Notre Dame’s narrow win over Virginia Tech last night wasn’t the Irish’s only victory of the weekend. Notre Dame landed transfer Isaiah Pryor after the former Buckeye safety made his second visit to see the Irish in less than a month this weekend. Pryor’s commitment to transfer to Notre Dame gives the Irish an experienced defensive back to slide into what figures to be an otherwise inexperienced secondary in 2020. With two years of eligibility remaining, Pryor should be a multi-year contributor like Notre Dame’s last safety transfer.
How Isaiah Pryor Fits Into Notre Dame Secondary
Notre Dame is losing Jalen Elliott and Troy Pride Jr at least in the secondary after this year. Most also feel that it is a forgone conclusion that Alohi Gilman will head to the NFL after this year instead of pursuing a 5th year even though he has the eligibility available. That means Notre Dame is most likely going to have to replace 3/4 of its secondary in 2020.
Isaiah Pryor hasn’t been promised a starting role, but he will challenge for the starting strong safety position that Gilman is likely to vacate next year. He will compete there along with Houston Griffith, who moved over from corner earlier this year while freshman phenom Kyle Hamilton slides into the starting lineup in place of Jalen Elliott.
Pryor, a former top-100 recruit out of IMG Academy, brings an excellent pedigree to the Irish defense. He’s extremely athletic and has a knack for tracking ball carriers. Like Houston Griffith, who he’ll be competing with, he has yet to play to his recruiting ranking but still has a lot of upside. It will be an exciting battle between the two of them throughout spring and fall camps.
Whoever loses the battle between Griffith and Pryor is still going to see the field a lot in 2020. Notre Dame uses three safeties often as we’ve all seen this season with Kyle Hamilton being on the field so much for a true freshman. Clark Lea has liked using a third safety in place an additional cornerback in the nickel, although part of the reason for that has been personnel and injuries at corner.
Personnel at corner figures to be a potential issue again in 2020, so expect to see a lot of Hamilton, Pryor, and Griffith on the field at the same time. That is quite the trio of big, athletic, safeties on the backend of the Notre Dame defense. All three have eligibility in 2020 and 2021, at least for the Irish, too, so this is a trio that we might see a lot of over the next couple of seasons.
Notre Dame’s Last Safety Transfer Worked Well
Notre Dame hasn’t had the best of luck with transfers at wide receiver or even corner in recent years, but the last safety transfer has worked out pretty well. That would be current starter and 2019 captain Alohi Gilman. Notre Dame hit on Gilman, who has been a mainstay in the Irish defense the last two years even if his number of impact, negative plays have decreased this season.
There are some significant differences between Gilman and Pryor, though. Gilman enrolled at Navy out of high school for a reason – he lacked scholarship offers. Pryor, on the other hand, is exceptionally athletically gifted and had scholarship offers from elite programs all over the country. Gilman transferred because he had his eyes on the NFL, and the Naval Academy changed a rule that would have allowed him to do that immediately after graduation. Pryor is transferring because he was passed by younger players at Ohio State that were also athletically gifted.
In terms of what Notre Dame is getting here versus what they got in Gilman, with Gilman Notre Dame got a hard-nosed player with a really high floor but perhaps a limited ceiling given his athletic traits. With Pryor, they are getting a player with a much higher ceiling, but there is no guarantee that they’ll get the same level of production from him.
Considering Notre Dame does not and won’t add a true safety int he class of 2020, this was a huge pickup for Notre Dame and one that has the potential to pay some big dividends for the Irish defense for the next few years.
Since we are talking about next year, I’d like to point out how favorable the schedule is for a NC. Is it easier than this year…no, it’s probably going to be tougher. But the differences are in where and/or when we play the toughest teams. The schedule is such that even with one loss, Notre Dame stands a good chance to get into the playoffs, specifically if that loss is not in November. The month of November is set up to put Notre Dame in the playoffs, either undefeated, or as I said, even with one loss, assuming we sweep November. I have been salivating at this for almost three years now.
But first we need to finish well this year…with four more regular season wins and a win in a major bowl, probably the Cotton Bowl. Then we can sit around and contemplate the amazing amount of talent we have coming back, and coming in, either as redshirts or freshmen. It’s awesome, but it is really just how it was planned out in the Spring of 2017. And this time we’ll be perfectly capable of winning playoff level games.
BGC ’77 ’82
Next year’s defensive depth chart is LOADED at 9 positions. We will finally have a fourth year player (Hinish)at DT, and the recruiting and redshirting at DT will at last begin to pay dividends.
DE? Consider this: of Hayes, Ogundeji, Ademilola, Oghoufo, Foskey and Osafo Mensah, TWO of those guys will not be on the two deep.
Linebacker? Guys like Lufau, Kizer, Bertrand and Owumu still have REDSHIRTS on and players like Lamb, Simon, BAuer and Moala will be in their third year.
The Achilles Heel is at CB. And it is a massive issue. The other 9 positions are merely cases of roster and depth management
while CB is about polishing some uncut diamonds and pulling rabbits out of the hat.
Subject to that asterisk this can be a deep, athletic outstanding defense in 2020.
But next year’s schedule is packed with fool’s gold. For the first two months we will NOT play a team that ‘
will finish 2020 in the top 20. (Spare me the bloated overrated Wisconsin drivel)
But then? 11/7/2020.
Clemson comes a calling in South Bend..
Most daunting November challernge in South Bend since 1993………
That Clemson game will be huge. Just hope it doesn’t turn into a sea of orange like it turned red when UGA came to town.
Well, Sam, while we won’t know for another year, my best guess is that it won’t be as bad.
Remember, we were coming off the 4-8 trainwreck of 2016 and optimism was low, even beyond the usual bedwetters.
And it was Georgia’s first EVER visit to South Bend, so that raised the price into a sea of willing sellers.
It is more likely than not that the 2020 Irish will be in good shape heading into that game.
If Clemson is unbeaten, then young Irish men and women shall see visions, and old men will dream dreams-of Miami ’88
and FSU ’93.
In past years ND rarely took transfers. Pleased to see that changing.