Notre Dame has one player who can offer a little more than film study this week in Provo: DJ McKinney.
The Fighting Irish and BYU have met only once since 2013, so there isn’t much recent overlap between the programs. But McKinney has been around the Cougars three straight seasons, and Saturday will make it four in a row. That gives Notre Dame’s defensive back a rare kind of firsthand scouting report heading into the matchup.
Marcus Freeman made it clear Monday that he knows the value of that background.
“He's never been to BYU, but playing against the scheme, it's something that I'm sure he might have some insight, and he could offer any insight he has to the coaches,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said Monday, during his weekly press conference. “And I'm sure we'll ask him. I'm going to ask him about it now since you brought that up.”
McKinney first saw BYU in 2023 while he was at Oklahoma State. He wasn’t a starter, but he played plenty in the Cowboys’ 40-34 win, logging 24 defensive snaps. BYU tested him three times, and while he held up overall, he did give up a 50-yard completion from Jake Retzlaff to Keanu Hill.
A year later, McKinney was at Colorado for a much different result. BYU rolled to a 36-14 win, but McKinney wasn’t the reason.
Starting opposite Travis Hunter, he was on the field for 65 defensive snaps and was targeted just three times. The Cougars completed only one pass against him, a 14-yarder, and McKinney also picked off a pass and returned it 25 yards.
The third meeting came in another Colorado loss, 24-21, and McKinney again handled himself well in coverage. He was thrown at three times and allowed only 8 yards. That game also featured Bear Bachmeier putting together a strong performance, going 19 of 27 for 179 yards and 2 touchdowns while adding 15 carries for 98 yards.
McKinney has now seen three different BYU quarterbacks over those three years, which limits how neatly the experiences stack up. Still, he has faced Bachmeier too, and that matters as Notre Dame prepares for a BYU offense that, with its best running back out, may lean on Bachmeier even more.
McKinney said he has been talking with his teammates regularly, and while he is not handing out every detail to the media, he said one main pattern stood out from facing the Cougars’ Big 12 outfit.
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