Welcome back to another edition of Subway Domer’s Wu Am I?series. This is a look at who the 36 players of impact are on this Notre Dame Football team for 2010. If you have missed some of the previous Wu Am I? posts from 2010, please check out: Chambers 1&2, Chambers 3&4, Chambers 5&6, Chambers 7&8, Chambers 9&10.
Time to enter another world. Chambers 11 & 12 are opened. Taylor Dever and Kapron Lewis-Moore step forward.
Taylor Dever #75
Offensive Tackle
6’5″ 301 lbs.
Senior (RS)
Nevada City, California
Wu Name: Officer Stinkah
It seems like Irish fans have been waiting on Taylor Dever forever. While Dever was being recruited, it appeared as if the Irish would be the team to beat- if they just went after Dever a bit harder. As the recruiting cycle wore down into December, ND Nation got their man. Dever finally committed to Notre Dame while passing up on just about every Pac-10 school. Taylor redshirted his freshman year and hasn’t seen much action at all in his last two years, compiling a little more than 30 minutes of playing time- most of it on special teams.
Dever is one of the ultimate unknowns heading into the 2010 season. Irish fans have heard good things about him in practice, but we have also heard that there have been some injury issues. Dever showed enough in the spring to be considered a starter at right tackle by most insiders of the program. (Kelly refuses to provide a 2-Deep- and I’m OK with that).Notre Dame does have a little bit of depth along the O-Line, so if Dever is the man at RT- he earned it with his play. New coaches, new system, and a new role could help Taylor shine- or it could bury him. Time will tell, but either way he will make an impact.
Kapron Lewis-Moore #89
Defensive End
6’4″ 275 lbs.
Junior (RS)
Weatherford, Texas
Wu Name: Radiophonic Oddity
KLM was one of those recruits that Notre Dame usually comes real close to signing- but at the last minute the rug gets pulled from underneath, and the prospect signs with a home state school. In fact, it was a little weirder than that. KLM held offers from all over the Big 12 (including Texas and Texas A&M) and a lot of Big 10 schools as well. KLM committed to A&M in August of 2007, but decommitted in late January of 2008. About 2 weeks later, on signing day, KLM committed to the Fighting Irish. We heard a lot of good things about Kapron during his freshman year, but the staff wanted to redshirt him. Once he did see the field, the very next year, KLM had a SOLID first season. KLM led all defensive lineman in tackles and was 2nd in Tackles For Loss on the team behind Darius Fleming. His best game was probably against Washington when he had 7 tackles including 2 for loss and a sack.
With all things being considerred, KLM is a better fit as a DE in the 3-4 as opposed to the 4-3 (hitting that theme again) but he is athletic enough to be a good DE as a 4-3 DE. In other words, this kid is really fucking good. The tip of the iceberg is all we really saw in 2009. Lewis-Moore has a chance to be a very special player and do that old #89 proud (Alan Page for those of you who may not remember). Notre Dame has to create a better pass rush in 2010 than they have done in the past trillion years (it feels like it anyways). The weapons that KLM has and the players playing alongside of him should help that cause and make for a solid year.
