Post-Spring Projection: Anthony McDonald

Junior linebacker Anthony McDonald has been an important piece to a recruiting class that ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation in 2008. Yet, hardly anyone even noticed him until a couple of months ago when McDonald began to emerge from the shadows of many of his classmates and became the top defensive surprise of the spring season. 

McDonald was identified as one of the more consistent performers on defense this spring by his coaches.

By the fourth practice of the spring, McDonald had been singled out as a perfect fit in a defense that is more about containment than attack, even if McDonald is considered somewhat undersized as an inside linebacker at 230 pounds.

“He’s not an overly big, big player. He doesn’t weight a whole bunch,” Irish defensive coordinator Bob Diaco said of McDonald. “He’s tough and rugged, he’s really strong, and he’s got a lot of snap. He’s got some initial explosion into his legs, hips and arms. He’s bright, too, he’s demonstrative. I’m well pleased with Anthony.”

This isn’t a vertical push defense, this is a bend but don’t break outfit, so the fundamental set is different than the blitz-happy look of last season. And the Irish coaches said that McDonald’s strengths fell in line with the necessary skill set this spring when he earned a starting inside job next to Manti Te’o in the second week of spring drills, and never let it go.

“Last year we blitzed a lot more, so there were more gaps and creases,” McDonald said. “This year, we have pretty much every gap covered, so we’re not rushing as many guys, though.”

“Some systems allow for players to be vertically pushing up the field,” Diaco added. “What we want is a no-crease flat wall at the line of scrimmage – which is different because all of our players want to get up the field. You can’t run a different scheme and still carry over those fundamentals.”

McDonald was primarily a special teams ace last season with a respectable 10 tackles and 180 appearances, which were second to junior Steve Filer among returning defensive players.

Most Notre Dame followers were surprised by McDonald earning a spot on the first team this spring, but the player wasn’t. McDonald said he has been learning all along and the reps at special teams have helped accelerate his education.

“I’m a lot more comfortable being on the field now because if I hadn’t taken [special teams] reps, I’d be a little nervous coming out,” McDonald said. “Just getting in there, I think it made me a lot more experienced and gave me more of a feeling that I belong on the field now.”

One man’s movement became another’s opportunity, and that is where the roots of McDonald’s ascent can be found. With senior Brian Smith moving to the outside, the stable of outside linebackers became that much deeper, while it also thinned out the inside portion of the roster. Manti Te’o played more minutes as a freshman last season (238:28) than any of the other inside linebackers have played in their entire careers … combined.

What’s A Good Season?

With terrific players all around him, expect McDonald to become a contributing complementary force in this defense and remain a force on special teams.

McDonald is comfortable in the new 3-4 defense, he played it in high school. McDonald also noted how new defensive coordinator/inside linebacker coach Diaco reminds him of his position coach at Notre Dame High School in California, Mike Curiel, with his intensity and painstaking attention to detail.

McDonald won’t be the star of the linebacking corps this season. Te’o will be the feature player on the inside and gobble up most of the tackles.

But if McDonald can hold his own in the rotation, not become a liability because of his size on the interior, and record about 30 total tackles, those numbers would indicate a good, solid season, and a nice launch point for a player that nobody really knew anything about until the spring.