It is not that Notre Dame did not know what it had until it was gone. It is that some things cannot be properly appreciated until living without them. If nothing else — and there was much else — Drue Tranquill and Te’von Coney provided Irish head coach Brian Kelly and defensive coordinator Clark Lea peace of mind last offseason and then through the undefeated regular season.
The pair of linebackers rarely made mistakes. They made Lea’s first year as a defensive coordinator a relative cakewalk. He knew finding that stability anew along the second line would be difficult.