California Bears Safety Avery Sebastian Transferring to Notre Dame for Graduate Season

Brian Kelly hinted at the fact during his National Signing Day presser that the Fighting Irish were looking to add at least one graduate transfer for 2015, similar to the Cody Riggs coming from Florida this past season. On Thursday evening Notre Dame got one new player.

I have officially committed to the University of Notre Dame! Extremely blessed & excited to be apart of the Notre Dame family! GO IRISH

— Avery Sebastian (@JimThqrpe4) February 13, 2015

Avery Sebastian is a safety who will be graduating from Cal-Berkeley in a few months and transferring to Notre Dame for a fifth-season.

Formerly known as Avery Walls coming out of high school, he graduated from Eagle's Landing Christian Academy (same school as Isaac Rochell) outside of Atlanta and signed as an early enrollee with Cal over offers from LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Stanford, Oregon, Tennessee, UCLA, and others.

Sebastian played as a true freshman in 2011 but mostly in a special teams role. In 2012 he made 4 starts for the Bears and totaled 57 tackles. As a junior, he was injured in the season opener and missed the entire year. This past season with Cal, Sebastian struggled with injuries only playing in 7 games and totaling 21 tackles.

At 5-10 and 195 pounds, Sebastian offers good size at safety and a lot of physicality. More importantly, he'll add much needed depth at safety for the Irish.

At worst, Sebastian likely slides immediately in to the two-deep, more likely in a strong safety role, and gives the Notre Dame coaching staff some much needed breathing room managing the roster.