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.

• 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.