On Friday Notre Dame announced the departure of starting Junior cornerback, Darrin Walls.
Cornerback Darrin Walls will not be enrolled at Notre Dame during the fall
semester for personal reasons and will return home at the end of this summer
school term.“We won’t have Darrin with us this season but I hope to have him
return for the spring semester. Fortunately, cornerback is a position of
strength on our team and this will provide opportunities for increased playing
time for our corners,” Irish head coach Charlie Weis said.
Walls is arguably the best defensive player on an improving Irish pass defense. His 9 pass breakups were the most on the team last year, and Darrin was looking to become that shutdown corner Notre Dame has not had since Shane Walton. The team does have nice depth at corner, but anytime you lose a starter for an entire year, it will greatly effect the level of play by the unit.
The good news is that numerous people close to the Walls family have stated that Darrin will be back at the university in the Spring. This is a situation that closely resembles the Pat Kuntz ordeal from this past spring. Hopefully, Walls can take care of whatever personal issues that exist just as Kuntz has done.
Also on Friday, Notre Dame announced that Senior Wide Receiver D.J. Hord would be transferring from Notre Dame to a NCAA 1-AA (FCS) school to complete his two years of eligibility.
Wide receiver D.J. Hord has decided to leave the Notre Dame football team and
will transfer to a Division I-AA school.”I’d like to thank D.J. for all he has
given to this team in his three years and wish him well in his future
endeavors,” Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis said.
D.J. came to Notre Dame as a very highly touted recruit with pure speed. His freshman year he was on a depth chart that included Rhema McKnight, Maurice Stovall, Matt Shelton, and some guy named Samardzija. During the Spring of his sophomore year he had a devastating achilles heel tear and was unable to try and become the “3rd” WR on the depth chart. He sat out 2006. In 2007 he just was never able fully recover from his injury and logged just 2 catches for 7 yards.
