Todd Lyght Impressed By Open Competitions In Spring Ball
For Notre Dame’s maligned secondary from last fall, maybe infusing some young talent into the mix will help promote a rebound effort in 2016.
Safety Elijah Shumate and cornerback KeiVarae Russell have departed, and safety Max Redfield’s spot in the starting lineup appears to be less than certain this spring with early enrollee Devin Studstill challenging him for No. 1 duties.
Defensive backs coach Todd Lyght, however, is excited about the future of the Irish secondary.
“I think the open competition is great,” the second-year Notre Dame assistant said. “Everybody is still challenging for the starting spots and we know that we’re probably going to have to play eight guys deep across the board, especially with our nickel and dime packages. So everybody is going to have a hand in making this team successful on the back end.”
Few positions on the Notre Dame roster are as wide open as the second cornerback spot, a battle that includes sophomores Shaun Crawford and Nick Coleman, junior Nick Watkins and senior Devin Butler. Crawford was expected to be the starting nickel back last fall before suffering a torn ACL in fall camp.
“Shaun is a real football guy,” Lyght said. “He loves the game, he studies the game, he works at it really hard. … He did a great job in the offseason of working to get back and has been doing really, really well as far as these last six practices have gone and we're really happy with his progress.”
Lyght said in some situations, like with Studstill, certain traits can help accelerate a player’s trajectory despite only being on campus a few months.
“Absolutely. When you have speed and athleticism, especially in the back end, you’ve got to have that to match up against the level of competition that we play,” Lyght said. “Devin Studstill is a great example of coming in early and making plays early in the secondary, the back end.
“We’ll have some young guys that are going to come in this fall and be able to make an impact right away. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to put the most athletic guys, the guys that give us a chance to make plays on the back end and guys that can prevent big plays so we can be successful defensively.”
When asked about the incoming freshmen that will arrive in June, Lyght noted that a couple could make immediate contributions.
“First guy I think about is Jalen Elliott. He’s a warrior and he’s going to be able to come in and be able to help us right away,” he said. “He’s been working on his body physically, his mental part of the game.
“Donte Vaughn, really long corner who can run, Troy Pride and Julian Love. I think Julian Love will work inside and outside because he’s a really, really, smart, savvy football player and Troy Pride with his speed is going to be tremendous.”
Quick Hits
• Notre Dame’s lack of safety depth, particularly after the transfer of Mykelti Williams, has led some to wonder whether the Irish might move a cornerback there to bolster the numbers. Lyght indicated Wednesday that such thinking is premature.
“Not right now,” he said. “You get a couple, two, three injuries in, that might be a situation where we might have to move a corner to the inside, but as of right now our numbers are really good and obviously during the recruiting process we’re going to have load up at safety with this class coming in, the 2017-18 class. Right now I like our numbers, I like where we’re at and I think we’ve got a really, really good group and we could do special things this year.”
• Sixth-year senior safety Avery Sebastian has battled through injury woes throughout his college career, but Lyght said last year’s graduate transfer that sat out with a foot injury is “coming along.”
“He struggled with his foot injury, had a bone issue in his foot,” Lyght said. “It took him a long time to heal. But he’s back healthy and ready to go and has done a really, really good job of coming back and pushing himself through some of the physical pain and he’s not actually 100 percent right now, but he’s in the mid-90s and getting better each and every day.”
• While junior Drue Tranquill is the leader in the clubhouse for the starting strong safety job, Lyght likes the idea of being able to move him around in different slots on the field as well.
“Drue Tranquill is such an interesting athlete because of his size and strength, and his power and his speed combination,” he said. “We can move him around a lot, plus with his football intelligence, he’s the type of guy we can put him at strong safety, we can put him at free safety, we can put him at outside backer, we can put him in the Joker position.
“When you move a guy around with that position versatility, it really strengthens your defense and that’s what we look to do with Drue this year.”