SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame defensive lineman Tionne Gray showed up five minutes late to a meeting during one of his first weeks on campus. A half-dozen Irish players corrected the Oregon transfer’s course before a coach would say a word. Junior Sean Sevillano was the first responder — notable because Gray was brought in to play Sevillano’s defensive tackle spot — but he was hardly alone.
“That really showed me, this is a real player-led team,” Gray said. “Man, they really want to get back to a natty.”
It’s hardly new under head coach Marcus Freeman that the players set the program’s direction. Still, a coach promoting player agency doesn’t always mean that players know where to take the team.
One month into their Notre Dame careers, many of the seven incoming Irish transfers — cornerback DJ McKinney will arrive from Colorado this summer — can sense the experience of the team they’ve joined. They can also count it, if they want to dive into snap totals.
“I wouldn’t say it’s an old group, but, like, everybody’s been in the system,” said cornerback Jayden Sanders, who relocated from Michigan. “And they know everything.”
They should, at least on defense.
Yes, Notre Dame is in just its second year under defensive coordinator Chris Ash, with new position coaches at all three levels of the unit. But the Irish defense boasts a virtually identical snap count to the unit that powered Notre Dame to the national championship game two years ago, including six players with more than 1,000 career snaps and another seven with at least 600. The 2024 defense, led by Xavier Watts, Rylie Mills and Jack Kiser, brought back eight players with at least 1,000 career snaps and two more with at least 600.
Counting scholarship players only, this Irish defense returns 16,579 career snaps. The 2024 defense in the final season of Al Golden’s DC tenure, which felt almost impossibly experienced due to pandemic waivers and super seniors, brought back 16,164.
Turns out, good roster management can push the boundaries of how experienced a college team can be.
The similarities to 2024 extend to where Notre Dame brings back that experience within the defense, too. The 2024 secondary returned Watts, Jordan Clark, Rod Heard and Benjamin Morrison. Combined, they’d logged 6,526 career snaps, although Morrison was lost for the season by October due to a hip injury. This year’s secondary has Adon Shuler, Christian Gray, Leonard Moore and McKinney, who bring a combined 6,574 career snaps to the back of the defense.
Two years ago, Notre Dame finished first in the Football Bowl Subdivision in pass-efficiency defense. The ingredients are there to do it again this fall.
In 2025, the Irish returned 11,832 snaps on defense and didn’t have a single player on that side of the ball with 1,000 career snaps before the season opener. Would an older team have hit the ground running faster at Miami and against Texas A&M?
Offensively, the 2026 Irish bring back just 9,030 career snaps, led by tackle Anthonie Knapp (1,531), receiver Jordan Faison (1,134), receiver Jaden Greathouse (903), O-linemen Ashton Craig (749) and Guerby Lambert (737) and quarterback CJ Carr (692). Craig is likely to miss the start of the season while recovering from a torn ACL. Greathouse got the bulk of his work two seasons ago, not during last year’s frustrating junior campaign. No other returning offensive player has cleared 600 snaps.
The 2025 Irish returned 10,875 career snaps on offense, with roughly a third of that experience split between transfer receivers Malachi Fields (Virginia) and Will Pauling (Wisconsin). The only other player with more than 1,000 career snaps entering last season was right tackle Aamil Wagner.
Two years ago, Notre Dame returned 13,474 career snaps on offense, led by Clemson receiver transfer Beaux Collins (1,568 snaps), with Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leonard second (1,436). The most veteran homegrown players on that offense were center Pat Coogan and guard Rocco Spindler, who were beat out for starting jobs during training camp but returned to the lineup in September.
Yes, there are limits to how far experience can take a program.
Two of last year’s most veteran teams, Penn State and Clemson, were flops. But national champion Indiana and 2024 champ Ohio State were built a lot like Notre Dame is this season. Both returned more than 30,000 career snaps. Michigan’s 2023 national championship team returned nearly that many, too.
Can Notre Dame weaponize all this experience, starting next month when spring practice opens? The Irish are among the betting favorites to go all the way this fall. Much of that optimism is due to the talent assembled by Freeman. And some of it lies in how veteran that talent will be when it hits the field.
At a minimum, the Irish have a roster moving in the right direction. And a group ready to self-correct when it gets off track.