Notre Dame 2025 Roster Analysis: Defensive Ends Get Reinforcements This Summer
Notre Dame’s defensive end unit last season was hit with several injuries. Before their first bye week they had lost both of their starting Vypers and had a big end miss a couple of games with an ankle injury. After a spring with monitored work loads and recovery, the defensive end unit enters the summer as healthy as it’s been in a year and ready to solidify its impact on the 2025 season.
This room returns the majority of its production from a season ago. The only departure was graduate transfer RJ Oben who ran out of eligibility after the 2024 season. Due to the injuries last season, some inexperienced players had the opportunity to step up and make an impact. Rising junior Boubacar Traore and sixth year senior Jordan Botelho were both lost for the remainder of the season last year prior to the first bye week with knee injuries. This unfortunate circumstance created an opportunity for others to step up in a big way.
Rising senior Junior Tuihalamaka didn’t play a single defensive snap in the first two games of the season, but that didn’t prevent him from finishing second on the team in overall pressures. True freshman Bryce Young played in 15 games last season and compiled 374 snaps in the process. He finished the year with 17 total pressures including a sack in the Indiana game and the Penn State game. Rising senior Joshua Burnham is also returning to this group. He thrived as a run defender and finished second on the team with 6.5 tackles for a loss.
Both Botelho and Traore have been cleared to return as full participants in the summer which means they will have a couple of months to get back into the swing of things before fall camp. This group will play a major role in the success of the defense this upcoming season, and the defensive ends are returning to health at the right time.
Post Spring Analysis
The defensive end group, and most of the defensive line, were a difficult group to fully evaluate in the spring. They were missing some key pieces in Traore and Botelho for the entirety of spring. Tuihalamaka, Burnham and Loghan Thomas didn’t play in the Blue Gold game either. What we did see in the jersey scrimmage was inconclusive; they looked to be a dominant force, but due to the skeleton crew of the offensive line, they ends took the day with ease.
