Notre Dame offers Utah State transfer DE Byron Vaughns
Notre Dame going portal plunging this month for help at the defensive end spot. Sunday brought confirmation the Irish are pursuing a transfer to bolster their 2023 pass rush.
Notre Dame has offered Utah State grad transfer defensive end Byron Vaughns, he announced. With the move, the Irish jumped in the race for a player who has quickly become a commodity since entering the portal Dec. 30. Vaughns has reported offers from Arizona State, California, Georgia Tech, Houston and USC as of Sunday evening. He has one year of eligibility remaining and will be a sixth-year senior in 2023.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Vaughns had 56 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks and 1 forced fumble in 11 games this season. Pro Football Focus credited him in 35 quarterback pressures in 301 pass-rush snaps. He logged 607 total snaps. He played in 14 games (485 snaps) in 2021, with 43 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, 26 pressures and 1 forced fumble. His 6 pass breakups tied for the team lead that year.
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Vaughns’ 2023 home will be his third college football team. He spent 2018-20 at Texas and played in 13 games for the Longhorns. Ten of those appearances were in 2019. He made 14 tackles that season – 8 of which came in a game against Kansas – and forced one fumble. He redshirted in 2018 and played two games in 2020. He entered the transfer portal midway through the 2020 season.
At Texas, Vaughns primarily played the buck linebacker spot, which was an off-ball role in then-Longhorns’ coordinator Todd Orlando’s 3-3-5 defense. He was on the defensive line for 599 of his 607 snaps at Utah State this season.
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Vaughns signed with the Longhorns out of Fort Worth (Texas) Eastern Hills High School. He was a three-star recruit and the No. 432 prospect in the 2018 On3 Consensus.
Notre Dame replaced Foskey in the Dec. 30 Gator Bowl with junior Jordan Botelho and freshman Junior Tuihalamaka. Botelho started, producing 2 sacks and 9 pressures in 47 snaps. Grad student Justin Ademilola moved from the No. 2 vyper spot to starting strong-side defensive end during the second half of the year, but is a vyper option in 2023 if he returns for a sixth season. He has not yet revealed his plans.
The NCAA recruiting dead period that runs Dec. 19 to Jan. 12 is lifted Jan. 4-8 for transfers who intend to enroll at a new school for the spring semester. Vaughns could visit Notre Dame or any of his other options in that five-day window. Notre Dame begins its spring 2023 term Jan. 17.
