Jaiden Ausberry Sees a Closer Notre Dame Linebacker Room Entering Fall Camp

Notre Dame senior linebacker Jaiden Ausberry said the Fighting Irish linebacker room is the closest it has been since he arrived on campus, and he credited the offseason months the group spent together away from football rather than anything that happened on the practice field. He said it at the onset of fall camp last week, with the defense opening year two under Chris Ash.

“I would say it’s the closest it’s ever been since I’ve been here, and not only because of what we do on the field,” Ausberry said, “but I would say this offseason, we’ve got to spend a lot of time off the field, get in close, hang with each other in regular spaces.”

The payoff, in his description, arrives once the group gets back to work. “I feel like once we get on the field, it makes everybody a lot more comfortable.”

Asked what the group does together that fans might not expect, Ausberry did not reach for anything elaborate.

“We might go bowling, but really just having genuine conversation with each other,” he said. Most of it is unstructured time with no agenda attached to it: “We really just chill, talk, joke with each other.”

Comfort Level in Year Two

Ausberry has been in the middle of that room since his freshman year, and is part of a deep group of linebackers who have played a ton of snaps together over the last few years. He finished last season with 56 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, a half-sack, and a pass breakup. This summer, he kept his work narrow. Pass rush and run fits were part of it, and so was the mental side, down to the small details.

Notre Dame’s defense spent the first month of last season getting comfortable with a new coordinator’s language. Ausberry put the timeline on it himself.

“I feel like the first year, it took everybody just a few games to get used to, but I feel like now everybody’s on the same page,” he said. “Everybody feels a lot more comfortable.”

The communication load in Ash’s defense sits on the linebackers, and Ausberry’s answer about day one went straight there. “Especially, like I said, being in Coach Ash’s scheme for the second year, I would say the communication is a lot more important, especially with me personally.”

His spring reps at Mike are part of why he can carry it. “Playing Mike in the spring, I feel, has helped a lot of knowing both linebacker roles,” Ausberry said, which gives the staff a linebacker who can operate at either spot while the rotation gets sorted over the next few weeks.

Ash Sees a Group Further Ahead

Ash was asked the same thing from the staff side.

“We go out there, we’re a lot further ahead right now today than where we were at this point a year ago,” Ash said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do still, but the guys are, they’ve had a great summer, great offseason.”

Ash started with the weight-room work, a defense that reported bigger, faster, and stronger than it was a year ago. The rest of his answer was about comfort, and he said the players are “more confident, they’re more sure of what they’re doing, and the speed that they’re playing with right now on day one is pretty good.”

Daily Work Against CJ Carr

Nobody is going to test that communication harder than the offense Notre Dame practices against every day. CJ Carr is the quarterback running it, and Mike Denbrock said Tuesday that the staff is comfortable letting him steer the ship whenever possible. That puts the checks in his hands at the line, and the defense has to answer them in real time, every rep, before anyone in an opposing uniform gets a turn.

“It gets everybody hyped up, knowing that you’re practicing against the best every day,” Ausberry said. “But also just knowing that going against them is making the whole defense better, and it makes us communicate a lot too.”

He named the reason. “Especially going against CJ. He’s a really smart quarterback, knows how to check in and out of stuff, so it really makes us better as a defense.”

None of that settles the rotation, and Ash said the goal for camp is a higher floor by the opener. The first few days of camp came without full pads, which means the closeness Ausberry described has not yet been asked to hold up when a call has to be reset on the fly. The run fits he spent his summer on get their first honest answer when the pads go on.