Counting Down the Irish: The top five, including four names on the Lombardi Award watch list for the best lineman in the country

Trenches set the floor in college football, while the perimeter raises the ceiling. With those realities in mind, it is clear No. 5 Notre Dame should enjoy a high floor in 2022. The trenches provide half of the top 10 of this ranking of players with the most expected impact this season, including three of the top 5.

And that does not even factor in the best Irish player, who arguably works both in the trenches and on the perimeter. Including him, four of these top five were included on the Lombardi Award watch list, recognizing the best lineman in the country.

As always, thank you to the 10 media members who took the time to rank the top quarter of Notre Dame’s roster by the most expected impact this season …

No. 5 Jayson Ademilola, fifth-year defensive tackle — 189 pointsUnanimously ranked.Highest rank: No. 3Lowest rank: No. 14Last year’s rank: No. 17

The last time two defensive linemen were ranked in the top five of this exercise was 2019, when ends Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem were expected to set the tone. An injury limited Okwara to nine games, but the duo still combined for 16 tackles for loss, including 9.5 sacks, part of 34 total sacks for that defense.

Ademilola and senior end Isaiah Foskey (keep reading) will form a different type of duo, but more to the point, with five defensive linemen in this top 25, it is clear the Irish will lean on the front to set the tone.

Ademilola may have been ranked higher, despite the two notable names upcoming, if he had been healthy throughout 2021. Then again, a more productive 2021 may have been enough to compel Ademilola to jump to the NFL.

He injured his shoulder early in the season, and while he never made an issue of it, that did plague him all year. Even after the