Rockne's Roundtable

maybe i was watching something different but i do not remember niklas showing any great D skill his first year. he was definitely out of position as a OLB; i remember sims the TE from MSU beating him with a very simple move for a TD and thinking 6'7" people do not belong at drop OLB . where do you come up with natural pass rushing skills, when he played drop LB? stats-wise he had 8 solo tackles and 12 assisted tackles and no sacks or tackles for loss.

niklas wanted to move to TE. yeah, he needs to improve his blocking but he is better than koyak and who knows how welsh will be when he returns. he was open a bunch of times in the middle of the field this year, but golson rarely ever threw the ball in the middle of the field.

moving a starter on O just makes no sense to me.

rsharman,

We can't equate depth with numbers.

Smyth and Heuerman are at the same stage as Niklas was two years ago, but maybe not quite as physically advanced. There's going to be a huge learning curve for them. Welch hadn't played much and is recovering from ACL surgery. Koyack has good credentials but went through a huge learning curve last year. Niklas is the best Notre Dame has there right now.

There was a reason Niklas was moved there last spring even though you already had an All-American in Eifert, Welch and Koyack. He was needed, and is especially needed there now.

I thought welch was going to have a solid year last season behind eiffert. I believe that, if healthy, he will be our #1a TE, with TRoy at #1b. Like Lou said, koyak has the skills, just needs to get over the hump.