Notre Dame Spring Practice Report: Defense Edition

Notre Dame kicked off its 2025 spring practice period today inside the indoor facility. We got a chance to see the first four periods of practice today. Trevor and I were there, and below are our observations. Obviously we can’t see everyone, so if a player isn’t in the report we didn’t see enough to really report on him.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Like the offensive line, there’s not a lot to gather from the defensive line during a practice without pads outside of the shape they are in and how well they move. Here are a few thoughts from some of the linemen.

It was good to see senior Jason Onye back at practice, but after he was listed as being 17 pounds bigger on the current depth chart we were curious how well he would move. Onye was working with the second group of tackles during drills, but his movement skills were good. Onye looked just as quick out of his stance and showed the same lateral agility he showed at the lower weight.

Transfer defensive tackle Jared Dawson is a short, stocky interior player that looks like he’d be a gap plugger, but he’s a lot more than that. His quickness out of his stance is really impressive and he kept good pad level throughout drills. Impressive burst and also showed a strong punch. Fellow transfer Elijah Hughes is another quick twitch interior player with fast hands.

Defensive ends Bryce Young and Josh Burnham also moved extremely well today. Burnham was quick and look strong going through drills. Young showed an even better burst out of his stance during drills today than we saw last season. He al so impressed during bag drills, showing an impressive pop with his hands.

LINEBACKER

Senior linebacker Jaylen Sneed was listed at 232 pounds on the roster, which is way more than he’s ever been. Sneed was noticeably thicker, especially in the upper body, but there was no noticeable drop off in athleticism from him. Sneed showed good change of direction skills, good lateral speed and his downhill speed was impressive.

Sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was clearly slimmed down, evidenced by the 231 pounds he was listed on the roster (down 9 from the 2024 roster). He has streamlined his body a bit but he’s still well built and a big linebacker. Viliamu-Asa was smooth working through drills and showed himself to be fully healed from his late season knee injury. Movement skills were impressive.

Freshman linebacker Madden Faraimo is an impressive athlete that shows excellent downhill speed and burst. His lateral quickness is also impressive and he looked more comfortable than you normally see from a freshman LB during his first spring practice. It appears the work he got during the playoffs paid off. He flies through drills and stands out athletic at a position with a lot of really athletic linebackers.

SECONDARY

Returning cornerbacks Leonard Moore and Christian Gray looked fast and active during drills, which was expected.

Transfer nickel Devonta Smith is a really impressive athlete. He’s built better (bigger, longer, thicker) than the last two transfer nickels. That was expected, but what stood out with Smith is how athletic he looked in drills. Smith is a fluid athlete with some twitch athletically. On one particular drill he pedaled and then did a high turn before getting downhill. It was really, really impressive how clean his transition was and how well he got back on the route. That takes not only impressive footwork, but really loose hips.

Sophomore cornerback Karson Hobbs had a strong day, showing really impressive vertical speed and he played the ball well during drills. Hobbs is physically strong, which you can see when he’s working through drills. His footwork in drills is a tad inconsistent, but he can make up for things with his speed. Freshman cornerback Cree Thomas is really long and impressive from a movement standpoint. He shows impressive vertical speed, downhill speed and his change of direction is really clean and fluid. He was one of the more impressive freshmen during today’s practice.

Freshman safety JaDon Blair is exceptionally long. He’s not only 6-5, but he’s also long and showed an ability to cover a lot of ground in a hurry during drills and also during the special teams period. Blair’s footwork will need a lot of enhancement, and at times he didn’t look sure of what he’s doing, but his athleticism really stands out. Sophomore safety Brauntae Johnson had a strong first practice as well, at least during drills. Johnson is clearly more developed in the upper body, looking a lot more like a college safety. Despite the added weight he showed top notch athletic skills. His change of direction was fluid and he showed really good downhill speed. Junior Luke Talich also showed impressive speed and range during drills. Talich has needed to be more assertive based on what we saw in the past, but today he showed that during drills. Now that needs to carry into more team specific drills. This is an exceptionally long and athletic safety group.

The player who doesn’t fit that mold at safety (long) is Kennedy Urlacher , who was also a standout. Urlacher looked comfortable with what he was doing today, but what really stands out is the impressive speed and force he showed when asked to plant and/or fly downhill during drills. Urlacher has also reshaped his body a bit and he looks more refined with his upper body.