Notre Dame may have to shuffle its secondary again next weekend.
Senior safety Luke Talich is listed as questionable for the Week 4 matchup against Purdue (1-2) after injuring his left wrist in Saturday’s 27-10 win over Michigan State. The update puts his status in doubt just after one of the best performances of his Fighting Irish career.
Talich turned in a stat line that jumped off the page: three tackles, including 1.5 for a loss, a sack, a touchdown-saving pass breakup and an interception, the fifth of his Notre Dame career. According to Pro Football Focus, he was the team’s highest-graded defender.
The injury comes at a time when Notre Dame is already dealing with changes at safety. Talich had moved into the starting lineup in the second half of the season opener against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field after Brauntae Johnson suffered a significant left foot injury that is expected to keep him out for several weeks.
"That's why you have depth," Freeman said. "There's a lot of confidence.
We view Luke Talich as a starter. He might not be the first one on the field, but the confidence we have in Luke Talich is extremely high."
If Talich can’t go, freshman Joey O'Brien could be next in line. The 6-foot-5 former five-star prospect has logged 22 defensive snaps this season, with six coming against Michigan State, and he has three tackles. O'Brien also dealt with a significant foot injury in late April during the Blue-Gold Game, but he was fully available at the start of fall camp and impressed the staff enough to land on the Week 1 depth chart.
Talich’s status could also push sophomore Ethan Long into a bigger role as the top backup at both safety spots. Long beat out former four-star classmate JaDon Blair, who transferred to Missouri in January, and played 15 snaps in Notre Dame’s 52-0 win over Rice.
"The other guys now, the backups, you're talking about the Joey O'Briens, the Ethan Longs, some of those young guys now, their roles have increased," Freeman said after Johnson's injury. "It's going to be important that they earn the trust that they can go in and be a starter because at any point if something happens to Adon or something happens to Luke, they're a starter.
"It's important that they continue to earn that trust from practice. I feel good about the depth of the d-line room.
I feel good about the depth of the DBs room, the safeties room. But everybody's roles increase when you lose two starters like Tae and Jason."
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