Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2017 35 said of the Crete, Ill. native. "As a blitzer, he's disruptive. The growing pains are learning how to apply those skills to the system. When he fully grasps that, and he's getting close, then I think you're going to see his production skyrocket. "Hopefully that's sooner rather than later." The next step for Morgan is to eradicate the inconsistent play that plagued him in the past. "He knows that he's going to have to play a big role for us as a producer on defense for us to be successful," Elko said. "He knows he's going to have to bring it every week and to play at the level he's capable of con- sistently, week in, week out." If he continues to master the cur- rent defense, Morgan will serve as the physical and emotional anchor of the unit. Martini's rise has been a bit more surprising. He was the first player to commit to Notre Dame in the 2014 class, doing so following his soph- omore season at Woodberry Forest (Va.) School. He made two starts as a freshman and four as a sophomore and junior, but his role has been as a swing player and occasional starter. In the spring, Martini quickly beat out junior Te'von Coney, a nine-game starter last season. Coney has had a strong fall camp, but Martini has kept a grip on the starting Buck posi- tion. Martini's playmaking skills have been on full display since Elko and Lea arrived. During his first three seasons at Notre Dame, Martini started at three different linebacker spots. At times, he was asked to play downhill from the inside, and other times he was asked to play the edge. At all three spots he was tasked with handling coverage duties. The wide array of past responsibili- ties has helped Martini adapt to the Buck linebacker position, which re- quires playing in the box, coming off the edge and handling being in areas of more space. While his past helped him make a fast transition to the role, Martini has benefited from focusing on one position. "He loves playing one spot, and he's adjusted well to one spot," Lea said. "His football IQ and his abil- ity to pick up and adapt quickly is maybe higher than some others be- cause he's had to do all that." Morgan's talent and Martini's ver- satility will aid their production this fall. However, Lea understands ex- perience in the system is still lacking with the group. "The depth of understanding fa- cilitates the performance," Lea said. "That's our challenge, in year one to speed up that learning as best we can. "As far as the talent in this group, you definitely see flashes. I just hope that by the time we're playing football games these guys will have a mastery of the details of the defense." ✦ Martini seized the starting role at Buck line- backer with an outstanding spring and then maintained his grip on the position in fall camp. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA