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Is Schmidt the key for the Notre Dame 'D'?
He rose from preferred walk-on, to starter, to star. And now Joe Schmidt just might be the key for the Notre Dame defense heading into the 2015 season, if he can fully recover from a 2014 ankle injury.
A tad undersized, the 6-0, 235-pound middle linebacker was lightly recruited coming out of Mater Dei High School in California in 2011. However, the tiny Schmidt produced big time results last year.
Schmidt’s first career start came in the 2014 season opener and the junior LB did not disappoint, recording a team-high eight tackles during the Fighting Irish’s 31-0 victory over Rice.
Schmidt’s ball-hawking ways continued, and after eight games he had racked up a team-high 65 tackles (42 solo) as Notre Dame jumped out to a 7-1 start.
However, it was in that eighth game of the year that disaster struck for Schmidt. The feisty middle linebacker who tallied eight tackles by the second quarter of the Navy game, sustained a season-ending ankle injury.
From that point on, an Irish defense that was surrendering 19 points per game after eight games plummeted, yielding 44 points per contest over the last four games.
That can’t all be attributed to Schmidt’s absence, but one thing is for sure: the unit is much better with him in the middle of it.
(h/t Slap the Sign)
