James Onwualu: LB · Notre Dame · #17.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
James Onwualu
Carries tight ends down the field in coverage. Second year in the Notre Dame linebacker corps. One game to point at: 13 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss against Army — Week 11, 2016.
Play style
Carries tight ends and patrols the middle of the field in coverage.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
77 tackles. 5 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 12.5 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
Yahoo Sports Oct 27Yahoo Sports Oct 18Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Notre Dame | 77 | 39 | 12.5 | 3.0 | 5 |
| 2014 | Notre Dame | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 77 | 39 | 12.5 | 3.0 | 5 |
There is no official box score for these seasons, so this sack count comes from the play-by-play.
Each sack is credited to the player named on the play, and a sack shared by two players counts as half for each. We checked the same method against the official box scores for 2016 to 2019: it lands within half a sack for about 9 in 10 players. Tackles and passes defended are not shown for these seasons because the same check does not hold for them. Source: SportsDataverse play data.
Game log · Week-by-week
2016 season · 12 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 47-50@ Texas | 8 | 3 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 39-10vs Nevada | 5 | 5 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 28-36vs No. 12 Michigan State | 5 | 3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 4 | L 35-38vs Duke | 6 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | W 50-33vs Syracuse | 4 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 3-10@ NC State | 4 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 10-17vs Stanford | 5 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 3 | |
| Wk 9 | W 30-27vs Miami | 4 | 3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | L 27-28vs Navy | 8 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 44-6vs Army | 13 | 3 | 1.5 | 1.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 13 tackles |
| Wk 12 | L 31-34vs Virginia Tech | 10 | 6 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 27-45@ No. 12 USC | 5 | 3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 77 | 39 | 12.5 | 3.0 | — | 5 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Tackle volume
77tackles this seasonTFL rate
16%12 TFLSack rate
4%3 sacksPD rate
6%5 pass breakups77 tackles · 12.5 for loss · 3 sacks.
2 seasons under Brian Kelly, all balanced offenses — 12-13 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2016 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 5.8 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
| Road3g | 5.7 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 5.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 8.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Brian Kelly
Pass share
47.4%
387 pass / 429 run
Plays / game
68.0
12 games
Team sack rate
6.7%
420 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2016
About as many tackles a game as a typical FBS linebacker who plays every week.
How it ended
Two seasons at Notre Dame, 77 tackles — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2016
1 coachPlayed every college season under Brian Kelly.
