Notre Dame is set to have the best safety tandem in the country with veteran, and captain, Adon Shuler returning along side rising redshirt sophomore Tae Johnson who burst onto the scene in 2025 finishing the year second on the team in interceptions and earning a spot on the FWAA Freshman All-American team. The depth in the room is also vastly underrated with rising senior Luke Talich returning alongside rising redshirt freshman Ethan Long. True freshman Joey O'Brien also has the potential to make an impact in 2026.
In today's episode, we start by previewing the Notre Dame safety room and it's absolutely loaded with talent, experience, length and speed. We dove into the expectations of the room and talked through each player's individual expectations. To wrap everything up, we ranked our Top 10 secondaries in college football this season. It was another fun show and we're now one day closer to Notre Dame kicking off their spring practice. We cover all of that and more on today's episode of the Irish Breakdown Podcast.
You can watch the entire episode here:
Here are some of the topics we covered in today's show:
On Notre Dame's History Of Producing Good Safeties...
"Over the last 10-20 years, Notre Dame has produced some solid to top level safeties and safety duos. I think back to the Harrison Smith days back from 2009 to 2011. The 2015 safety trio of Max Redfield, Elijah Shumate and Mathias Farley was a great trio. In 2018 and 2019 you have Jalen Elliot and Alohi Gilman playing at a high level and had a true freshman Kyle Hamilton come along in 2019. Then obviously you have Xavier Watts in 2023 and then Adon Shuler in 2024 with Watts. Last season, Shuler and Tae Johnson added their name to this list and there's another level they can get to."
On Luke Talich...
"He's one of the more underrated players on the entire defense. Luke is like the utility knife in the safety room. He has traits from Shuler's game as well as traits from Johnson's game. He can fly down into the box and make plays like Shuler and has the range to cover like Johnson does. Talich just doesn't do it to as high of a level as the other two but he's a key rotational piece on defense, and one that they'll need this season with the depth in the room being very unproven."
On The Responsibilities Of The New Coaching Staff...
"It's really a two-fold job. First, like the other new position coaches on defense, you have to build the connection and a relationship with the veterans in the room. I was very impressed with how Aaron Henry sounded in his introductory press conference. He has the tools to be the right guy to replace Mike Mickens. Second, you have to develop the younger talent in the room. If Notre Dame has the season we think they have, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that you lose all three of Shuler, Johnson and Talich after 2026. The young players in the room need to be developed."
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