Notre Dame vs. Navy snap counts, participation chart: Defense
As Notre Dame flies home from Dublin, Ireland, its defense gets some much-needed rest after a job well done defending Navy’s triple option.
Here are the snap counts and run/pass splits for the Notre Dame defense in Week 0. All data is via Pro Football Focus.
Notre Dame defense
| Player | Position | Snaps | Start? | Run D Snaps | Pass rush Snaps | Coverage Snaps |
| Marist Liufau | LB | 45 | * | 37 | 1 | 7 |
| JD Bertrand | LB | 41 | * | 36 | 3 | 2 |
| DJ Brown | S | 37 | * | 35 | 1 | 1 |
| Jack Kiser | LB | 34 | * | 30 | 1 | 3 |
| Rylie Mills | DT | 31 | * | 28 | 3 | 0 |
| Howard Cross III | DT | 31 | * | 28 | 3 | 0 |
| Benjamin Morrison | CB | 30 | 28 | 0 | 2 | |
| Nana Osafo-Mensah | DE | 30 | * | 24 | 6 | 0 |
| Cam Hart | CB | 29 | * | 25 | 0 | 4 |
| Ramon Henderson | S | 28 | 21 | 0 | 7 | |
| Jaylen Sneed | LB | 27 | * | 22 | 0 | 5 |
| Jaden Mickey | CB | 27 | | 22 | 0 | 5 |
| Xavier Watts | S | 27 | * | 25 | 0 | 2 |
| Jordan Botelho | VYP | 27 | | 24 | 3 | 0 |
| Javontae Jean-Baptiste | DE | 25 | | 22 | 3 | 0 |
| Jason Onye | DT | 23 | | 18 | 6 | 0 |
| Christian Gray | CB | 21 | | 14 | 0 | 7 |
| Clarence Lewis | NCB | 20 | 13 | 0 | 7 | |
| Gabriel Rubio | DT | 19 | | 15 | 4 | 0 |
| Junior Tuihalamaka | VYP | 14 | | 12 | 2 | 0 |
| Joshua Burnham | VYP | 14 | | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| Thomas Harper | NCB | 12 | | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| Antonio Carter II | S | 7 | | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Donovan Hinish | DT | 5 | | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Notes
• Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was not kidding when he said preparing for Navy is vastly different than preparing for any other opponent. Case in point: the Irish came out in a 4-4-3 defense, with sophomore Jaylen Sneed as the fourth linebacker.
• 24 of the 26 defensive players on the depth chart got on the field for the Irish. The exceptions were freshman linebackers Drayk Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry. Keeping them on the bench in a 42-3 game was an interesting choice, but perhaps Notre Dame just liked the way its graduate starters were playing.
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• We’ll see if this holds true against a non-Navy opponent, but Notre Dame rotated cornerbacks Cam Hart, Benjamin Morrison and Jaden Mickey pretty evenly. Even freshman CB4 Christian Gray exceeded 20 snaps.
• Ditto safeties DJ Brown, Ramon Henderson and Xavier Watts, although Brown led the group by a margin of 10 snaps. Rhode Island graduate transfer Antonio Carter II was a distant fourth, with only seven.
• Expect Oklahoma State graduate transfer Thomas Harper to play more going forward, as Notre Dame becomes a nickel-heavy team against literally anyone else.
