New Face in the Secondary: Analyzing one of Notre Dame's Latest Additions
- Max Uretsky
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
College football in 2026 is truly a war of attrition. Teams have always had to account for losing players through graduation and pursuing their dreams at the next level, but the transfer portal era has made building depth and keeping position groups stocked with talent an unenviable task.
Recruiting will always be the foundational piece of any contending program, but if you want to consistently place yourself in title talks, using the transfer portal is not only an additional tool, but a necessity. Even for a storied program like Notre Dame, the same rings true, but thankfully, Coach Freeman and company have excelled at adapting to the new order of things.
By any metric, the 2025 season for the Notre Dame secondary was not a perfect one, especially early in the season. Some injuries, scheme changes, and flat-out poor play were all culprits that contributed, but the bottom line is it was not the lockdown unit that helped propel the Fighting Irish to the National Championship the year prior. Now, the depth from that unit is set to also take a hit with the outgoing transfers of Cree Thomas, Karson Hobbs, Ben Minich, Chance Tucker, JaDon Blair, and Taebron Bennie-Powell, plus the graduation of Jalen Stroman and DeVonta Smith. That is a lot of talent to walk out the door at one position group, but under the leadership of Coach Freeman, it has never been rebuild but reload, and for the 2026 season, he did some major reloading. One of those portal additions is 4-Star Cornerback DJ McKinney, who spent last season under the tutelage of Deion Sanders at the University of Colorado. McKinney is a long corner, listed at 6'2", and definitely presents some versatility in his film.
Biggest Strength: Zone Coverage
Notre Dame fans saw a lot more zone Coverage toward the back end last year, as compared to Al Golden's scheme previously. It provided some moments of angst before the defense really settled in for the year. If the plan is to continue to mix in healthy doses of zone for the foreseeable future, a cornerback like McKinney certainly fits. He has a very natural feel for when to drop and get some more depth on his zone, and when to drive on underneath routes. He displays high-level mental processing, understanding route concepts and when to pass things off. He reads the Quarterback's eyes well and triggers on throws with good timing. McKinney is very proficient from a cover 2 look, giving himself enough depth to defend corner routes and deep outs and also has the athletic ability to carry WRs vertical out of cover 3. H possesses the ball skills to turn errant passes into turnovers, which will continue to be a big point of emphasis for the Fighting Irish under Freeman.
I think McKinney shows a knack for mirroring off the line of scrimmage in man coverage as well, with the athletic ability to stay in phase with WRs in and out of their breaks, but I would lean towards zone as his strongest scheme fit.
Biggest Weakness: Press
Although I would label McKinney as a solid man corner, press coverage is something specific I would call an area to keep an eye on. McKinney has the ideal length for being able to be physical at the line of scrimmage, but he doesn't always do the best job of pairing his punch timing and footwork. At times, he can get himself off balance when he goes for the jam, which allows the WR to create some separation right off the line and make it hard for McKinney to get back in phase. He needs to do a better job of keeping a solid base and landing his punch in order to be able to consistently hold up in man on the outside, especially when left without safety help over the top. Mike Mickens was one of the best secondary coaches in the country, helping develop guys like Leonard Moore and Xavier Watts, but he has departed since the signing of McKinney, so now Aaron Henry, who is expected to join Freeman's staff from Illinois, will be tasked with working with McKinney on this part of his game.
I would expect DJ McKinney to see a healthy amount of playing time during his first season in South Bend, and as his development continues, so too will his opportunities. Marcus Freeman saw his defense get off to a slow start in 2025, which ultimately culminated in missing out on a playoff berth. To avoid not-so-ancient history from repeating itself, players like McKinney will have to quickly fill voids created by the constant roster churning that pervades the new college football landscape.
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