Freshman safety Joey O'Brien absorbs wisdom from elite veterans, honing his game and aiming to contribute to Notre Dame's takeaway machine.
Over the last 10 to 15 years, if a prospect like Joey O'Brien came to South Bend, it's likely he would have started, or at least been an integral part of the back end rotation as a true freshman. Now, the outlook of the Notre Dame safety room is significantly different, but that's not stopping the Pennsylvania native from learning as much as possible from guys like Adon Shuler and Tae Johnson.
"Hearing them talk to me, just seeing what they do and hearing what they say to me," O'Brien answered when asked about being in the same room as Shuler and Johnson. "It's a great feeling, just having them as my leaders because they've done it. They're All-Americans. They're gonna go play in the NFL. So just following their lead, listening to what they've got to do, and I can be right there with them."
Shuler and Johnson held down the back end of Notre Dame's defense in 2025 combining for 101 tackles, eight passes defended and six interceptions. They'll look to repeat that production in 2026. O'Brien will learn a lot from this elite duo this upcoming season.
"Their mentality," O'Brien said when asked about what makes the safety duo so good. "They go in there every day saying, ‘That dude in front of me is not gonna beat me.’ They've just been big role models for me, really all the safeties. They spread them out well. Like Luke Talich is my lifting partner, so I hang out with him all the time. Then Adon, he's just always helping me out on the field."
"We'll go through the calls in practice, during stretch," O'Brien continued.
And then Tae-Tae, he's always helping me with film. We'll always meet together, do all that stuff. And then Lenny has me over all the time. I like how they're all so accepting and they want me to be as good as them. It's a great feeling."
The 6-5, 188-pound freshman has the opportunity to see the field this upcoming season, despite this being an exceptionally loaded safety room. O'Brien knows the task ahead of him, but also understands what he brings to the table and he's ready to contribute.
"My ball skills are really good," O'Brien explained when asked what his strengths were. "I can catch the ball. I'm coming into a defense that gets interceptions and a lot of takeaways, and that's what I do. So I feel like with my skill set, I can definitely fit in perfectly in the defense."
Notre Dame finished No. 4 in the country last season in interceptions and that was only playing in 12 games. None of the playoff teams finished ranked above the Irish in total interceptions. They'll look to replicate that production this season and O'Brien, the highly touted safety from Pennsylvania, will look to add to some of those numbers throughout the fall.
-------
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!