Notre Dame Football Injury Update: Irish Down Two Starters For Home Opener

Notre Dame will be without two defensive starters when it hosts Rice on Saturday in the 2026 home opener. Marcus Freeman said Tuesday that safety Tae Johnson and defensive tackle Jason Onye will each miss a couple of weeks after the win over Wisconsin, and that both are expected back before the season is out. Johnson went out with a left foot injury and Onye with a left ankle injury, both in the first half. Johnson made eight starts last season and finished with 48 tackles and four interceptions, second on the team, and was a second-team pick on the Associated Press preseason All-America team.

“I know we passed out the injury report,” Freeman said. “They’re going to be out. Tae (Johnson) and Jason (Onye) will be out a couple weeks. We expect them back at some point in the season, but they’re not going to be back next week. It’s going to be a couple weeks.”

Talich Steps In at Safety

Luke Talich steps into Johnson’s spot, and that is about as soft a landing as a defense can get for losing a starter of Johnson’s caliber. Talich was going to play a lot this season regardless of anyone’s health. He had four tackles against Wisconsin and is coming off a year with 25 tackles, three passes defended, and three interceptions.

“There’s a lot of confidence. We view Luke Talich as a starter,” Freeman said. “And he might not be the first one on the field, but the confidence we have in Luke Talich is extremely high, you know? And now his role has just increased.”

Behind Talich and Adon Shuler, Notre Dame has more than enough depth at safety with a pair of promising underclassmen. The Rice depth chart lists true freshman Joey O’Brien behind Talich at field safety and sophomore Ethan Long behind Shuler at boundary. Long had three tackles and an interception as a freshman. O’Brien was a five-star recruit rated the No. 1 safety in the country and the No. 31 overall prospect, and he impressed over the summer.

“And the other guys now, the backups, you’re talking about the Joey O’Briens, Ethan Long, some of those young guys now, their roles have increased,” Freeman said. “And it’s going to be important that they earn the trust that they can go in and be a starter because at any point, if something happens to Adon or something happens to Luke, you know, they’re a starter. And it’s important that they continue to earn that trust from practice.”

The Interior Without Onye

The defensive line is set up even better for this, because Notre Dame was already rotating four bodies inside before Onye went down. Tionne Gray had five tackles in his Notre Dame debut after transferring from Oregon, where he put up 18 tackles and two tackles for loss last season. Francis Brewu, in from Pittsburgh and coming off a 34-tackle, six-TFL season a year ago, had three tackles, a tackle for loss, and a sack. Armel Mukam, who had five tackles and 1.5 for loss last year, had one tackle. The Rice depth chart moves Gray and Mukam into the starting spots, with Brewu listed second at both. Elijah Hughes and Sean Sevillano Jr round out the third level of the depth chart. Hughes is coming off 21 tackles and three tackles for loss last year.

“We’re going to rely on them a lot, and they played really well,” Freeman said. “As I said previously, I saw those four guys between Jason, Armel, Tionne, and Brew playing probably an equal amount of snaps. And that’s close to what you saw on Sunday. It wasn’t exactly perfect, but those guys are all going to play. Now, with Jason being out, there’s a little bit more on everybody’s plate.”

Viliamu-Asa Is Trending Toward Playing

Notre Dame also gets something back this week. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who tore his ACL in the home finale against Syracuse last November and was held out of the opener, is trending toward playing Saturday. He had 48 tackles a year ago, and 7.5 of those went for loss including three sacks. Getting him back gives Notre Dame a linebacker who can shoot gaps behind an interior line that is now down a body. How much he can handle in a first game back from the knee injury is its own question.

“We’re expecting him, he’s trending in a way that we expect him to be out there on Saturday,” Freeman said. “How much is to be determined. At some point we got to say, ‘Okay, here’s the start.’ You’re not going to go out there and pick up right where you left off.”

Notre Dame has been cautious in the past bringing players back from ACLs so expect a ramp period. In 2024 they did the same with Mitchell Evans throughout the first month of the season.

What Notre Dame Can Learn in the Next Two Weeks

“I feel good about the depth of the D-line room. I feel good about the depth of the DBs room, the safeties room,” Freeman said. “But everybody’s role increased when you lose two starters like Tae and Jason.”

Two weeks is taking Freeman literally, so we’ll see just how long both are out. Notre Dame doesn’t have to rush either back. The roster has been built to withstand a few losses. In past years, Long and O’Brien might already have been forced into larger roles because of their talent. Inside, the Irish have the depth to get by without Onye for a few weeks if need be. Given the September schedule is soft this year, Notre Dame can afford to be cautious with both of their returns.