters, veterans and highly talented newcomers via the transfer portal and high school recruiting. There's still a ways to go before this unit can be considered amongst the nation's best, but the work they're putting in this offseason is getting them closer and closer.
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